Big Ten Power Poll: 2/2/09

The weather is still cold in Madison, Wisconsin's win column is still frozen shut and now even more colleagues in the Big Ten are accumulating important wins for their tournament résumés.

While the Badgers are still hostages of the amazing "Deep Freeze of 2009", Penn State's upset over Michigan State means that Wisconsin can now at least claim one win against the Big Ten's top five teams. I never thought I would see UW in the bottom three of the conference with Bo Ryan at the helm, so I guess it's good that there is still half of the conference schedule left to improve.

Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa and Indiana are the remaining teams who have not yet knocked off one of the conference leaders (MSU, Purdue, Minn., Ill., PSU). This has been a rollercoaster year for most teams in the league. As long as Michigan State and Purdue stay the course, I think this bodes well for the league overall ... though you would like to see a third heavyweight emerge, I don't think there is one this year.

The Big Ten has the second-highest conference RPI thanks to the top strength of schedule rating. Conversely, the Big Ten seems pretty locked in at fifth among the big boys (ahead of the SEC) when it comes to Ken Pomeroy's method of ranking conferences by the average rating of their members.

	Rk	Team	Record (Conf)	Poll Avg (Feb. 2)	Pomeroy Rank	Key Wins
	1	Michigan State	17-4 (7-2)	13.5	21	Texas, Ill, @Minn, Kan
^	2	Purdue	17-4 (6-2)	12.5	11	BC, David, @Wis, @Minn
v	3	Illinois	18-4 (6-3)	22	24	Mizzou, OSU, @Purd, Wis
	4	Minnesota	18-3 (6-3)	19	34	L'ville, @Wis, Ill, OSU
	5	Penn State	17-5 (6-3)	30.5	57	@MSU, Mich, Purd
^	6	Ohio State	15-5 (5-4)	42.5	52	@Miami, ND, @Mich
	7	Northwestern	12-7 (4-5)	-	62	Minn, @MSU, Fla. St., Wis
v	8	Wisconsin	12-9 (3-6)	-	42	@VT, @Mich
	9	Michigan	14-8 (4-6)	-	82	UCLA, Duke, Ill
	10	Iowa	12-10 (2-7)	-	84	Iowa St., Wis
	11	Indiana	5-15 (0-8)	-	204	TCU

Big Ten Power Poll: 1/23/09

I guess it was time for a shake-up. Eight teams changed positions in this week's power poll, with the top and bottom of the league stable, but everything else up for grabs.

With Purdue healthy again, the Boilermakers have been Hummeling along nicely. Along with Michigan State and Illinois, Purdue has emerged as one of the clearly stronger top three teams that has started to put some imaginary distance between themselves and pack behind them. While those teams just feel superior when you watch them, I call it imaginary distance because no one is too far ahead in the win column this early in the year.

My rankings try to give strike a balance between a snapshot of how each team is playing at the time and the overall body of work. Unexpected swings can be expected from week to week, but overall movement should never be more drastic than a few slots.

For instance, Northwestern just posted the best pair of back-to-back wins the Big Ten has seen this season when it spanked Minnesota at home and then toppled Michigan State in East Lansing. The Wildcats had lost four in row previously and if you look at their schedule, could continue to build a nice winning streak. But in reality, the stars have probably just temporarily aligned for Northwestern, thus they only managed to sneak up to #7.

Northwestern jumped both Ohio State and Michigan; the Wolverines continues to be underwhelming in my book. Wisconsin is completely out of sync but remained at #6 since the last two losses were near-misses in overtime. Still, Wisconsin and Michigan share the conference's longest non-Hoosier losing streak at three games. It could get worse before it gets better for Wisconsin over the next five games and Michigan's next six games on the schedule appear brutal as well.

	Rk	Team	Record (Conf)	Poll Avg (Jan. 19)	Pomeroy Rank	Key Wins
	1	Michigan State	15-3 (5-1)	7	23	Texas, @Minn, Kan, Ill
^	2	Illinois	16-3 (4-2)	24.5	16	Mizzou, OSU, @Purdue
^	3	Purdue	15-4 (4-2)	18	14	BC, Davidson, Wis, @Minn
v	4	Minnesota	16-3 (4-3)	20.5	49	L'ville, @Wis, OSU
^	5	Penn State	15-5 (4-3)	-	68	Purdue, Mich
v	6	Wisconsin	12-6 (3-3)	-	40	@VT, @Mich
^	7	Northwestern	10-6 (2-4)	-	43	Minn, @MSU, Fla. St.
	8	Ohio State	13-4 (3-3)	31	47	@Miami, ND, @Mich
v	9	Michigan	13-6 (3-4)	41.5	75	UCLA, Duke, Ill
	10	Iowa	12-7 (2-4)	-	79	Iowa St., Wis
	11	Indiana	5-12 (0-5)	-	249	TCU

Big Ten Power Poll: 1/16/09

Thursday night's game in Madison not only determined which team would rise to sole possession of second place in the Big Ten, but also held the key to whether it would be Wisconsin or Minnesota behind Michigan St. in the second Hoops Marinara Big Ten Power Poll.

The result was not 100% definitive, but it points to good things for Minnesota down the road. And for Wisconsin? A total lack of momentum. The Badgers drop to fifth this week in the poll, behind a couple of other teams who also helped to clear up the conference race a bit earlier in the week: Illinois and Purdue.

The Boilermakers were not that impressive in Evanston, but managed to escape with a victory. Survive and advance, I suppose. Illinois, however, is firing on all cylinders right now. Led by goofy 7-footer Mike Tisdale, the Orange Crush put Michigan in its place ... smack dab in the middle of the conference ladder. There was no movement in the bottom half of the league.

Four teams have played five conference games at this point, with everyone else at four games. Minnesota improved the most over the last week according to the Pomeroy numbers (even Wisconsin improved despite back-to-back losses), while Northwestern and Penn State took the two significant tumbles in those rankings since the last Power Poll.

	Rk	Team	Record (Conf)	Poll Avg	Pomeroy	Key Wins
	1	Michigan State	14-2 (4-0)	7.5	24	Texas,@Minn,Kan
^	2	Minnesota	16-1 (4-1)	17.5	40	L'ville,@Wis,OSU
^	3	Illinois	15-2 (3-1)	27.5	16	Mizzou,@Purdue
^	4	Purdue	13-4 (2-2)	19	18	BC,Davidson,Wis
v	5	Wisconsin	12-5 (3-2)	33.5	37	@VT,@Mich
	6	Penn State	13-5 (2-3)	-	76	Purdue
	7	Michigan	13-4 (3-2)	24.5	51	UCLA,Duke,Ill
	8	Ohio State	12-3 (2-2)	44	41	@Miami,ND
	9	Northwestern	8-6 (0-4)	-	56	Fla St.
	10	Iowa	11-6 (1-3)	-	63	Iowa St.
	11	Indiana	5-11 (0-4)	-	237	TCU

Big Ten Power Poll: 1/7/09

Injuries are already causing havoc within the Big Ten standings.

A bad back has rendered Robbie Hummel ineffective over the last few games. Without Hummel and Chris Kramer in the lineup last night, Purdue dropped to 0-2 in conference play with a loss at Penn State.

David Lighty's extended absence has sent Ohio State into a tailspin, adding to the troubles the Buckeyes were already having at point guard. The team has lost three of its last four games and will get little help from the schedule. Ohio State gets the gift of Indiana squeezed in between four straight road games to start the Big 10 season.

Anthony Tucker's slow return from a suspension in Iowa is also being attributed to an illness now. It's no surprise then that the team who recently welcomed back a key player is atop Hoops Marinara's first Big Ten Power Poll of the season.

With Goran Suton back in the starting lineup for the past four games, Michigan State is heating up. Road wins against Minnesota and Northwestern, plus Tuesday's win over Ohio State puts Michigan State alone in first place with a 3-0 record.

Wisconsin, who has avoided the injury bug so far, is the only other undefeated team in league play and hosts Northwestern on Wednesday night. The Badgers posted an impressive win in Ann Arbor and then withstood the Nittany Lions to start 2-0. Bo Ryan's crew boasts the second-best non-conference strength of schedule among Big Ten teams and always seems to have the right stuff come January.

There were only three Big Ten teams (MSU, Purdue, Minnesota) left in the traditional polls entering the week. Meanwhile, the conference settled into fifth amongst all conferences in Ken Pomeroy's ratings. While the league might be as competitive as it has been in years, chances are the teams will be beating up on each other, preventing the true breakout year that many anticipating in the early going.

So despite four teams with three games played already (and Indiana with only one), let's get this inaugural list underway, shall we?

Rk	Team	Record (Conf)	Poll Avg	Pomeroy	Key Wins
1	Michigan State	12-2 (3-0)	10	23	Texas,@Minn,OSU
2	Wisconsin	11-3 (2-0)	34.5	48	@VT,@Mich
3	Minnesota	13-1 (1-1)	20.5	63	L'ville,OSU
4	Illinois	13-2 (1-1)	30.5	21	Mizzou,@Purdue
5	Purdue	11-4 (0-2)	14	18	BC,Davidson
6	Penn State	13-3 (2-1)	-	65	Purdue
7	Michigan	11-3 (1-1)	27	57	UCLA,Duke,Ill
8	Ohio State	10-3 (1-2)	34	42	@Miami,ND
9	Northwestern	8-4 (0-2)	-	39	Fla St.
10	Iowa	11-4 (1-1)	-	50	Iowa St.
11	Indiana	5-8 (0-1)	-	226	TCU