Big Ten Basketball: Buy or sell Michigan State, Rutgers, Ohio State and Indiana?

It’s already been an interesting first few weeks for Big Ten Basketball, even without teams facing any marquee opponents. The conference, which normally avoids the typical upsets to mid-major opponents, already suffered two. Michigan State fell at home in overtime to James Madison, while Rutgers lost to Princeton in a neutral-site local battle.

There also were some other teams that had to fight to get wins, including Indiana surviving Florida Gulf Coast and Ohio State needed all 40 minutes to get by Oakland. That creates the question; should we be concerned with those teams compared to the preseason expectations? Here’s a closer look at an early edition of Big Ten “Buy or Sell”.

Rutgers Scarlet Knights – Making the NCAA Tournament

Despite losing some key guards from last season, Rutgers looked like a team that could have a different offense, including being able to shoot more threes. But that wasn’t the case against Princeton, going just 4/14 from deep in the 68-61 loss. Even more concerning is that Derek Simpson, who had some potential breakout talk in the preseason, was limited to just two points in 18 minutes.

If Noah Fernandes and Austin Williams are going to be the best guards for Rutgers, then they’re unlikely to be in the NCAA Tournament conversation. The hope is that the return of Mawot Mag could make the defense so good that they can win low-scoring games. But he’s not set to return for a while reportedly and if they can’t beat Princeton, they could lose to a few others coming up on the schedule.

Sell