Busting Brackets
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Big Ten Basketball: Week 9 power rankings

By Blaine Lewallen

EAST LANSING, MI - JANUARY 4: Head coach Tom Izzo of the Michigan State Spartans looks on during the game against the Maryland Terrapins at Breslin Center on January 4, 2018 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
EAST LANSING, MI - JANUARY 4: Head coach Tom Izzo of the Michigan State Spartans looks on during the game against the Maryland Terrapins at Breslin Center on January 4, 2018 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /
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PISCATAWAY, NJ – DECEMBER 05: The Rutgers Scarlet Knights bench reacts to the 62-52 loss to Michigan State Spartans on December 5, 2017 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
PISCATAWAY, NJ – DECEMBER 05: The Rutgers Scarlet Knights bench reacts to the 62-52 loss to Michigan State Spartans on December 5, 2017 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

Rutgers remains at no. 13 despite winning their lone game since last week’s power rankings. The losses to Hartford and Stony Brook in weeks previous are still looming large, which is why it is difficult to move the Scarlet Knights up in the rankings at this point.

The game that the Scarlet Knights did win last week was a narrow 64-60 victory at home over the Wisconsin Badgers. This was a defensive battle, as expected, and Rutgers was able to pull out the win. They did receive 23 points from Corey Sanders and 15 from DeShawn Freeman, but nobody else contributed much offensively in the win.

Defensively, the Scarlet Knights continue to be one of the best out there. They rank first in the Big Ten in scoring defense (60.9 ppg). This ranks 8th nationally among NCAA Division I teams.

Offensively, however, the Scarlet Knights still have much work to do. They average just 70.1 points per game, and just 58.3 points per game in conference play thus far.

The reason for this is outside of Sanders (13.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg) and Freeman (11.8 ppg, 7.8 rpg), the only other player to average double figures is freshman Geo Baker (11.6 ppg). Overall, contributions for this club on the offensive end are lacking. A few more guys need to step up in order for them to move up in the power rankings in future weeks.

Schedule for this week:

Rutgers at Michigan State (15-2, 3-1) on Jan. 10

Ohio State (13-4, 4-0) at Rutgers on Jan. 14

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