Big Ten Basketball power rankings: Michigan, Ohio State climb to the top

By Adam Childs | Dec 10, 2019

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - DECEMBER 04: Kaleb Wesson #34 of the Ohio State Buckeyes celebrates with fans after their win against the North Carolina Tar Heels at the Dean Smith Center on December 04, 2019 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Ohio State won 74-49. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

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DES MOINES, IOWA – MARCH 23: Head coach Richard Pitino of the Minnesota Golden Gophers talks with his team against the Michigan State Spartans during the first half in the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena on March 23, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

Minnesota lost their best scoring options from last year in Amir Coffey and Jordan Murphy and it shows. Daniel Oturu has been good this year, but that is about it.

The Gophers did help out the Big Ten by beating Clemson, but the Tigers are not a good basketball team. They followed that up by scoring only 52 points against an Iowa team that is not good defensively and was fresh off giving up 103 points to Michigan.

The good news for Minnesota is that even though they are 4-5 they don’t have a bad loss. The bad news for the Gophers is doesn’t look like they are going to be able to beat anybody good this year.

They have close losses to DePaul, Butler, and Oklahoma but they weren’t really close to winning those games either.

Richard Pitino’s seat is starting to get a lot warmer even though they made the tournament last year. He seemed to squander some really good talent in the past couple of years and now that the talent is gone he is struggling to get his team to compete at the next level.

They will win some Big Ten games this year, but they will need to find a way to pull off some upsets if they want to get out of the bottom of the rankings.

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