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

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) /

5 of 15

EAST LANSING, MI – JANUARY 31: Head coach Patrick Chambers of the Penn State Nittany Lions looks on during a game against the Michigan State Spartans at Breslin Center on January 31, 2018 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /

11. Penn State Nittany Lions (4-4)

Previous rank: 13

It’s a big time toss-up on where I was going to rank Northwestern and Penn State. Obviously Northwestern has the better record. Penn State fell to DePaul in the Gavitt Games. They then lost to Bradley in the Championship out in Cancun. SMU was the only other competition out there, but the Braves won two.

The reason I edged the Nittany Lions slightly over the Wildcats is because of the win over Virginia Tech in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. I know teams don’t set the match ups, but getting a win over the Hokies is big time for Penn State. Virginia Tech only had two bench guys available, but this kind of win is similar to that of Rutgers over Miami.

The win over Virginia Tech was also Mike Watkins’ first game back. He played 21 minutes off the bench, scored just two points, but hauled in seven boards. The story was freshman Myreon Jones. He came off the bench, dropped 18 points while making four three-pointers. If Penn State wants to pick up wins like these, they have to get scoring outside of their top-three guys.

Lamar Stevens scored just 14 points in the win over the Hokies. He’s averaging over 22 per game.The Nittany Lions are getting excellent production out of Stevens and Josh Reaves through seven games. Stevens has over eight boards per game while Reaves is running the point just fine with 11 points and three assists per game. Rasir Bolton is acting as a nice sixth-man who is averaging over 11 points per game. It’ll be interesting to see how long he stays out of the lineup.

It’s nice now that Watkins is back. He only played 11 minutes in the seven-point loss to Maryland and the two-point loss to Indiana. The Maryland game was on the road and now the Terrapins are ranked. Stevens and Reaves produced, but nobody else besides that. The Nittany Lions had the Hoosiers on the ropes, but Reaves shot one-for-nine from the field despite hauling in seven boards. Still, just a one-point loss to a team that should be ranked ins’t the worst thing. Welcome to conference play.

Home/Big Ten