Busting Brackets
Fansided

Big Ten Basketball Power Rankings: Purdue, Maryland make huge leaps

By Austin Walther

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - JANUARY 03: Head coach John Beilein of the Michigan Wolverines reacts from the bench while playing the Penn State Nittany Lions at Crisler Arena on January 03, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 68-55. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - JANUARY 03: Head coach John Beilein of the Michigan Wolverines reacts from the bench while playing the Penn State Nittany Lions at Crisler Arena on January 03, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 68-55. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
15 of 15
Next
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN – JANUARY 06: Jordan Poole #2 of the Michigan Wolverines celebrates a second half basket with Charles Matthews #1 while playing the Indiana Hoosiers at Crisler Arena on January 06, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 74-63. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN – JANUARY 06: Jordan Poole #2 of the Michigan Wolverines celebrates a second half basket with Charles Matthews #1 while playing the Indiana Hoosiers at Crisler Arena on January 06, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 74-63. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

1. Michigan Wolverines (17-0)

Previous Rank: 1

The dream just continues to keep rolling for Michigan. At the beginning, they were barely ranked after losing a ton of talent from a team that went to the National Championship. Now they are three wins away from 20 and have been ranked 2nd in the AP Poll since Christmas.

It really doesn’t matter at this point who Michigan has played for Big Ten teams. Because they are by far better than each and every one except maybe the other Michigan team. They took down Purdue pretty convincingly. Northwestern battled them hard on the road, but it was a different story in Ann Arbor.

Penn State and Illinois are both winless so that’s fuel for the Michigan haters. But they beat Indiana by 11. Michigan has only played two Big Ten road games before their match up with Wisconsin on Saturday in Madison. The Badgers will be out for blood because of how bad they have been playing.

This team has the 3rd best defense in the country in terms of points allowed. Usually Michigan basketball under John Beilein is all about offense, but teams are averaging under 60 points per game. Only one player is averaging more than one block per game and that’s Jon Teske with 37 total. Charles Matthews and Zavier Simpson are the only guys averaging over one steal per game.

Next. Top 25 Power Rankings. dark

But this is a scrappy bunch. The way Beilein has this team playing shapes them into being a huge problem in the Big Ten. Three guys are in double-figures. The freshman star Ignas Brazdeikis, Matthews and Jordan Poole. And Poole has really found his shot. This team doesn’t commit dumb turnovers or fouls, they all know their role and one through seven are all capable to produce.

Home/Big Ten