NCAA Basketball: 2020-21 takeaways from Week 6 entering the New Year

The Big Ten looks like an 8-bid league for the NCAA Tournament

Entering Week 6, Big Ten basketball had nine teams ranked in the AP Poll Top 25 rankings. As far as the conference standings go, six teams have three wins already and one remains unbeaten in the Michigan Wolverines. Below the Wolverines, the Iowa Hawkeyes, Wisconsin Badgers, Northwestern Wildcats, and Illinois Fighting Illini are all in a tie for second place.

Then there’s the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, who were No. 14 in the most recent AP rankings, the Minnesota Golden Gophers (No. 21) and Ohio State Buckeyes (No. 25).

There’s a lot to like about Big Ten basketball from top to bottom and given the conference clashes we’ve seen already, expect to see a lot of the Big Ten footprint in the NCAA Tournament.

On Saturday, the Iowa Hawkeyes and Rutgers Scarlet Knights squared off in a defensive battle. The Hawkeyes squeezed out a 77-75 victory led by 25 points from senior big man Luka Garza. Rutgers got just six points from their bench.

The Fighting Illini notched their fourth win in conference action with a 66-58 victory over the Purdue Boilermakers as well on Saturday. They’ve won three games in a row since dropping out of the top 10.

The sleeper in the conference though has been the Michigan Wolverines at 8-0. They were ranked No. 16 in the AP Poll this past week but after a big win over the Maryland Terrapins this past Thursday. Hunter Dickinson leads the way for them with 16.6 points per game and has started in three straight Big Ten games. They’re certain to move up in the rankings and will be in action next against Northwestern tonight.