Quick Recap
The early season Big Ten play has come and gone now, with 5 teams starting the conference schedule at 2-0.
Nebraska continues to be the most surprising story of the early Big Ten season, although Michigan's dominance is right up there as well.
The Big Ten is more spread out than previous seasons, but the top end is very talented. Most teams now are playing buy games the rest of the way with there being only 9 games left the rest of 2025 that involves a Big Ten team playing a power conference opponent.
5 Trends and Observations
1.) Nebrasketball is legit
Nebraska is off to an 11-0 start which included two big time, Big Ten wins this week. They dominated Wisconsin by 30 at home before going on the road and picking up a road win over Illinois.
The offense is clicking, and that was the expectation heading into this season as Fred Hoiberg got a roster that suits his motion offense that relies on cutting and off-ball screens. Pryce Sandfort exploded for 32 points against Illinois on 6/11 shooting from 3 and 6/7 from 2. He's now shooting 39.3% from 3 and 70.2% from 2 on the year, having one of the highest eFG% in the Big Ten.
The defense has been even better than anticipated, fueled by a roster of players who have bought into the system. Both Sam Hoiberg and Jamarques Lawrence are good individual defenders, but this system of heavy help in the paint is built more on team rotations rather than individual play. They've done that and then some this season, being a team that force offenses to take a lot of contested threes. There's a natural ceiling that comes from running a defensive system like this, but Nebraska has done a good job of reaching close to it.
Nebraska if off to their best start in school history, and this is a team that has set itself up to be a tournament caliber team. They currently have wins over Illinois, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Creighton, Kansas State, and New Mexico. Assuming they're able to beat North Dakota and New Hampshire to close out 2025, Nebraska will be sitting at 13-0 before hosting Michigan State at home on January 2nd in what should be a very fun game.
2.) Bruce Thornton is doing all he can for Ohio State
Ohio State currently sits at 8-2 on the season after a Bruce Thornton game winning shots in 2OT against West Virginia. Ohio State is currently 3-2 against power conference teams, although only 1 of those games has come against a top 50 level opponent.
It's been well documented how Bruce Thornton hasn't made March Madness in his career, and this is his last chance to do so*. It hasn't been an ideal to start to achieving that goal, but also it'd be much much worse without Bruce Thornton.
Thornton is currently averaging 21.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.3 turnovers, and 1.2 steals per game in 36 minutes a game. He's shooting 66.7% from 2 and 49.1% from 3, both on 5+ attempts a game. Bruce Thornton has just sat a total of six (6) minutes over the last 4 games, both an indication of the lack of depth Ohio State has and just how important Thornton is. Maybe it catches up to Thornton in the long run as Ohio State is a more uptempo team, but Diebler knows that his job security could potentially be reliant on how far Bruce Thornton can take them.
Thornton is currently shooting a career high from 2s, 3s, and the free throw line while maintaining a similar assist and turnover rate as last season.
One thing that's been noticeable is Ohio State trying to get Bruce Thornton off the ball even more. Thornton still handles the ball a bunch and will run pick and rolls, but he's currently taking more catch and shoot looks compared to last season. He's still a lead facilitator, but the Buckeyes have put an emphasis on him being more of a scorer this season.
*In theory it's his last chance but who knows with how eligibility is going.
3.) Oscar Cluff's emergence and Purdue's willingness to feed the post
It feels weird to say that Oscar Cluff has emerged recently for Purdue, given that he's scored at least 7 points in every single game this season while also having multiple double-doubles. However, it did feel like he wasn't fully emerged right away, but that has definitely changed.
Last week he put up 14 points and 11 rebounds on 6/8 shooting against Minnesota. He followed it up with 22 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals, and 1 assist on a perfect 9/9 shooting against Marquette.
Neither Marquette nor Minnesota are stiff competition, but this week showed more than ever that Purdue is comfortable throwing the ball into the post with Cluff, especially when he has the size advantage. He got 10 post ups between the two games this week, and he had only 14 post ups in all other games combined heading into the week. Cluff has very good foot work down low, and that combined with his strength allows him to bury smaller opponents.
Cluff is currently averaging 12.4 points and 9.3 rebounds a game while shooting 75.3% from 2. Per Kenpom, Cluff has the 2nd highest offensive rating in the country right now.
Cluff has been what Purdue needed this off season, someone who can convert at the rim, dominate the glass, and provide some rim protection. He isn't going to go for 20 in a lot of games, but his ability to punish smaller defenders in the post makes it that much more difficult for teams to game plan against the front court duo of TKR and Cluff.
4.) Washington added a new player
Washington added Nikola Dzepina to the roster, and he made his first appearance in a blowout win against Southern Utah by scoring 5 points in just 5 minutes.
If I'm being honest, I'm still not 100% sure exactly how Washington added him to the roster, given that they were already at 15 players and none of them were grandfathered in. It's something to do with Mady Traore suffering a season ending injury to start the season, and although I've tried with research, I haven't seen that explicitly be a rule. Regardless, Dzepina is on the team and he can be someone that could contribute.
Dzepina is listed as a 6'10 freshman on the Washington roster site. He's a forward from Serbia who is a bit raw right now, but all accounts show that he has upside to be a contributor for this team. He averaged 16.4 points per game during the 2025 U19 World Cup. He can help stretch the floor from the forward position, and he can be someone who has enough comfort handling the ball as a forward.
5.) Big Ten Conference Play
With all 18 Big Ten teams having played two conference games now, let's take a look at where everyone stands.
Michigan, Purdue, Michigan State, Nebraska, and UCLA all sit at 2-0 in conference play. It's worth noting that Nebraska is the only team to play a top 10 strength of difficulty in the conference in those two games, and they come in at having the 5th toughest Big Ten schedule so far. Nebraska is the big surprise this season. UCLA won the Battle of the West Coast as the two LA teams played the two PNW teams.
Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, USC, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Washington, and Minnesota all sit at 1-1. Minnesota has played the toughest schedule of the group, and getting that home win against Indiana was big for morale. This is a tier that largely consists of teams who all can be competitive in any game, but they all have real questions. Illinois would be the only team I'm confident is a top 5 team in the Big Ten, although even they have a few questions.
That leaves Northwestern, Oregon, Maryland, Penn State, and Rutgers as the 0-2 teams. Northwestern is the team for now that probably looks like they're better than their record, but this is a tier that is pretty accurate with who should end up at the bottom of the Big Ten.
Of note, the home teams only won 50% of the games. Last year the home team won 57.9% of games, and that the home team won less than 60% of games since the 2021-22 season when the home teams won 59.3% of games. Before that, the home teams had won at least 60% of the games every year since the 2013-14 season. Odds are that this early stretch of games this season isn't truly indicative of how the season will go, but it'll be worth monitoring to see if more road teams win this season.
Team of the Week
Nebraska Cornhuskers
Nebraska went 2-0 this week in Big Ten play, beating Wisconsin at home and winning against Illinois on the road. The Cornhuskers look legit and that they are a tournament caliber team.
Player of the Week
Pryce Sandfort - Nebraska
Sandfort had 14 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 0 turnovers, and a block against Wisconsin. He shot 4/4 from 2 and 2/6 from three in the 30 points win.
He followed it up with a career high 32 points and also had 1 rebound, 3 assists, 1 turnover, and 1 steal in the road win against Illinois. He shot 6/7 from 2 and tied his career high with 6 3s made.
Week Schedule
Note - All times listed are in Eastern Standard Time
Tuesday, December 16th
- Michigan State vs Toledo - 6:30 - Peacock
- Northwestern vs Valparaiso - 8:00 - Peacock
Wednesday, December 17th
- USC vs UTSA - 9:00 - Big Ten Network
- UCLA vs Arizona State - 10:30 - FS1
- Oregon vs Portland - 11:00 - Big Ten Network
Friday, December 19th
- Wisconsin vs Villanova (in Milwaukee) - 8:00 - FOX
- UCLA vs Cal Poly - 10:00 - Big Ten Network
- Washington vs Seattle - 10:00 - ESPN2
Saturday, December 20th
- Michigan State vs Oakland (in Detroit) - 12:00 - Big Ten Network
- Indiana vs Chicago State - 1:00 - Big Ten Plus
- Ohio State vs North Carolina (in Atlanta) - 3:00 - CBS
- Northwestern vs Butler (in Indy) - 4:00 - Peacock
- Iowa vs Bucknell - 6:00 - Big Ten Network
- Maryland @ Virginia - 6:00 - ESPN
- Purdue vs Auburn (in Indy) - 6:30 - Peacock
- Rutgers vs Penn - 8:00 - Big Ten Network
Sunday, December 21st
- Penn State vs Pitt (in Hershey, PA) - 12:00 - Big Ten Network
- USC vs Brown - 4:00 - Big Ten Network
- Michigan vs La Salle - 4:00 - Peacock
- Minnesota vs Campbell - 6:00 - Big Ten Network
- Oregon vs Gonzaga (in Portland) - 6:00 - Peacock
- Nebraska vs North Dakota - 8:00 - Big Ten Network
Monday, December 22nd
- Indiana vs Siena - 6:00 - Big Ten Network
- Illinois vs Missouri (in St. Louis) - 8:00 - FS1
- Wisconsin vs Central Michigan - 8:00 - Big Ten Network
- Washington vs San Diego - 10:00 - Big Ten Network
