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Big Ten Basketball: Buy or sell on Ohio State, Minnesota, Nebraska and IU

By Austin Walther

BLOOMINGTON, IN - JANUARY 14: Romeo Langford #0 of the Indiana Hoosiers walks down the court after a turnover in the 66-51 loss to the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Assembly Hall on January 14, 2019 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
BLOOMINGTON, IN - JANUARY 14: Romeo Langford #0 of the Indiana Hoosiers walks down the court after a turnover in the 66-51 loss to the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Assembly Hall on January 14, 2019 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 8: Led by committee chairman Mark Hollis (3rd from L), the NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee meets on Wednesday afternoon, March 8, 2017 in New York City. The committee is gathered in New York to begin the five-day process of selecting and seeding the field of 68 teams for the NCAA MenÕs Basketball Tournament. The final bracket will be released on Sunday evening following the completion of conference tournaments. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 8: Led by committee chairman Mark Hollis (3rd from L), the NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee meets on Wednesday afternoon, March 8, 2017 in New York City. The committee is gathered in New York to begin the five-day process of selecting and seeding the field of 68 teams for the NCAA MenÕs Basketball Tournament. The final bracket will be released on Sunday evening following the completion of conference tournaments. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) /

Not all Big Ten basketball teams are safely in the NCAA Tournament at this point in time. Which ones are on the bubble and should we buy or sell?

There are two weeks left in the Big Ten regular season. It was just a one year experiment of having the Big Ten Tournament a week before all the other major tournaments. The college basketball season as a whole is going one week more than normal.  Eight out of the 14 Big Ten teams still have four games from now until March 9. The rest have just three.

Six teams have separated themselves from the rest of the conference. All six have won 10 or more games, guaranteeing at least a .500 record in the Big Ten. Those six teams will be dancing in less than a month. The rest of the league, though, has some work to do.

Ohio State and Minnesota both have seven wins apiece. The Buckeyes still have an outside chance at finishing .500, but the best the Gophers can do is finish right at .500. Surprisingly, Rutgers and Illinois are next with six wins butut neither has a tournament resume. In fact, it’s the next two teams, Nebraska and Indiana, with five and four wins respectively that round out the four Big Ten teams on the bubble.

Ohio State has avoided moving on to the “last four byes” line in most bracketology reports. Minnesota hasn’t really moved ahead of the “last four byes” list and isn’t going below the cut line in many fields either. Even after losing to Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights are the worst team in the KenPom rankings and they are right on the cusp of being a top-75 team. That’s good news for the four teams on the bubble right now.

Believe it or not, Penn State is actually ranked higher than the Hoosiers and Gophers in the KenPom. All three teams are in the top-50. I guess you really can’t argue being under .500 in conference or overall for a reason not being the tournament because Indiana fits both those narratives.

The Nittany Lions do have wins over Virginia Tech and Michigan but have two ugly losses. Illinois only won four non-conference games, Northwestern is officially in last place of the Big Ten and Rutgers’ metrics aren’t good. So we’re rolling with Ohio State, Minnesota, Indiana, and Nebraska for teams on the bubble and whether they can get in or not.

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