Busting Brackets
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Big Ten Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2019-20 season

By Adam Childs

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - MARCH 17: Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany presents head coach Tom Izzo the championship trophy after the Michigan State Spartans beat the Michigan Wolverines 65-60 in the championship game of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at the United Center on March 17, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - MARCH 17: Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany presents head coach Tom Izzo the championship trophy after the Michigan State Spartans beat the Michigan Wolverines 65-60 in the championship game of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at the United Center on March 17, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /
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LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – MARCH 28: Nojel Eastern #20 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a layup against the Tennessee Volunteers during the first half of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – MARCH 28: Nojel Eastern #20 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a layup against the Tennessee Volunteers during the first half of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

4. Purdue

Nebraska turned over the whole roster, Wisconsin lost Ethan Happ, and Michigan lost their top three scorers, but no one probably lost someone as important to their team as Purdue did. They lost Carson Edwards who nearly carried the Boilermakers to the Final Four all by himself last year. He was great during the tournament and just during his time in West Lafayette. He did go through a bit of a slump last year, but make no mistake Purdue was only near the top of the Big Ten last year because of Edwards.

But because Edwards was so good it allowed some of the other guys to ease into their roles and develop into some pretty good players. No other player benefited as much as Nojel Eastern. He didn’t average a lot of points but he showed flashes of being a great player and will look to take that next step with Edwards gone.

The other key to this team will be with how well big Matt Haarms does this year. He got off to a slow start last year but came on strong at the end of the year and his continued great play will be key for the Boilermakers.

If those two guys can make the next leap head coach Matt Painter has shown he can get Purdue up near the top of the conference. They would be higher but they just have a few more questions marks than the two teams above them (no one is catching the number one team right now).

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