Busting Brackets
Fansided

Big Ten Basketball: The Top Players from each team (2000-2018)

By Logan Butts

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 20: Keita Bates-Diop
NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 20: Keita Bates-Diop /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 6
Next
3 Apr 2000: Mateen Cleaves #12 (C) of Michigan State celebrates with his teammates after defeating Florida 89-76 to win the final round of the NCAA Men”s Final Four at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana.
3 Apr 2000: Mateen Cleaves #12 (C) of Michigan State celebrates with his teammates after defeating Florida 89-76 to win the final round of the NCAA Men”s Final Four at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana. /

In part four of our Best Players of the 21st Century series, we are taking a look at Big Ten Basketball, who in this era won one national title and ballooned to 14 teams.

Michigan State won the National Championship in 2000 thanks to a legendary tournament from Mateen Cleaves. The win helped forge the “Tom Izzo thrives in March” ethos. The Big 10 has not won a national title since, despite coming close on a number of occasions (And no, they don’t get credit for Maryland’s 2002 title since the Terrapins were still in the ACC).

There have been several talented teams and players on the national level for the Big Ten in this era even though there has been a lack of banners. Let’s take a look at the best Big Ten players of the 21st century.

Illinois  

Starting Five: Frank Williams, Deron Williams, Dee Brown, Luther Head, Brian Cook

Bench: Malcolm Hill, Demetri McCamey, Brandon Paul, Roger Powell, James Augustine, Mike Davis, Shaun Pruitt, Warren Carter, Cory Bradford

MVP: Three Big Ten Players of the Year, five All-Americans, but Dee Brown was arguably the best player in the nation, so he gets the win.

How did the Fighting Illini not take home the 2005 title? They are probably the greatest team of the 2000’s to go home empty-handed. Deron Williams-Brown-Head-Powell-Augustine-Carter-Pruitt. That’s an obscene amount of talent. A level of talent that Illinois has not been able to produce since.

Indiana 

Starting Five: Victor Oladipo, Jared Jeffries, D.J. White, Yogi Ferrell, Cody Zelle

Bench: Eric Gordon, A.J. Guyton, Kirk Haston, Bracey Wright, Noah Vonleh, Troy Williams, Thomas Bryant, Christian Watford

MVP: Oladipo was probably the best defensive player in the nation and carried Indiana on offense during his junior season. He was an incredibly well-rounded college player.

The mighty Hoosiers have had drastic ups and downs during this century so far, with some nationally great teams and historically bad squads as well. Zeller snuck onto the starting five because Guyton was mostly a 90s player.

Home/Big Ten