Quick Recap
Wisconsin had the biggest week of the Big Ten, knocking off both Illinois and Michigan State. They now will find themselves safely on the right side of the bubble, and poised to be one of the more dangerous mid seeds come tourney time.
If Wisconsin had the best week in the Big Ten, Purdue had a close 2nd, getting road wins over both Nebraska and Iowa. They dominated the first half in both, but Nebraska clawed their way back to force OT before ultimately losing.
Iowa had no real chance in the 2nd half, coming off one of the worst losses in the Big Ten, losing at Maryland. Iowa now sits at 18-7 overall and 8-6 in Big Ten play, with a tougher schedule coming up.
Michigan got a real scare against Northwestern, before outscoring the Wildcats 52-31 in the 2nd half. They then carried that momentum to the UCLA game where they won by 31.
Nebraska bounced back from their loss against Purdue to handle Northwestern, using a big 2nd half.
Illinois ended their 2 game losing streak by pouncing on Indiana at home in route to a 20 point win.
Ohio State beat USC at home, a big matchup for bubble implications. They were in position to beat Virginia in a neutral site matchup, but Ohio State scored just 7 points over the final 10 minutes to lose.
Penn State found a way to get a road win at Washington before losing the 2nd leg of their west coast trip against Oregon. Washington bounced back with a 12 point win over Minnesota.
Rutgers ended their 7 game losing streak by knocking off Maryland at home.
Score recap (Away Team - Home Team)
Purdue 80 - Nebraska 77 (OT)
Wisconsin 92 - Illinois 90 (OT)
Iowa 70 - Maryland 77
USC 82 - Ohio State 89
Michigan 87 - Northwestern 75
Penn State 63 - Washington 60
Michigan State 71 - Wisconsin 92
UCLA 56 - Michigan 86
Northwestern 49 - Nebraska 68
Penn State 72 - Oregon 83
Purdue 78 - Iowa 57
Virginia 70 - Ohio State 66 (in Nashville)
Minnesota 57 - Washington 69
Maryland 57 - Rutgers 68
Indiana 51 - Illinois 71
In case you missed it, I wrote about how Trent Perry has been a breakout player this for UCLA, breaking down the stats and film on how he's been doing it.
Joe Jackson
5 Trends and Observations
1.) Wisconsin's Resurgence
One week ago, Wisconsin was coming off an overtime loss against Indiana, one they let slip through their hands. They sat at 16-7 overall and 8-4 in Big Ten play, both quality marks, but lacking real quality wins, outside a VERY big win at Michigan. Before this week, their 2nd best win was an 8 point home win against UCLA or a 10 point win against Ohio State??
Well, we don't have to argue over the semantics of whether a win against UCLA or Ohio State is their 2nd best win anymore, as they had arguably the best week of anyone in the Big Ten all season long. They were able to claw back and get a 92-90 win in overtime AT Illinois, and then they followed it up with a 21 point drubbing at home against Michigan State. And just like that, Wisconsin's resume no longer lacks high quality wins.
Since January 1, 2026, Wisconsin has had the 2nd best offense in the country per Torvik, and have been the 14th best team overall. After waiting a couple months, this team is finally starting to take shape into what many expected - a high powered offense that needs to just do enough defensively. If we filter for the beginning of the season through December 31, 2025, Torvik had the Badgers ranked as the 69th best offense. At the end of the day, full season sampling is much better for determining the true level of a team, but this does pose an interesting point. The question becomes then, what have the Badgers done differently in conference play vs non-conference?
This is where it gets really interesting to me from a numbers stand point.
Above shows some overall stats for the Wisconsin offense from the beginning of the season to December 31, and then from January 1 until now. If you wanted to sum it up in one simple, context exclusive statement, it'd be this.
Wisconsin is just making more shots.
Their free throw and three point percentage have jumped about three and a half percent each, and when you couple that with a decrease in turnovers, good things happen.
Now that's a big over simplification of what has been happening, but I do think it helps show that Wisconsin was generating a lot of similar looks early in the season, they just weren't falling as much.
With the guard duo of Nick Boyd and John Blackwell, Wisconsin is capable of 40-50 points from their backcourt in any given game. The two combined for 53 of Wisconsin's 92 points against Michigan State, and they had 49 of Wisconsin's 92 points against Illinois. That means that Boyd and Blackwell combined for 102 of Wisconsin's 184 points this week, equating to 55.4%. When you have those two going, all you really need from the other players is to convert layups and threes, something they've been doing well.
This is a bit of a double-edged sword come March. On one hand, no 2 seed is going to want a 2nd round matchup against a 6 or 7 seed Wisconsin team because of the duo's ability to go off. On the other hand, if one of those two have an off night, the Wisconsin margin of error decreases to nearly zero.
2.) Surprise! Michigan looks dominant again (but their remaining schedule is TOUGH)
The last 54 minutes of Michigan basketball this week was nothing but dominant. After being down by 9 points against Northwestern at half, and 16 points with roughly 14 minutes left, Michigan scored on nearly every single possession the rest of the way, going on a 16-2 run and 23-4 run over the final stretch of the game. Then, Michigan followed it up with a 30 point rout of UCLA, a game in which the Bruins scored eighteen (18!) points in the 2nd half. That is less than 1 point per minutes. For reference, Michigan scored 21 points in just the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half.
So yes, Michigan once again flexed their muscle, reminding everyone how dominant they can be, albeit no one really needed the reminder.
However...
Michigan's upcoming schedule is
- @ Purdue
- Duke (in Washington DC)
- Minnesota
- @ Illinois
- @ Iowa
- Michigan State
That's a LOT of fun basketball against a lot of tough competition. They'll play 4 of the top 15 teams in the country, with two of them being on the road. Mixed in will be a road game against an Iowa team desperate for a resume boosting win, and a Minnesota squad who has shown to play spoiler.
This isn't a "we'll find out who Michigan is" post. We know who they are and how elite they are. This IS a "well, this is just going to be a lot of fun" post. When you factor in that Michigan is in the driver seat for the Big Ten title, these landmines of games become even more interesting.
3.) Maryland is having fun
I wanted to give some love to a team I haven't talked about much in these weekly check ins.
Yes, Maryland isn't having anywhere close to the season that they wanted. Some of that is injury related, although a lot is probably roster construction related.
Regardless, this Maryland team is having a ton of fun, and I don't think I've seen a more energetic bench for a team who just cracked double digit wins halfway through February.
Playing undermanned and undersized, Maryland still seems very willing to fight, and you can tell everyone on the bench cares.
Does this give Buzz Williams a pass for this season? Probably not. I do think it should reflect in some capacity his ability to get a team to care in the era where a lot of teams in this spot already have a lot of their guys halfway into the transfer portal for next season.
4.) Big Ten Standings/Bracketology Check In
Here is where we currently stand for Big Ten Tournament seedings, and their corresponding Big Ten conference records.
Note - I believe I have the tiebreakers correct, but could be wrong.
Triple Byes
- #1 Michigan (14-1)
- #2 Illinois (12-3)
- #3 Purdue (11-3)
- #4 Nebraska (11-3)
Double Byes
- #5 Wisconsin (10-4)
- #6 Michigan State (10-4)
- #7 UCLA (9-5)
- #8 Iowa (8-6)
Single Byes
- #9 Ohio State (8-6)
- #10 Indiana (8-7)
- #11 USC (7-7)
- #12 Washington (5-10)
- #13 Minnesota (4-10)
- #14 Rutgers (3-11)
No Byes
- #15 Maryland (3-11)
- #16 Oregon (2-12)
- #17 Northwestern (2-13)
- #18 Penn State (2-13)
Below is where bracket matrix has current Big Ten teams, at the time of writing.
Note - The first number is based on barttorvik.com, updated through 2/15, which focuses more on predicting final bracket, not saying what it'd be if it ended today. The second number is the current seed on bracketmatrix.com. Included next to each team's name and seed will be their WAB, Wins Above Bubble.
It feels like there are 11 potential bids for the Big Ten, but only 6 teams feel comfortably in right now.
- Michigan - 1 Seed - 1 Seed - #1 WAB
- Purdue - 2 Seed - 2 Seed - #6 WAB
- Illinois - 2 Seed - 2 Seed - #8 WAB
- Nebraska - 3 Seed - 3 Seed - #7 WAB
- Michigan State - 5 seed - 3 Seed - #15 WAB
- Wisconsin - 6 Seed - 7 Seed - #27 WAB
- Iowa - 8 Seed - 8 Seed - #31 WAB
- Indiana - 10 Seed - 10 Seed - #36 WAB
- UCLA - 10 Seed - 11 Seed - #41 WAB
- USC - 10 Seed - 10 Seed - #33 WAB
- Ohio State - 2nd Team Out - 3rd Team Out - #44 WAB
5.) Big Ten Basketball is FUN
I watch a lot of Big Ten basketball. I assume I rank somewhere in the top 1% of Big Ten basketball consumed in the world. I love it.
That said, the January portion of the Big Ten schedule seemed to not have that much juice, outside a few games. Back loading the schedules plays a large part of it, the Big Ten having not much depth plays another.
However, these last couple weeks (and the upcoming couple weeks) have been incredible Big Ten basketball. We've had multiple buzzer beaters, even from teams who won't sniff a postseason tournament. Purdue and Wisconsin both got big time road wins this week, we're starting to get a ton of matchups between the top 5 or 6 teams in the Big Ten, there's no clear Big Ten Player of the Year, and there are a lot of interesting bubble teams, just to name a few things of why the Big Ten has been fun.
The Big Ten has long been known for slow, physical play, but that simply isn't the case this season. There is a very real chance that the 1st Team All-Big Ten features 4 point guards and a point forward in Yaxel Lendeborg. The perimeter play has been elite, teams are shooting more and more threes, and there's also been a lot of great tactical coaching. Even some of the games between middling or bottom tier teams have been much more entertaining over the last few weeks, and it feels like we're headed for a very fun end of season.
Team of the Week
Wisconsin Badgers
Wisconsin had one of the best weeks of anyone in the Big Ten the entire season, knocking off Illinois on the road and Michigan State at home. The Badgers now find themselves with 3 of the best wins in the Big Ten, with their road win against Michigan earlier this season being added to the mix.
Player of the Week
Nick Boyd - Wisconsin Badgers
@ Illinois
- 39 minutes - 25 points - 5 assists - 2 rebounds - 2 steals - 0 turnovers
- 7/14 2s (50.0%) - 3/5 3s (60.0%) - 2/3 FTs (66.7%)
Michigan State
- 32 minutes - 29 points - 4 assists - 3 rebounds - 1 turnover
- 5/10 2s (50.0%) - 5/7 3s (71.4%) - 4/5 FTs (80.0%)
Week Schedule
Note - All times listed are in Eastern Standard Time
Game(s) of the Week
- Michigan @ Purdue - Tuesday 2/17 - 6:30 - Peacock
- Michigan vs Duke (in Washington DC) - Saturday 2/21 - 8:00 - ESPN
Tuesday, February 17th
- Michigan @ Purdue - 6:30 - Peacock
- Wisconsin @ Ohio State - 8:30 - FS1
- UCLA @ Michigan State - 8:30 - Peacock
- Nebraska @ Iowa - 9:00 - Big Ten Network
- Minnesota @ Oregon - 10:30 - FS1
Wednesday, February 18th
- Rutgers @ Penn State - 6:00 - Big Ten Network
- Maryland @ Northwestern - 8:00 - Big Ten Network
- Illinois @ USC - 10:00 - Big Ten Network
Friday, February 20th
- Indiana @ Purdue - 8:00 - FOX
Saturday, February 21st
- Rutgers @ Minnesota - 12:00 - Big Ten Network
- Penn State @ Nebraska - 2:00 - Big Ten Network
- Washington @ Maryland - 3:00 - Peacock
- Oregon @ USC - 4:00 - FS1
- Michigan vs Duke (in Washington DC) - 6:30 - ESPN
- Illinois @ UCLA - 8:00 - FOX
Sunday, February 22nd
- Ohio State @ Michigan State - 1:00 - CBS
- Iowa @ Wisconsin - 4:00 - FS1
