Those “crazy,” “outside the box,” and “bold” preseason Big Ten basketball predictions (Purdue 2nd, Northwestern 7th, Illinois 12th) that I made for RedEye don’t look so nuts right now do they? Our good friends over at Hammer and Rails, SB Nation’s Purdue community, do a Big Ten basketball power rankings, so that I don’t have to.
Well, they do their power rankings for their own reasons that have nothing to do with me, but the point is I don’t have to one, and their edition is really good.
Here we are in Mid December and Hammer and Rails have their own team #2, NU #6 and the Illini 13th. In other words, pretty darn close to what I predicted in early November. Here’s the link to their whole set, but here are the team capsules for the three sides that we’ve mentioned:
2. Purdue (9-0) –
The only other team that is undefeated is a worthy No. 2, but I would like to see us play a ranked team before putting ahead of MSU. As it is, I have visions of No. 1 vs. No. 2 nationally at a sold out and extremely loud Mackey Arena on February 9th. Barring a disaster, Purdue will be 11-0 and likely in the top 10 nationally when it plays its first ranked team in Butler. If the Boilers get to conference play at 13-0 it can start dreaming of No. 1 seeds in March.
6. Northwestern (7-1) –
Yeah, come at me, bro! Is this the year that Northwestern’s pain on Selection Sunday finally ends? They at least have two wins over major conference opponents (Missouri and Virginia Tech). The one loss was to North Carolina by 11, so not bad. They have five games left in the non-conference and if they get to the Big Ten season at 12-1 I would consider them halfway to the NCAAs. From there, a 9-9 or better finish should be enough to get in. Can this Northwestern team win nine Big Ten games or more? Absolutely.
13. Illinois (4-5) –
Our interim University in the League at least got rid of one interim, as they no longer have an interim home in Springfield. Other than that, Illinois is bad. The highlight was pushing Notre Dame in the Challenge. The lowlights? Take your pick. Needing a buzzer beat to beat lowly Chicago State? Losing to North Florida by 12? Losing to Chattanooga? It is going to be a long season in Champaign.