Quick Recap

After a week full of games, the Big Ten didn't drop any bad games, despite trying their hardest. However, they went 2-2 against high major competition, with Michigan State beating Arkansas and Indiana knocking off Marquette.

Multiple teams, including Purdue, Penn State, Oregon, and UCLA all had games be much closer than they wanted or expected. Penn State and Oregon both had to have late runs to be able to pull off wins in their buy games.

The Big Ten is once again going to be deep as 15 of the 18 teams are ranked in the top 55 of Kenpom, and all 18 are ranked in the top 90 (for now). Torvik has similar metrics for the Big Ten, with the bottom teams being a bit worse.

This conference is going to be a grind night in and night out, but for now, they have a big week ahead that features a lot of quality non-conference games.

1.) Indiana's offense is HERE and it's fun.

Through two games, Indiana has gone 10/24 and 14/28 from three respectively. To put that into perspective, there were only two games all last SEASON where the Hoosiers made 10+ threes, and they only had 3 games with a higher three point attempt rate than the Hoosiers have had so far.

The Indiana offense is modern, and it's fun.

With their off ball movement and cutting, Indiana is creating great looks simply by moving. They love to run Tucker DeVries off flare screens to the wing, or they'll have Lamar Wilkerson run off staggered pindowns and floppy action to quickly get up looks. The Hoosiers have arguably the best shooting duo in the country between DeVries and Wilkerson, who combined for 20 made threes between the two games.

Granted, it's only been two games, but Indiana is currently taking 84.7% of their shots at either the rim or from three, ranking in the 90th percentile. Last season the Hoosiers took only 65.1% of their shots from three or at the rim, ranking in the 19th percentile, and they hovered around that mark for most of the Mike Woodson era.

It isn't just the large increase in three point volume, Indiana is also eliminating a lot of their mid range looks. They've taken just 10 2s that were outside of the paint, most coming in late shot clock situations.

Regardless of how the season results go for the Hoosiers, although signs point towards a positive outcome, college basketball fans should have a lot of fun watching Indiana this season, something that couldn't be consistently said for a while.

2.) Purdue's defense has a long ways to go, but this team can be elite regardless.

We know how elite the Purdue offense is. Even without TKR during the first week, Purdue put up 1.33 points per possession and 1.24 points per possession despite not looking like they even had their best stuff offensively.

The defense has been the question mark, and the first two games can't exactly give Boilermaker fans the warm fuzzies when thinking about that side of the ball.

Allowing a 31.6 and 41.7 ORB% to Evansville and Oakland is far from the quality of defensive rebounding that Purdue needs. Yes, TKR was out, and he should in theory help that out some, but Purdue's inability to secure the ball is concerning.

Oscar Cluff has gotten better each game/exhibition, but he's still at times struggling to be as physical as he needs to be. Between him at times not being able to grab the ball, and Purdue guards and wings not consistently being able to box guys out, they've allowed their opponents to grab offensive rebounds at a high rate. When the defense is already going to be limited, that makes it even more difficult to keep the opponent from the putting the ball in the hoop.

The defense isn't unfixable, although there's a lot of work to do. It starts with the point of attack defense on the perimeter, something Purdue has had virtually none of through two games. Guards are consistently falling behind both on and off ball screens, and they have to scramble to try and recover. This means that offenses are playing with a numbers advantage, and Purdue doesn't have the athleticism to be able to recover.

This is a team with Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, and TKR, all guys who know how to win at this level. This first week could very easily be just a blip in the radar and Purdue figures it out defensively. At minimum, it was probably a wake up call to the Big Three and company about where they have to improve if they want to be cutting down nets in April.

3.) Illinois has been a high 3 point attempt rate team in the past. They now might have the shooters to match?

Including this season, Brad Underwood's offenses have had 40%+ three point attempt rates in 4 of the last 5 seasons, all ranking in the top 65. Through two games, Illinois is taking nearly 50% of their shots from three, which would be the highest under a Brad Underwood coached team.

The question now becomes is this three point shooting sustainable, or did they just have a really good two game variance?

Through two games, Illinois is 28/68 from three (41.2%). For reference, during this three point attempt boom at Illinois, the best a team has shot from three is 35.9%.

Illinois might finally have the shooters to fully match the volume at which they take them. 8 different players on the Illini are averaging at least one made three per game, indicating the depth of the shooting on this team. It's not just that everyone has a green light to shoot, it's that the green light is resulting in higher quality looks. 53.6% of Illinois' catch and shoot 3s have been open through two games. Last season that number was 43.2%.

The optimistic view is that even though this has been two games against worse competition, the formula and shooting talent Illinois has will allow them to be one of the better shooting teams in the country, even if the percentage regresses a little.

The pessimistic view isn't as fun. Illinois right now is shooting 58.3% on pull up 3s and 42.3% on contested catch and shoot threes. They're actually struggling the most on open catch and shoot threes at only 33.3%. That feels less probable to be able to hold, but also in theory they should start shooting better on open threes. Another point would be that Illinois shot 38.8% from three through their two opening games last season, but they finished the season at 31.3% from three, ranking 305th in the country.

At the end of the day, Illinois has shot the ball well through two games against mid majors, and that's all they can do for now. We'll get to see whether the shooting holds up, or if it was just an early season mirage.

4.) Big Ten please get and stay healthy.

This one isn't about analytics or X's and O's. Injuries have always been, and they always will be a part of sports. It's just the nature of the entity. This feels like it's been a LOT of injuries through the off season and early season in the Big Ten, and I wish someone could just turn injuries off like you can in 2K.

To just name a few, Washington already has Mady Traore out for the year, Jacob Ognacevic out until at least January, Desmond Claude hasn't played yet, and they had a few players work back from injuries right at the end of the off season.

Jackson Shelstad and Trey Kaufman-Renn, two of the best players in the conference, have both missed at least one game. Oregon has already had a couple injury scares with KJ Evans and Devon Pryor both leaving games in the opening week.

Maryland is another team that's been hit with the injury bug as Solomon Washington, one of the best defenders in the country, has yet to be able to suit up. They've also had multiple players not really be able to practice late in the off season as they've just returned from injuries recently.

I won't go through and list every injury, but you can go through the Big Ten teams and find that over half of the Big Ten teams are already dealing with injuries to some extent currently.

5.) Pharrel Payne is the most improved free throw shooter in the country?

Moving off of a downer of an observation in the last one, this one is much more positive, and quietly one of the more shocking things that has happened through one week of college basketball.

Pharrel Payne is a great free throw shooter now?

The Maryland transfer center, via Minnesota then Texas A&M, has been a force in both the Big Ten and SEC throughout his career. One area that hasn't been the case is the free throw line. Here are his free throw numbers in his first three seasons of college:

  • Freshman season - 53/109 (48.6%)
  • Sophomore season - 60/127 (47.2%)
  • Junior season - 96/165 (58.2%)

Coming into the season, Payne was a career 52.1% shooter from the charity stripe on very high volume.

Through two games at Maryland, Payne is shooting 91.7% from the free throw line.

This isn't just a "he's shooting like 8/9 from the free throw line" scenario. Payne is currently 22/24 from the line through two games, and although that isn't the largest sample size, he's taken about 20% of the amount of free throws he did during his freshman season already.

Payne currently has a free throw rate of 160 as he's taken 9 more free throws than field goal attempts. For someone who has gotten to the line as much as he has, Payne has struggled taking advantage of free points until this season.

Looking through film on his free throws, the only thing that seems to have changed is he's moving through his routine much quicker. Maybe it's causing him to think less and just shoot. No matter how it's happening, it would've been one of the last things expected of Payne heading into this season.

Team of the Week

Michigan State Spartans

In a week where only four Big Ten teams played a power conference opponent, Michigan State got the biggest win of the week as they knocked off Arkansas. The Spartans still have to figure out how they're going to consistently score in the half court, but they showed once again that a team led by Tom Izzo shouldn't be fully counted out.

Player of the Week

Tucker DeVries - Indiana

Tucker DeVries averaged 22.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.0 steals and shot 58.8% from 3 on 8.5 attempts per game last week, while leading Indiana to a 2-0 record which included a win over Marquette. DeVries was simply fantastic last week, and he showed why he can be one of the best players in the conference.

Games To Watch This Week

We start getting some bigger time matchups this week, and there'll be a Big Ten team against a high major opponent nearly every day.

Note - times listed in Eastern time

  • Michigan vs Wake Forest - Tuesday, Nov 11 - 6:30 - FS1
  • Illinois vs Texas Tech - Tuesday, Nov 11 - 8:30 - FS1
  • Minnesota @ Missouri - Wednesday, Nov 12 - 8:00 - SECN+
  • Purdue @ Alabama - Thursday, Nov 13 - 7:00 - ESPN2
  • Northwestern @ DePaul - Friday, Nov 14 - 7:30 - TruTV
  • Iowa vs Xavier - Friday, Nov 14 - 8:00 - FS1
  • Michigan @ TCU - 9:00 - ESPN2
  • UCLA vs Arizona - Friday, Nov 14 - 10:00 - Peacock
  • Washington @ Washington State - Friday, Nov 14 - 11:00 - ESPN+
  • Maryland @ Marquette - Saturday, Nov 15 - 2:00 - Peacock
  • Nebraska vs Oklahoma - Saturday, Nov 15 - 7:00 - Big Ten Network
  • Ohio State vs Notre Dame - Sunday, Nov 16 - 12:30 - FS1
  • Purdue vs Akron - Sunday, Nov 16 - 7:30 - Big Ten Network