Big Ten writers tab Purdue as the preseason Big Ten favorite
According to this year’s unofficial poll of Big Ten basketball beat writers has tabbed Purdue as the preseason favorite in the conference and Braden Smith as preseason player of the year.
This year’s Jedi council, called to order by Adam Jardy of the Columbus Dispatch and Zach Osterman of the Indianapolis Star, yielded the following results.
| 1. Purdue, 501 (25) |
| 2. Michigan, 472 (3) |
| 3. UCLA, 417 |
| 4. Illinois, 411 |
| 5. Oregon, 338 |
| 6. Michigan State, 360 |
| 7. Wisconsin, 328 |
| 8. Iowa, 278 |
| 9. Ohio State, 272 |
| 10. Indiana, 245 |
| 11. Washington, 239 |
| 12. USC, 227 |
| 13. Maryland, 210 |
| 14. Nebraska, 149 |
| 15. Northwestern, 119 |
| 16. Minnesota, 95 |
| 17. Rutgers, 54 |
| 18. Penn State, 43 |
| Player of the year: |
| Braden Smith, 23 |
| Also receiving votes |
| Trey Kaufman-Renn, 3 |
| Yaxel Lendeborg, Donovan Dent, 1 |
| Freshman of the year: |
| Kayden Mingo, 6 |
| Also receiving votes |
| Trey McKenney and Hannes Steinbach (5); Darius Adams, Omer Mayer, Cam Ward, (3); Alijah Arenas, Amare Bynum, Mihailo Petrovic (1) |
| Transfer of the year: |
| Yaxel Lendeborg, 11 |
| Also receiving votes |
| Bennett Stirtz (9); Donovan Dent (8) |
| First Team All-Big Ten (unanimous selections in all caps) |
| BRADEN SMITH |
| Trey Kaufman-Renn (55) |
| Yaxel Lendeborg (51) |
| Donovan Dent (43) |
| Bennett Stirtz (42) |
| Second Team All-Big Ten |
| Bruce Thornton (38) |
| Nick Martinelli (32) |
| Nate Bittle (24) |
| John Blackwell (24) |
| Jackson Shelstad (14) |
| Also receiving votes: |
| Note: Players received two points for a first-team vote and one point for a second-team vote. |
| Tomislav Ivisic (8); Andrej Stokaovic (7); Tyler Bilodeau, Tucker DeVries (6); Coen Carr, Oscar Cluff, Rienk Mast, Quimari Peterson (2); Desmond Claude, Morez Johnson, Jaxon Kohler, Fletcher Loyer, Pharrel Payne, Devin Royal, Lamar Wilkerson, Wesley Yates III (1) |
