Player of the Week:
Zach Edey, Purdue Boilermakers
Edey and the boys took down 3 straight top 11 opponents in the past 10 days, then mopped the floor with lowly Texas Southern. Across those 3 AP victories, Edey averaged 25.3 points per game and 2 blocks, shooting above 50% in all three games. Teams just can’t prepare for his size and physicality, and it shows in the regular season. It’s still insane to think that the team that took down Purdue this past March was the shortest team in the entire tournament, while schools with 5 star 6’11 prospects can’t seem to replicate the results. Edey was the AP player of the week so there was no other choice for this pick, Purdue is back to their winning ways and as always Edey is at the center of their wins, except this time the help around him seems to be greatly improved.
Who’s Hot
Ohio State Buckeyes
After last year, I may have been sleeping on the Bucks this time around. Covering them last year was difficult, because you expected Ohio State to be at least good enough every year, and when they’re plain bad it causes a lot of confusion. Last year they were a mess, with Brice Sensabaugh and the occasional spurts of excellence from Zed Key being the only bright spots in a dark season for Ohio State. Lots of fans were calling for Holtmann’s job, so he went to work in the transfer portal, called in some back ups, and now has OSU sitting at 6-1. This was no small feat by Holtmann and the coaching staff, they grabbed transfers from in conference rivals like Penn State, and most notably the Minnesota transfer Jameson Battle, who’s been fantastic for Ohio State this year. Their backcourt is among the best in college basketball, with Bruce Thornton and Roddy Gayle both averaging 18.3 and 14.4 respectively. The Bucks showed out at the Emerald Coast Classic and went 3-0, knocking off number 18 Alabama in the process. Their only loss of the season came to Texas A&M, who have looked dominant in their own right. It’ll be interesting to see Ohio State’s success level when led by a guard. The last time Ohio State had a good team led by a guard; he turned out to be a pretty good ballplayer. His name’s D’Angelo Russel in case you forgot.
Purdue Boilermakers
Back to number one, the Boilermakers go. Beyond the surface level stuff that we know, Edey’s dominance and them shooting the lights out from beyond the arc, let’s see some stats on Purdue’s early season legacy run. For starter level stats, they’re leading the BIG10 in point differential at an average margin of victory of 20.5. Maintaining this level while 3 of your games thus far have been against AP top 25 opponents is astounding consistency. They’re also leading the conference in 3pt% by a wide margin, the next closest team is a whole 5 percentage points lower, by shooting 43% from downtown. Now, is that number sustainable? Probably not. But it doesn’t need to happen all season, Edey is good enough to get you wins against lesser opponents, it only needs to be sustained in high-leverage games. It can’t disappear when you get to February or March. Back to stats, Purdue has the best net rating of any team in the BIG10 not named Nebraska, and to be fair Nebraska hasn’t played anyone truly challenging, so for all intents and purposes Purdue is leading the conference in this stat. The only concerns right now statistically for Purdue is their turnovers. They’re bottom 3 in the conference in total turnovers, which is obviously fixable. We’ll see if when the three-point percentage drops Purdue does too, but all signs point to continued domination this season.
Who’s Not
Penn State Nittany Lions
Oof. Three straight losses for the Lions at the ESPN invitational. Things started out with a moral victory against Texas A&M, where the Lions hung around for most of the game against an excellent top 15 team, and then the wheels fell off. Penn State didn’t get their teeth kicked in by any teams, all their losses were relatively close, but they never seemed like a threat in these games either. They lost first their first game to a middling Butler team by 10 and then by 12 to head coach Mike Leach’s former school, VCU. Bright spots include Kanye Cleary and Ace Baldwin continuing to be a formidable backcourt, however with no frontcourt presence Penn State seems to be without an answer to teams that have competent big men. Last year Penn State got around this problem with excellent three-point shooting and a really fast pace of play, however they haven’t found an answer, yet this year and they’ll need to make a swift turnaround if they’re to compete once conference play starts.
Maryland Terrapins
The Terrapins had a good squad last year, made the tournament, and maintained most of their star players for this year, yet they somehow look worse. Now why could that be? Well, their offense has been absolutely horrid. Their TS% is bottom 2 in the conference, and their offensive rating is dead last. In almost every conceivable offensive statistic, Maryland is at or near the bottom amongst the conference. Which is odd, you have some solid scorers like Jahmir Young, Julian Reese, and Donta Scott, and have them surrounded with guys who were recruited as players who can score well, yet the offense has been stagnant, outside of that trio I mentioned is a significant offensive plateau of 5-8 ppg scorers on bad efficiency. Maryland’s defensive is… passable? They’re about middle of the road. Which isn’t good enough for wins to come. Last year, Northwestern and Rutgers both had middling offenses with elite defenders and proved to be significant players in the CBB landscape, however Maryland is not those teams. They have now won 3 straight but the questions still loom on if they can get any sort of firepower going on offense, the clock is ticking.
Power Rankings
5. Wisconsin Badgers
It was between these guys and the Spartans for number 5, and their matchup on Tuesday will prove if I’m making the right call here, but since Wisconsin has a better record, I have them the nod. They’re 5-2 and have a plethora of great individual scorers to boot, that assist average is going to need to increase as defenses get better and better as the year goes on.
4. Indiana Hoosiers
Looks like losing TJD proved no problem for the Hoosiers as Kel’el Ware looks every bit as dominant as Trayce was. They’re 5-1 right now and on the 16th matchup with Kansas, Ware versus former BIG10 player Hunter Dickinson will be a fun showdown to watch.
3. Ohio State Buckeyes
These guys are hooping. See the above piece for more.
2. Illinois Fighting Illini
Still 5-1 with one good loss to Marquette, Terrence Shannon Jr. continues to impress as a lead guard. Tuesday’s matchup with FAU will be a sight to see at the Jimmy V Classic. Expect a lot of playmaking from Shannon and some stingy defense from FAU on him too, if he stays composed Illinois could get their first ranked win of the season.
1. Purdue Boilermakers
Until they get knocked off expect them here every week with one word as the explanation Obviously.