Big Ten Basketball: Week 5 conference power rankings

The Wildcats still haven’t seemed to get things together but they come in at No. 8 because of their performance last season. This is a veteran-heavy squad so it is expected the Cats will turn things around at some point this season.

Northwestern is another team in dire need of a quality win. Per CBS Sports, the Wildcats have just one RPI top-100 win (La Salle). This win is also far from being a resume-builder.

Last week, the Wildcats demolished a much inferior Chicago State team, defeating them 96-31.  This game was embarrassing for Chicago State as the score was 58-5 at one point in the game.

The Wildcats defense, much like Wisconsin, is what has kept them in games. They rank 2nd in the Big Ten in scoring defense, allowing just 65.5 points per game to opponents (per CBS sports). This was the identity that they set last year, but there hasn’t been as much grit and intensity on either side of the ball like there was last year.

Senior guards Scottie Lindsey (15.8 ppg) and Bryant McIntosh (13.8 pig, 5.8 apg) continue to be the leaders of the team this season. Juniors Vic Law (13.7 pig, 5.7 rpg) and Dererk Pardon (11.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg) are other key players for the Wildcats this year.

Schedule for this week:

• Valparaiso (8-2) at Northwestern on Dec. 14
• Northwestern at Depaul (6-4) on Dec. 16