Big Ten Basketball: Updated way-too-early rankings after the NBA Draft

This upcoming season could be a strong year for Big Ten basketball. With that being said, let’s take a look at how the preseason rankings might shake out.

Big Ten basketball had a down season in 2017-18. Although Michigan reached the national championship to put a nice end to the year, the conference struggled to be competitive for the most part. Only four teams received NCAA Tournament bids and that is an incredibly small number given the conference’s history and the fact that there are 14 teams competing it. Nonetheless, the four teams that did go dancing (Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Purdue) represented the league well, with each team winning at least their first game.

Regardless, it was a down year for the conference overall. However, 2018-19 looks completely different. With an abundance of returning talent in the league, this could be one of the better seasons in recent memory. Some of the familiar still look to be near the top but a few other risers have shown up. Most notably, a team like Nebraska finished high in the conference last and returns three senior leaders. They may not have gone dancing last year but this should this time around.

Big Ten basketball should be uniquely deep from top to bottom during this upcoming season and it would not be a surprise to see well over half of the league at least in the discussion for at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. After just receiving four invitations in 2017-18, I do not think people would be shocked to see the conference double that number during this upcoming campaign.

Now that all of that introduction is out of the way, let’s jump into our updated way-too-early rankings for the Big Ten following the NBA Draft.