Ooomph. Crunch. Crash. Yep, they’re underway with conference play in the Big Ten. You can always tell by the banging bodies that can turn the paint into a demolition derby. “If you don’t come and meet the challenge, then you’ll be exposed as a team,” Mike Woodson said, who has both played and coached in this gladiator arena for Indiana.
In a way, this is the last go-around for the league as we know it before all the Pac-12 newcomers roll in next year. Nothing says good ol’ fashioned back-to-the-roots Midwest basketball like USC at Oregon on a court with silhouettes of fir trees. By next fall, the conference will have gone from being something of a mathematical misnomer — a Big Ten with 14 teams — to mislabeled — a Big Ten with 18 teams.
But before that, there’s one last basketball fight among the old guard, so let’s check in on some of the current storylines.
Oh Canada, guess who’s coming to town?
Toronto to be exact. No, not Santa Claus. This guy is way too big to fit down any chimney. The native son will be back in the old neighborhood, where they no doubt remember Zach Edey, baseball pitcher and hockey defenseman. But that was in the eighth grade when he was a mere 6-10 and had not yet discovered the joy of dunking. Now he’s 7-4 with size 20 shoes, the most fearsome weapon in American college basketball and taking his national player of the year reelection campaign to his hometown for a game against Alabama.
“It’s a little unique right?” Purdue coach Matt Painter was saying. “He’s a proud Canadian. He loves Toronto. We’ve got to play well for him, we’ve got to coach well for him. That’s a big deal.”
It must be, given that Edey has the Canadian flag sewn inside all five of his Purdue jerseys.
If the Big Ten is to end its highly conspicuous 23-year national championship dry spell and be able to finally tell the cynics to put a sock in it, the task might as well be up to the Edey and the rest of the Boilermakers this year. This is ironic, given the fact Purdue hasn’t seen the inside of a Final Four since 1980. The Toronto sports fans should fully understand that frustration, anyway. The Maple Leafs haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1967.
It would probably be best for the Big Ten image if one of its bedrock programs knocked down the championship wall. Be a little odd if UCLA had to come in and do the job.
Purdue is the unquestioned Big Ten standard bearer this season but who’s No. 2?
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The position is open and now taking applications. It was supposed to be Michigan State, but so far the Spartans shooters have been unable to hit Lake Huron from a canoe. They’re currently 328th in the nation in 3-point shooting percentage. Maybe more concerning, they’ve been outrebounded in five games and are 210th in rebound margin. This is how a team can go from No. 4 ranked in the preseason polls to 4-4 and 88th in the latest NCAA NET ratings, just behind Charlotte.
“It is shocking,” Tom Izzo said of the shooting woes. “It’s shocking the way the summer went. It’s shocking from last year. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the pressure.”
Still, Michigan State could find itself, since that is what Izzo teams do. Meanwhile, Maryland was third in the preseason media poll but has had to regroup from a 1-3 start that included losses to Davidson and UAB. Michigan started 3-0 but has since lost five of six, as coach Juwan Howard works to get back from a heart procedure. Penn State was in the Big Ten tournament final last March but has dropped five in a row, including to 2-7 Bucknell. Nebraska had reason for optimism with a 7-0 start but then took its worst loss to Creighton since 1932
But notice Wisconsin. The 7-2 Badgers have won six in a row, including over Virginia, No. 3 Marquette and Michigan State; three double-digit conquests over respected foes by a combined 48 points. They never trailed any of the three and led for more than 117 of the 120 minutes. The victory over the Spartans was their third in a row in East Lansing, and Wisconsin had not managed that since 1963.
Also, 7-1 Illinois, having just outscored 11th-ranked Florida Atlantic 98-89, with not one but two Illini — Terrence Shannon Jr. and Marcus Domask — each putting up 33 points. In three wins leading up to that game, Illinois outrebounded its opponents 159-82. Very Big Tennish.
Same for 7-1 Indiana, which has outscored its last four victims 184-110 in the paint. Ohio State rolled over Alabama 92-81 and has reached at least 84 points in its past five games to start 8-1. There’s also Northwestern at 6-1 after yet another upset of Purdue, wishing it could only play a No. 1 ranked Boilermaker team every week.
Nobody’s repeated as national player of the year in more than four decades. Is Edey still on course to do it?
Unless he decides to stay in Canada and go back to hockey.
His numbers range from remarkable to downright absurd. He’s averaging 33 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks per 40 minutes this season. One of every eight shots or free throws Purdue has missed this season, he has grabbed for an offense rebound. One of every 14 shots opponents have missed was because he’s blocked it. And then there’s this: He’s drawn 87 fouls in nine games and committed only 15.
But Edey’s going to have to endure a lot of body contact out there in hostile Big Ten places. Jan 16 and Feb. 10 for instance. Purdue vs. Indiana, whose 7-foot Oregon transfer Kel’el Ware is a quickly rising force in the league — going for 17 points and nine rebounds a game.
Iowa has the player who gets the most national buzz, drawing bright lights every night. Wait a second, that’s the woman. So here’s a charity event idea: Edey vs. Caitlin Clark in a game of H-O-R-S-E, especially if they both repeat as national POYs.
Really, does it look any more promising for the end of the title drought?
The Big Ten, for all its history, tradition, great players and packed houses, has had a complicated relationship with March.
Purdue and Iowa have not been to a Final Four in 43 years. Indiana claims a blueblood pedigree but has advanced to one Elite Eight in 30 years. Minnesota went to the Final Four 27 years ago and has won two NCAA tournament games since. Illinois was in the Final Four in three of the first 14 tournaments, and only twice in the next 70. There have been 240 different schools win a game in the NCAA tournament, but Nebraska is not one of them. The Cornhuskers are 0-7 all-time, the only program from a high major conference without at least one victory. Maryland is the last Big Ten team to win the men’s or the women’s national championship, but they don’t count because the Terps were still in the ACC.
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Still, the league can’t be accused of not trying. From 2002 to 2018, six different Big Ten programs played in seven of 17 national championship games. Alas, none of them cut down nets.
When’s the next chance to get a true sense of the Big Ten this season?
Saturday will be interesting, with Wisconsin headed for No. 1 Arizona, Illinois to Tennessee and Purdue facing Alabama in the Edey Bowl. But the truly revealing day could be the following Saturday, Dec. 16.
Arizona is currently No. 1. Kansas is No. 2. They’ll both be landing in the middle of Big Ten country on the same afternoon — Kansas at Indiana, Arizona against Purdue in Indianapolis, the tipoffs 50 miles and four hours apart. On the same afternoon, No. 6 Baylor visits Michigan State in Detroit and Ohio State meets UCLA in Atlanta. By that night, the Big Ten could be celebrating a massively super Saturday. Or not. Whatever happens, this season is something of a last chapter, since next year will be so different. USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington are all on the stage — but probably not Zach Edey.