Big Ten Basketball power rankings: Michigan State, Wisconsin takes big jumps

7. Minnesota (8-1, 1-1)

When Ben Johnson was hired as head coach, there was a bit of confusion among many of the pundits. When the preseason rankings and expectations starting coming in, the confusion turned into pessimism, and there wasn’t reason to expect much from the Golden Gophers this season. Most of the talent from last season is gone, with forward Eric Curry being basically the only relevant piece returning. Johnson put together a roster with a slew of transfers, including Jamison Battle (18.8 ppg, 6.4 rpg this season) and Payton Willis (16.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg), and things have held together early on.

Initially, the Golden Gophers were still feeling each other out, with defense carrying the torch in the initial run. They needed double overtime to knock off Princeton, but scored road wins at Pittsburgh and Mississippi State to run their record to 7-0, certainly a better start than anyone expected. Their initial blemish came at home to a very good Michigan State team, but the Golden Gophers proved they were for real this past weekend, traveling to Ann Arbor and dealing the Wolverines in a 75-65 victory.

If you look closely at the analytics, this Minnesota team struggles on the offensive boards, but has been taking better care of the ball in recent weeks. They had two of their better offensive showings in recent road wins, and have been able to secure some of these wins without outstanding shooting from the 3-point line.

Battle and Willis have really melded well with this system, and the Golden Gophers look much better than we were expecting. However, you have to wonder about the ceiling for this team; we certainly don’t expect them to topple a team like Michigan on the road on a regular basis.