NCAA Basketball: Big Ten, Auburn highlight Monday Morning Mailbag

He can. This draft class certainly isn’t great and doesn’t have much depth. James Wiseman, Anthony Edwards, and LaMelo Ball will likely be the top three picks in some order, and everything after that is a wash. Toppin’s size, athleticism, and ability to score both on the perimeter and inside makes him valuable as a stretch four, the kind that is so valuable in the NBA.

As for the Big Ten, I think 10 is a realistic expectation. I wrote in this week’s Rauf Report the conference may challenge the Big East’s record of 11 bids in 2011, and that looks more plausible following Purdue’s win over Michigan State and Minnesota’s win over Michigan. They could even get 12 if Minnesota picks up some more quality wins. The exact number will depend on just how weak the bubble ends up being, but 10 is very achievable.

Who knows? In all seriousness, there’s a bunch of good-not-great teams who are all flawed. Those teams, in general, tend to play better at home and worse on the road, but everyone in the Big Ten is taking that to an entirely different level. It is helping their quest for 10 bids, however.

Yes – Northwestern and Nebraska. I know Ohio State is tied for last with the Wildcats with a 1-4 conference mark, but they’re better than that and will rebound. The Cornhuskers have certainly turned things around in Big Ten play but those two still make up the clear-cut bottom tier in my mind.

I lean much more towards good than bad, but their regression over the past month has been alarming. They were playing at a special level on the defensive end in November and they were getting offensive contributions from everyone. I don’t know if they believed their own hype or what, but they’ve stopped playing intense defense – their rotations are much slower and less urgent, which is the biggest reason for the slide. I believe they’ll turn it around but we’ll see.