Big Ten Basketball: 2019-20 under the radar players from each team
By Jacob Shames
Big Ten Basketball has no shortage of players primed for breakout seasons. Will these 14 under-the-radar players — one from each team — be among them?
After a 2018-19 season in which it was one of the deepest conferences in college basketball, Big Ten Basketball underwent a mass exodus this offseason.
Gone are coaches John Beilein and Tim Miles. Gone are mainstays Ethan Happ, Carsen Edwards, Jordan Murphy, Tyler Cook, Juwan Morgan and Glynn Watson, among many others. The only certainty in the Big Ten (apart from Michigan State) is uncertainty.
However, underneath this new, confusing landscape lies a vast ocean of potential. That’s where this article comes in.
I originally attempted to identify 14 players, one on each Big Ten team, that are in line for a breakout season. This was a challenging task — just about half the players in the conference fit that description.
As a result, I tried to limit my scope to players which are flying far under the radar; players that didn’t make much of an impact last year. That means you won’t find guys like Jalen Smith, Daniel Oturu, Isaiah Livers or Devonte Green here. All of these players averaged less than 20 minutes per game last season. All were underclassmen. But things have changed since then. Now, these are players that have the talent and opportunity to assert themselves as key contributors for their team.
You probably don’t know most of these players just yet, but there’s a good chance you’ll get used to them before too long.