Big Ten Basketball: Week 5 conference power rankings

This past week came with even more surprises in college basketball. Based on last week’s action, where does each Big Ten basketball team stack up?

Just about everybody would agree that the Big Ten has struggled in the early going this season. Thankfully, the Michigan State Spartans remained in the national top-5 last week, picking up the No. 2 rank in the AP top-25 rankings. The Spartans are still the strong favorite to win the league despite a decent scare at Rutgers earlier last week.

In addition, Purdue is probably the team with the most momentum currently. The Boilermakers reentered the top-25 at No. 17 and have won six straight games, including two wins last week.

On the other hand, the Minnesota Golden Gophers dropped out of the top-25 rankings after dropping three straight games. The Gophers got back on track by beating Drake on Dec. 11, but this was a scare as Richard Pitino’s squad barely got by the Bulldogs, 68-67. The Gophers did receive some votes for the top-25, though.

As for the other teams in the conference, no other team picked up any votes in last week’s poll. A few teams are on the rise while some other teams are still trying to figure things out. Because of this, many of the middle rankings are still up for grabs in the conference.

After further evaluation of each Big Ten team’s performance so far this season, here are this week’s Big Ten power rankings.