Big Ten Preview: Conference Superlatives

The college basketball season is less than five weeks away, which means that it is time for us to dive deep into a season preview. Last week, we published our Big East Preview. This week, we’ll be rolling out a Big Ten preview, a league that has the Preseason No. 1 team in the country and could field as many as 13 or 14 tournament teams.

Wait, is that actually possible?

Let’s dive into The Field of 68’s and On3’s Big Ten basketball preview:

BEST PLAYER: Braden Smith, Purdue

Braden Smith is not only the best player in the Big Ten, he’s the best player in college basketball. He is everything you want out of a point guard. He’s tough, he’s competitive, he’s a scorer that knows how to get to his shots, he’s a facilitator that can make every read out of a ball-screen. Most importantly, he’s endlessly competitive and a leader that decided winning at Purdue was more important than chasing the biggest payday in the portal. There is a lot of talent in college basketball this season. There isn’t a single player that I would take over Braden Smith.

PLAYER WITH THE MOST TO PROVE: Bruce Thornton, Ohio State

The Buckeyes have a roster that is, on paper, good enough that they should be competing for a top four spot in the Big Ten. Thornton is a point guard that is coming off of a season where he put up the kind of numbers that should get you put into the All-American conversation. But he isn’t in that conversation largely because Ohio State hasn’t been as competitive as they should be in his tenure. They’ve never danced in his three seasons. They collapsed in February twice, one time resulting in a coach getting fired. Point guards are judged by wins and losses, and that’s why Thornton is overlooked. If he plays the way he’s capable of and if Ohio State wins at the level they should, Thornton will change the narrative of his career.

COACH UNDER THE MOST PRESSURE: Eric Musselman, USC

This one is tough to pick in the Big Ten because I don’t think we are in a senior where there is going to be too much turnover in the league. So this is not to say that the Muss Bus is necessarily on the Hot Seat. But he is coming off of a second straight season where he finished under-.500. He went 7-13 in the Big Ten last year despite having one of the best portal hauls in the country. This year, the Trojans once again spent on their roster, which is essentially brand new and, frankly, doesn’t necessarily have the kind of pieces you’d project to have success playing in Musselman’s system. He needs to get this trend turned around.

MOST INTERESTING ROSTER: Michigan

Last year, Dusty May spent the offseason talking about how he was planning on playing two 7-footers together. We scoffed, he laughed and Michigan rolled to a No. 5-seed with one of the best frontcourts in the sport. This year, the buzz out of Ann Arbor is that Michigan is going to play three bigs together, with all-world transfer Yaxel Lendeborg slotting in at the three alongside Morez Johnson and Aday Mara. I am not scoffing this time around. I am curious, however, to see how — not if, how — this works. But there’s no scoffing. Dusty May’s earned the right for us to trust his vision.

BREAKOUT STAR: Coen Carr, Michigan State

Carr is a guy that is has otherworldly athleticism and has slowly but surely started to figure out how to translate that into more than just highlight-worthy plays. The ball-handling is getting better. The shooting is improving. And he plays in a system that his, historically, made athletic combo-forwards in the mold of Carr look great. If it all comes together for Carr, there’s a chance that he ends up being a first round pick.

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SLEEPER: Washington

If there’s a team in the Big Ten that has a chance to shock everyone and make a run to the Final Four, it’s Washington. Danny Sprinkle has put together a roster that is absolutely loaded in the backcourt and features enough of a variety of frontcourt weapons that should allow the Huskies to be able to tinker with matchups depending on who they ultimately end up facing — assuming that Jacob Ognacevic can get healthy for the turn of the calendar. Sprinkle has proven that he has the ability to coach, leading Montana State to the dance before building Utah State into tournament team from scratch in all of one offseason. It didn’t go the way he wanted it to go in his first year in Seattle, but I fully expect that to change this season.

DEEPER SLEEPER: Iowa

I’m buying Iowa as a tournament team. I think they have the weapons offensively that will allow Ben McCollum to get creative, and he has a number of pieces — particularly Bennett Stirtz — that have played for him and know what he will be looking for. I also think that they are going to play low possession games, and I am a bit worried about what they will be defensively. Low possession games tend to favor the teams with the better coach (and the better point guard), so being bullish on the Hawkeyes makes sense. But they are also at the mercy of variance – a couple of bad shooting nights will hurt them more.

THE KEY TO THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP IS …

Stopping Purdue.

I think it really is that simple.

With all due respect to the likes of Illinois, UCLA and Michigan, I really do believe that the Big Ten is Purdue’s to lose and it’s not really all that close. They have the best player in the country in Braden Smith. Their backcourt consists of a pair of four-year starters. They have another All-American in Trey Kaufman-Renn on the roster, and the addition of Oscar Cluff plugs the biggest holes that they had last season.

The Big Ten could end up being a league that gets 12 teams into the dance and I wouldn’t be all that surprised, and I also think that the Boilermakers will win that 12-bid league by two or three games.