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Players of the Week:
Yogi Ferrell, Indiana - 2 GP, 20.5 ppg, 3.5 apg, 13-21 FG (62%), 11-15 3pt (73%)
D.J. Newbill, Penn State - 2 GP, 22 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 2.5 apg, 14-32 FG (44%)
The voting was so tight this week that our staff was asked to re-vote between four players to determine two Players of the Week. The first selection is Ferrell, whose insane performance in Assembly Hall against Michigan warranted the recognition the conference failed to give to the stud sophomore point guard. 27 points on 8-10 shooting including 7-8 from behind the arc against the conference's (then) only undefeated team is certainly worth honoring. Indiana has some work to do to ensure their spot in the big dance but with Ferrell playing like this, they sure do look like a tourney team. Now they have a win to back that up.
Penn State won't be dancing in March, barring an absolute miracle, but D.J. Newbill had Nittany Lion fans believing, if only for 45 minutes, that his team can do anything. PSU hadn't beaten a ranked B1G team on the road since the 2008-09 season, and never under Patrick Chambers, but that all changed last Wednesday when they marched into Columbus and won the game on the shoulders of Newbill, whose 25 points included two game-tying threes and a game-winner right in Aaron Craft's eye.
Drew Crawford, Northwestern - 2 GP, 23.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 3 apg, 16-24 FG (67%)
It says a lot about the top-to-bottom talent of the conference that Newbill and Drew Crawford were named co-players of the week by the people in Chicago, but unfortunately for Chicago's Big Ten team our voters were unkind to their top scorer in leaving him off the headline billing here. Not to diminish what he and Northwestern accomplished last week - wins at Wisconsin and Minnesota only add to the Wildcats' claim as the biggest surprise in the B1G and arguably college basketball. Crawford scored 30 of his team's 65 points at the Kohl Center and continued that play with 17 in The Barn. He's the B1G's active leading scorer with 1,776 career points and he might have a shot at 2,000 if he carries his team to the postseason.
A.J. Hammons, Purdue - 2 GP, 17 ppg, 10 rpg, 13-26 FG (50%)
The only player on this week's list to go winless, A.J. Hammons can't lay any of that blame on himself. His double double at the fortress of solitude that is the Bryce Jordan Center nearly helped the Boilermakers climb back into it with Penn State before the Lions pulled away late, and his 16 and 8 at the Breslin Center is nothing to scoff at either. Purdue has lost four in a row but if their stud center continues to put up these kind of numbers then you'd bet on that streak ending sooner rather than later.
Roy Devyn Marble, Iowa - 2 GP, 19 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 12-27 FG (44%)
Iowa very nearly got the signature win they'll need to solidify a top-4 seeding in the NCAA tournament against Michigan State on Tuesday, but despite Marble's heroics (21 points on 7-15 shooting) the Hawkeyes came up just short in overtime. They did bounce back to take care of business at the State Farm Center versus a struggling Illini team, and Marble once again led the charge with a team high 17 points. The senior has been impressive all season and a mainstay in the Team of the Week - he's averaging 1.3 more points per game than his junior season despite a slight decrease in minutes played.
