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

By Adam Childs | Sep 5, 2019

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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NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 28: Eugene Omoruyi #11 of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights reacts in the first half against the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden on February 28, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

13. Rutgers

The Scarlet Knights were actually not horrible last year. They hovered right at .500 all year long and even had back-to-back wins against Minnesota and Iowa. In fact, they should have swept the Hawkeyes had they not hit a last-second shot to beat them.

Rutgers has the potential to sneak up on some teams and possibly near the middle of the pack in the Big Ten, but they need to prove it over an extended time before we start ranking them higher.

They do return one of their top two scorers in Geo Baker, but Eugene Omoruyi transferred to Oregon and that is a huge loss. The problem they face is they are the only two players who scored in double digits last year. They will need to find some more scoring if they want to jump up the rankings.

They were also 104th in the country in points given up and they will need to get better on that side of the ball also. Couple that with only averaging 67.7 points per game on offense and it is no wonder why they couldn’t get over the hump last year.

The Scarlet Knights are going to upset some people this year, but can they avoid losing to the teams they should beat every day. if they could do that, they may be able to sniff an NIT berth this year. If not and they will be battling it out with Northwestern for the cellar.

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