Big Ten Basketball: 5 Potential Breakout Players for 2018-19
Big Ten Basketball looks like one of the deepest conferences in the sport and is filled with talented players. Who are some breakout players in the league?
The Big Ten conference produces extremely talented players each and every year. Last year was no exception as eight players were selected in the 2018 NBA Draft and four of them were first rounders.
Even though the conference lost so many star players to the NBA, many other Big Ten standouts returned to school. Michigan State’s Cassius Winston, Michigan’s Charles Matthews, and Nebraska’s James Palmer are just a few of the upper echelon college basketball players to inhabit the Big Ten.
However, not all of these talented players took the same path to find success. Some players like Ethan Happ and Carsen Edwards have made significant impacts in their first seasons while others like Mortiz Wagner and Keita Bates-Diop exploded onto the scene later in their careers. Happ and Edwards averaged double figures as freshmen while Wagner and Bates-Diop averaged less than 4 ppg.
This article will focus on the latter group and will try to identify the next group of breakout players in the Big Ten conference. In terms of who qualifies as a “Breakout” player, I will adhere to the following criteria:
- The player averaged less than 10 ppg last season
- The player will be projected to increase their scoring average by at least 5 ppg AND average more than 10 ppg this season
- The player cannot be a freshman
This criteria is effective because it truly highlights which players are showing massive improvement and are seeing significantly increased production and responsibility. Adding 5 ppg is much tougher than it sounds and absolutely signifies a major improvement. Averaging double figures also signifies that the player is a key contributor and shows the player’s expanded role.
Without further ado, here are the five potential breakout players in the Big Ten. The players are listed in no particular order.