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Big Ten Basketball: Michigan, Purdue and Michigan State top title contenders

By Ryan Kay

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN - JANUARY 03: Carsen Edwards #3 of the Purdue Boilermakers shoots the ball against Joe Wieskamp #10 of the Iowa Hawkeyes at Mackey Arena on January 3, 2019 in West Lafayette, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN - JANUARY 03: Carsen Edwards #3 of the Purdue Boilermakers shoots the ball against Joe Wieskamp #10 of the Iowa Hawkeyes at Mackey Arena on January 3, 2019 in West Lafayette, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /
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Big Ten Basketball
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 16: Isaiah Moss #4,Connor McCaffery #0 and Luka Garza #55 of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrate in the first half against the Connecticut Huskies during the championship game of the 2K Empire Classic at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /

Big Ten Basketball teams are fighting for the regular season title. Here are the biggest contenders, challengers, and those still competing in the league.

Still Competing

Iowa

Big Ten Record: 7-5

Best Big Ten Wins: Michigan and Ohio State

Worst Big Ten Loss: Wisconsin

Iowa played much better in non-conference play than in Big Ten play thus far. However, they arguably have had the most difficult first half of the conference play out of all the Big Ten teams. They have up to this point played Michigan State twice, Michigan, Wisconsin, at Purdue, and at Minnesota. The Hawkeyes still have an outside chance of winning the Big Ten regular-season title.

There is a reason for hope for Iowa as they have eight Big Ten regular season game left on their schedule. Five of the eight games are at home and two of their four road games are against struggling Nebraska and Rutgers teams. The Hawkeyes do not play Purdue, Michigan, and Michigan State to end Big Ten play. Iowa is coming off of a 15 point victory over #7 ranked Michigan and a road victory over Indiana and they look to build off of those victories.

Minnesota

Big Ten Record: 6-7

Best Big Ten Wins: At Wisconsin and Iowa

Worst Big Ten Loss: At Illinois

The Gophers like Iowa has a more impressive non-conference resume than their current Big Ten one. Minnesota however, has played well at times and have played bad at times. A perfect example of this was their game in the Big Ten when they traveled to Madison. In that game, they took a commanding 29-14 halftime lead. They withstood the Badges 2nd half comeback and came away with a key road victory. However, they also went to play at Illinois and lost by 27 points.

Minnesota has a very difficult schedule ahead of them which make is highly unlikely that they will win the Big Ten title. However, they are still mathematically alive in the Big Ten race at this point. Losing their last game by 24 points to Michigan State did not help their odds of contending for a title but there are still technically in the race for the Big Ten title.

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