Big Ten Basketball: Iowa rises, Michigan State falls in updated WTE 2024-25 rankings

1. Indiana Hoosiers

Because most of their work was done early in the offseason, there’s not much to update on what Indiana has done. So the question was did another team do enough to beat them out of the No. 1 spot? Once Catchings de-committed from Purdue in the past couple of weeks, that confirmed the top spot for them.

It’s a true 180 turnaround for the program after a rough past season, where Coach Mike Woodson could’ve been on the hot seat and 5-star prospect Liam McNeeley de-committed early in the offseason. Ever since Indiana got win after win. It started with landing top-30 wing prospect Bryson Tucker to take McNeeley’s spot, pairing him with former 5-star recruit and rising sophomore, Mackenzie Mgbako.

Replacing Xavier Johnson in the backcourt are transfers Myles Rice and Kanaan Carlyle, two starters from the Pac-12 Conference. Trey Galloway and Anthony Leal are back to provide the kind of depth that wasn’t around this past season. 

Losing Kel’el Ware hurts but Indiana replaced him with arguably the top center in the transfer portal in Oumar Ballo, who averaged a double-double at Arizona. Malik Reneau quietly was an all-league forward for the Hoosiers and if they can play together on the court, this could be the best frontcourt in the conference. Outside of shooting concerns, the Hoosiers have the fewest roster weaknesses for next season.