Big Ten Basketball: Illinois rises, Iowa falls in latest power rankings

The Wildcats are one of a few power conference teams we still don’t know much about. And that’s partly because they faced a few teams that we also don’t know much about in Georgia, Providence, Maryland, and Wake Forest, where the team went 2-2 against. That puts their overall resume as not bad but still plenty of work to do going forward.

The good news is that they have Chase Audige back after missing the first seven games of the season. The double-digit scoring combo guard provides needed offense and a 1-2 punch with Boo Buie, who is averaging 14.9 ppg and 5.7 apg on the season while being much more consistent overall in terms of his production on a game-to-game basis.

The key to Northwestern’s potential success is the frontcourt, led by the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, Pete Nance (16.3 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.9 apg). He, along with Robbie Beran, Elyjah Williams, and Ryan Young is one of the best frontcourts in the Big Ten and that kind of depth will be needed in league play.

The Wildcats have a road win over Maryland when they were in complete disarray but they’ll take it. But they have a very rough stretch coming up, likely to be underdogs in six of the next seven games in league play. If they can win a few of those, we can then talk about Northwestern being true at-large contenders.