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Welcome to the (almost) end of week one of the 2020-2021 Big Ten Basketball season! With a games having finally been played across the NCAA landscape we have far more advanced stats metrics to take a look at in this week’s check-in.
Big Ten Conference Standings
The preseason media poll ranks the Big Ten as thus:
1. Illinois
2. Iowa
3. Wisconsin
4. Michigan State
5. Rutgers
6. Michigan
7. Ohio State
8. Indiana
9. Purdue
10. Maryland
11. Minnesota
12. Penn State
13. Nebraska
14. Northwestern
As the actual conference season begins, these will adjust each week. Until then, I will leave it as the preseason projections.
KenPom Rankings
Two weeks into the season now and KenPom remains extremely high on the Big Ten. With half of the conference still inside the top-25, 10 inside the top-32, and 13 inside the top-65. Offensively, eight rank inside the top-25, down one from nine last week. Defensively seven remain inside the top-40 like last week’s results.
The Big XII is still the most top heavy at this point with five teams in the top-10, but after that they have just one other team in the top-40 compared to the Big Ten’s 10. Nebraska brings up the rear for the Big Ten at 108, whereas Kansas State does for the Big XII all the way back at 151. Otherwise all the other teams for both conferences except Iowa State sit inside the top-70.
BPI Rankings
BPI also remains relatively high on the Big Ten to this point. Six Big Ten teams now rank in the top-25, and 11 of the teams are inside the top-50. Minnesota dropped to 57, Northwestern jumped from 84th to 73rd, and Nebraska stays in the bottom for the Big Ten after dropping four spots to 97th this week.
RPI Rankings
RPI on the conference tab shows the Big Ten is performing extremely well thus far with an 88 percent winning average across the conference compared to the Big 12’s 78 percent. However, on the individual team rankings, the Big Ten scores incredibly poorly with just three teams in the top-25 and five teams below 100th.
That’s a wrap for this week’s advanced stats check-in. Be sure to follow along with all of BTPowerhouse’s basketball coverage this week and check back again on next week’s update.