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Big Ten Basketball power rankings: Wisconsin and Nebraska make gains after start to league play

By Austin Walther

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 01: Ethan Happ #22 of the Wisconsin Badgers celebrates the 59-54 win over the Maryland Terrapins during the second round of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 1, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 01: Ethan Happ #22 of the Wisconsin Badgers celebrates the 59-54 win over the Maryland Terrapins during the second round of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 1, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 23: Head coach Tom Izzo (R) of the Michigan State Spartans and his team pose after winning the championship game of the 2018 Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational basketball tournament against the Texas Longhorns at the Orleans Arena on November 23, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Michigan State defeated Texas 78-68. (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 23: Head coach Tom Izzo (R) of the Michigan State Spartans and his team pose after winning the championship game of the 2018 Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational basketball tournament against the Texas Longhorns at the Orleans Arena on November 23, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Michigan State defeated Texas 78-68. (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images) /

The season is coming up on a month old and Big Ten Basketball is beginning conference play for two games as each team is starting to get better. So how do the power rankings stack up for the first week in December?

We left off right before Thanksgiving. The first wave of Tournaments were wrapping up. The Maui had just started. A few others were getting underway Wednesday and Thursday. Those seemed so long ago, but they are definitely a factor in these rankings.

The ACC/Big Ten Challenge went down and ended in a tie. The Big Ten didn’t dominate as much as they did in the Gavitt Games. Every team played at least one conference game. Those performances really showed a lot about what the early season is going to bring.

Not to take much away from the write up on their slide, but Michigan could be the best team in the country. The Wolverines did a number on North Carolina and then took care of a good Purdue team. They moved up to fifth in the country.

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There are seven teams from the Big Ten in the AP top-25 for this week. Purdue was one vote away from cracking the rankings. Indiana is also receiving votes. Nine out of 14 teams are being considered in the top-25. We certainly saw a showdown last week in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge of the country’s top-two conferences.

The Big Ten leader in scoring in still Carsen Edwards at 24.4 points per game. And it may be that way all season long. Lamar Stevens is having a great year for Penn State as well. He’s averaging 22.4 points. James Palmer is continuing to be a great scorer and freshman Romeo Langford isn’t disappointing.

Jordan Murphy and Ethan Happ will be battling for the Big Ten rebounding crown all season. Those two along with Bruno Fernando are averaging a double-double. Cassius Winston has a great chance at leading the Big Ten in assists this season. He has 7.1 per game while Zavier Simpson has one less per game.

The Big Ten ended up seeing seven teams at least make the Championship game in early season Tournaments. Minnesota played in a round-robin and one each of their three out in Vancouver. The Big Ten finally has at least one team that can make the Final Four in Michigan. The Spartans are always going have that potential because of their head coach. Other than that, this is a really deep league that can at least send eight to the Tournament.

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