Big Ten University

The Wait For Big Ten Basketball Season Is Finally Over

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The wait is finally up. After an offseason that always feels long, college basketball is back and the Big Ten is joining the rest of the country in kicking things off today. Michigan, Purdue, and Indiana all begin their seasons on this day, but the game that everyone is looking forward to is the one pitting Michigan State against Kansas. The tenth ranked team in the country against the top ranked team.

Both teams have experienced tournament disappointments in recent years and are looking to turn it around. Both teams also have big expectations that would suffer a setback with a loss in the opening game. Only one team can walk away victorious, however, and that’s what makes these early season out of conference matchups as interesting as they are. No matter what happens, highly ranked teams will walk away with losses in the opening weeks of the season.

Of course, there’s also big name players to watch, even if their teams aren’t playing in huge games. Purdue, Indiana, and Michigan also play today. Purdue’s Carsen Edwards is projected to be the conference player of the year, and with a matchup against Fairfield, it wouldn’t be surprising if Edwards got the season off to a flying start.

Indiana’s Romeo Langford is one of the most highly anticipated freshman players from the state in a number of years, and he begins his Hoosiers career against Chicago State. Even if these games aren’t the biggest, and even if the final scores most likely won’t be the most exciting, it’s safe to say that there’s plenty of reasons why the first days of the season are worth watching anyway.

After all, it’s something we’ve all been waiting months for.

Big Ten Games On Tuesday (Eastern Time)

  • #1 Kansas vs #10 Michigan State, 7:00 PM on ESPN
  • Indiana vs Chicago State, 6:30 PM on BTN
  • #24 Purdue vs Fairfield, 7:00 PM on BTN+
  • #19 Michigan vs Norfolk State, 8:30 on BTN

Penn State Loss Leaves Fans Hoping For Basketball Season

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This is a bizarre thing to write at this time of year, but Penn State is officially a basketball school for the rest of the year. There’s really not much to be said that can justify their 42-7 loss in Ann Arbor, against a Michigan team that was favored to win but not in this manor. Most fans would have accepted a loss to the Wolverines. But like this? These are the kinds of results that ruin the mood for the rest of a season.

“Trace at 100%? Yeah, I think helps us, there’s no doubt about it. But we’ve got to give them credit. They’re the number one defense in the country for a reason. That was the bigger difference tonight,” said Penn State head coach James Franklin. But blaming any part of this loss on Trace McSorley not being 100% is a bit absurd.

It’s not that McSorley played a perfect game or even a good game, but there’s many other problems to look at, such as the defense allowing 42 points. The entire team played poorly and it’s hard to believe that even a good game from McSorley would have prevented the final scoreline from being something like this.

You can make an argument that Penn State quit, not during this game but after losing to Ohio State and Michigan State in succession. None of us can be completely sure what caused it, but at least a large portion of the blame has to go on the coaching staff. After all, motivation is one of the main jobs of a coach.

That’s not to take away from Michigan, as they entered as a top five team, but Penn State should have at least kept it competitive for a bit going down the stretch. The team played like one that gave up, and because of it, Penn State is not only eliminated from the conference race but from the hunt for a good bowl game.

No Fiesta Bowl, this year. At this rate, they would be lucky to beat Wisconsin, win out, and maybe make the Citrus Bowl.

There is one good team in Happy Valley right now, however. The basketball team defeated kind-of-sort-of rivals West Virginia in an exhibition leading up to the start of the season, by a score of 84-82. Of course, the game doesn’t mean anything, but it’s an interesting result against the 13th ranked team in the nation,

Forward Lamar Stevens is the top player on the team going into the season, and he managed 20 points and 11 rebounds in what could be a preview of things to come during the regular season. The Penn State basketball program actually has more prestige than you may think, capturing its second NIT title last season by defeating Utah in the title game.

Head coach Pat Chambers also performed well enough to earn himself an extension through 2022. So while the Penn State football team is playing like a team that has quit, that’s not true of the basketball team. The basketball team is the one that won a title last season, and one that might overachieve this season instead of underachieving. Then again, the expectations on basketball are far lower, while the football team was expected to at least compete for the Playoff.

The basketball team will begin their regular season November 9th, against North Florida. They’ll play a slate of easy games against small conference opposition before meeting nationally ranked Virginia Tech on the 27th. The football team, on the other hand, takes on Wisconsin next Saturday before finishing their season with two more games against Rutgers and Maryland.

Michigan State Will Try To Avoid Falling “A Little Short” This Season

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Michigan State will start the season off with a big challenge. They have to face the number one team in the country in their opening game, and a loss wouldn’t start things off on a very good note. They’d lose their place in the top ten, and miss out on whatever chance they had to move up from their current number ten ranking. With a win, they can surprise some people and help establish the Big Ten as one of the better conferences early on.

But MSU isn’t just thinking about their season opener, they’re thinking about the way last season ended. And the way the season before that ended. Both times, the Spartans were out in the second round and went out to teams that they were supposed to beat, on paper at least.

“Our expectations haven’t changed any from previous years. Last year, it’s hard to look at a 30-win season and say we fell a little short, but we did… But coming off one of the best regular seasons in the history of this school and winning 30 games, I think there’s a lot of things we could build from there,” said head coach Tom Izzo, recently.

Junior guard Joshua Langford was there for both disappointments. As a sophomore, he had 22 points in the Spartans’ opening tournament win against Bucknell, but only 3 in the loss to Syracuse. And the seniors? They’ll have some not so fond memories of losing to Middle Tennessee State as a two seed going up against a fourteen seed. The last years haven’t been kind to Michigan State in the postseason.

“I try not to think about it anymore, because I don’t have a time machine, so I can’t go back in the past and change anything. But I still say it doesn’t take away the great season we had as a team, because we did do some things,” Langford said.

Those things included a conference championship in the regular season, but MSU fans expect more than that. This is a school that has competed for titles in recent memory, reaching the Final Four for the 2014-15 season and the Elite Eight the year before. And then, they seemed to hit a brick wall with the Middle Tennessee State loss, although running into top seeded Kansas the year after didn’t exactly help the Spartans.

Where will they finish this year? We’ll have some idea of what kind of quality this team has soon, when they face the number one team in the nation, Kansas. But then again, Michigan State could get it done against top teams last year. They just couldn’t hang on when the pressure to get a win was at its highest.

Carsen Edwards Leads Big Ten In Preseason All-American Team

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Love it or hate it, analysts love to compare college basketball players and teams before the season even begins. It’s not always the best way to determine who will actually be the last one standing come April, but preseason All-American teams are an annual tradition anyway and ESPN has released theirs for this upcoming season, which begins in a matter of days.

The ACC predictably dominated again with three players in the first team, but fans of the Big Ten can find comfort in the fact that the conference has one player in the first team in addition to one each in the second and third teams. The Big Ten’s one first team player is more than the Big Twelve and PAC-12 after all, as both of those conferences couldn’t get a single player into the first team.

Carsen Edwards is the one that made it, with ESPN effectively projecting him as the best player in the conference. Predictably, Edwards is a junior who should have an experience based edge on some of the younger star players this year, such as rival Indiana’s big name freshman Remeo Langford. He’s also one of the high scoring players whose offensive performances will likely stand out to awards voters at the end of the year.

Edwards averaged roughly 18 points per game after all, and made the second most single season three point shots in Purdue history as a sophomore. His average went up to 20.5 in the postseason and Edwards also scored double digits in 35 out of the 37 games that he played in. In other words, he was one of the most reliable options for the Boilermakers and that was as a sophomore.

Some are saying Edwards can compete to win some of the national player of the year awards, and that’s not entirely unreasonable. However, Edwards isn’t the only Big Ten player represented in the preseason All-American teams.

On ESPN’s second team, one of the forward positions is occupied by Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ. Like Edwards, Happ is an experienced player that will be expected to be a leader for his team. Happ is going into his senior year and is more of an all around player than Edwards is, scoring 17.9 points per game but also adding 8 rebounds per game on top of that. He had a pretty good amount of minutes per game last season, with 30, and was one of the three players that led Wisconsin in playing time.

There’s one Big Ten freshman that made the ESPN preseason All-American teams, but you’ll have to look all the way to the third team to find him. This is none other than Indiana’s Romeo Langford, the biggest name recruit for the Hoosiers in a long time. Lanford really needs no introduction and any time a player has so much hype for their high school games and for their college commitment, you expect them to carry the momentum into college.

The Big Ten Conference as a whole wasn’t the top one in terms of getting players onto these teams, but it was certainly represented and its three players are better than the Big Twelve and the PAC-12, as well as the Big East. But preseason predictions don’t always come true, so it will be interesting to see just how accurate this preseason team is when everything is said and done.

Northwestern Is In Control Of The West For The First Time In Forever

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The best football team in Chicago isn’t the Bears. No, it’s the Northwestern Wildcats, who have sometimes been an alright team and have sometimes been an afterthought, but haven’t often been a contender. Northwestern is an academics school, they say. Not one of the Big Ten’s football schools, where sports are just as important as classes and where big time recruits end up every summer.

Somehow, though, this academics school is in the first place in the Big Ten West, and thanks to the results from this latest Saturday of action, they have fewer losses than anyone. Only one loss, while Wisconsin and Iowa both have two. They could have held the position with Iowa right at their heels, or lost it depending on how things went, but Penn State helped the Wildcats out big time by holding on and avoiding another fourth quarter collapse.

Their win over Iowa dealt the Hawkeyes their second loss of the season and gave Northwestern some room to breathe. The Wildcats, though, had their own game to worry about. One against a nationally ranked team, Wisconsin, while Northwestern entered without a rank.

At the beginning of the season, Clayton Thorson was projected to be one of the make or break players for Northwestern. Maybe even the make or break player that would decide whether they were mediocre or whether they made noise on the national scene. Thorson was quietly one of the best quarterbacks in the conference last season but didn’t get attention because he didn’t play for one of the more successful teams. Now, however, Thorson took the spotlight.

Northwestern went down with the first score of the game but it was Thorson who used his legs to give them the lead with two touchdowns on the ground. The first came after three straight quarterback sneaks finally moved the ball into the end zone, and the second one was a longer scramble where Thorson carefully juked around a Wisconsin defender before running the rest of the way and getting across the goal line.

Pretty impressive for a quarterback that entered the season after an ACL tear brought his starting status into question. His legs weren’t the only thing that helped Northwestern win the game, however. Thorson connected with his receiver in the end zone for a deep pass in the third quarter that extended the lead from the four points it was at when the pass happened. The deep pass was nearly ruled as out-of-bounds and had a very low margin for error, but Thorson was able to place the ball well enough to keep it just inside the lines.

The Northwestern defense held Wisconsin to 17 points, linebacker Blake Gallagher having the biggest day with seven tackles and three assists. Wisconsin was, admittedly, missing quarterback Alex Hornibrook. But Wisconsin has never relied entirely on their quarterback and their best player on offense this year is running back Jonathan Taylor, who Northwestern impressively held to 46 yards on 11 carries. That’s a big deal for a player that was one of the Heisman favorites in addition to being one centerpiece of the opponent’s offense.

Northwestern is in a position to play for the Big Ten title if they win out, but their next challenge isn’t against a conference opponent. They face Notre Dame next, the number three team in the country. Winning or losing here doesn’t put them out of the hunt for the Big Ten, but it is a major test against a highly ranked team that will help to prepare them for the stretch. Other than Notre Dame next Saturday, they still have to face Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois.

Win out, and they shock everyone and get a shot at the East winner. Lose a conference game, and things get dicey. If that happens, the division is back to a four team race.

The Big Ten West might not be the best division in college football, but it sure is one of the most interesting this year. And somehow, despite being unheralded coming into the season, Northwestern is the team that’s jumped out in front of everyone with four games left to play.

Big Ten: Big Stakes In Saturday’s Penn State Versus Iowa Game

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The two current favorites to win the Big Ten, Michigan and Ohio State, are both on bye weeks right now. It seems like this slate of games isn’t the best one. Nebraska will face FCS Bethune-Cookman, and while the Huskers are struggling, an upset isn’t something you should bet on. Purdue faces Michigan State after defeating the Buckeyes, but both teams are unranked and aren’t considered to be in the hunt for the conference title.

But there are important games. You just have to look past the teams that are near the top of the polls.

Wisconsin faces Northwestern for the lead in the Big Ten West, but the Badgers will enter as the favorites and only one of the teams in this game is ranked. However, there is one matchup between ranked teams, and that’s Penn State versus Iowa. Of all the games nationally this weekend, it’s the one that shouldn’t be overlooked, because it will definitely change the trajectory for both teams and maybe even a few others, regardless of who wins.

Iowa is in a four way race with Wisconsin, Purdue, and Northwestern, all three teams possessing one loss this season. Northwestern is in the lead by virtue of playing one more game than Wisconsin, but if they lose and Iowa defeats Penn State, it would put Iowa on even footing with Wisconsin and Northwestern behind both teams after gaining their second loss in the conference. If Northwestern and Iowa both win, the Wildcats stay in first place and Iowa would be right behind them.

Purdue is also in the equation but they would need a win against Michigan State to stay in the hunt for now, and despite their win over the second ranked team in the country, Michigan State shouldn’t be written off. They’re less of a mistake prone team than Ohio State is this season and they played Michigan close for much of the game last week.

Of course, Iowa jumping ahead of Purdue and Wisconsin assumes that they beat Penn State, which wouldn’t be entirely unreasonable but also isn’t a given. The Nittany Lions managed to string together two straight losses fairly recently, around the same time they pulled it off last season. They also didn’t do as much as they could have against Indiana, and Iowa was one of the teams that gave them trouble last year. Could the Hawkeyes actually get the win here? It’s pretty reasonable to predict that they will, given Penn State’s past three outings.

Penn State is already out of the chase for the conference title, but which bowl game they go to this year will depend on what they do with the rest of the season and they need to win out to salvage things and get into a good bowl. There will likely be more challenges directed at James Franklin’s job if they lose here, meaning there’s a lot on the line for both teams. Penn State wants to get to a good bowl, and Iowa can move up in a race that, right now, involves four teams.

Only one team will get what they want from this game… But either way, the result will influence an entire division.

Michigan, Not Ohio State, Is In Driver’s Seat For Big Ten

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Michigan and Ohio State are rivals on two completely different paths. It’s strange to hear, because of Michigan’s lack of success as a national contender in recent years, but the Wolverines are the ones that are in the driver’s seat for the Big Ten and the College Football Playoffs. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes let their earlier mistakes catch up to them, and were dealt their first conference loss. Michigan, on the other hand, has none.

At the beginning of the season, Michigan lost to Notre Dame and many wrote them off. It seemed understandable. Not a lot of people predicted Notre Dame to be this good at this point in the season, and Michigan is in one of the toughest division’s in the country. But since then, they haven’t lost a game, and their wins include every conference game that they’ve played so far.

Ohio State started off much stronger, but their out of conference schedule wasn’t anything special and they would have more adversity when they faced Penn State. The higher ranked Buckeyes team won but they played a sloppy game where their offense just didn’t execute consistently and their defense allowed big plays. They only did just enough to win, and absolutely nothing extra.

Some thought their problems in that game would be fixed, but yesterday, the Buckeyes lost to Purdue and allowed 49 points to give the Boilermakers their highest scoring game of the season. Ohio State was the second ranked team in the nation, while Purdue was unranked and only had a record of 3-3. In other words, the loss was the type that kills morale and, more importantly, looks bad to the Playoff committee.

Michigan’s fate on Saturday was the opposite. They played their local rivals from Michigan State, and didn’t falter despite a bad recent history against this team and despite an altercation before the start of the game raising the intensity level a bit. They only put up 21 points, but their defense proved their credentials by shutting down quarterback Brian Lewerke.

Michigan State had their worst offensive performance since 1947, with only 94 yards. It makes Michigan’s defensive performance contrast with Ohio State’s even more.

Going into The Game, everyone thought just a few weeks ago that OSU would be the favorite. Now, it’s impossible to see things that way. Their offense just doesn’t do enough against top teams, and the running game is showing that it isn’t as advertised despite better performances against weaker teams.

Ohio State had a number of times during the Purdue game where they weren’t far from the end zone but couldn’t come away with scores. That’s not going to do when they face Michigan at the end of their season. And after their first conference loss, they’ll need the Michigan win if they want to stay in contention for the playoffs.

It turns out Ohio State couldn’t make adjustments quickly enough after their poor showing against Penn State. And now, just like that, they’ve lost their position at the top that they spent all season building up. A strong Michigan team means that they have no cushion or room for a loss here… Because of this result, the road to Indianapolis is going to run through Ann Arbor, and Ohio State can’t blame anyone but themselves.

Jim Harbaugh Quiet Going Into Michigan vs Michigan State

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Michigan versus Michigan State is the biggest game of the week. Not just because it’s a rivalry and because it will decide bragging rights for the state of Michigan, but because of the implications this game has for the conference standings. The winner of the game will still be in the running to catch Ohio State, which is second in the division at the moment but higher in the national rankings. The loser, however, will have been dealt a crucial conference loss.

For Michigan, it would be their first of the year and would severely hurt their chances. For MSU, that second conference loss would kill their hopes. It’s a big game for a reason, but going into it, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh hasn’t given much away or provided any quotes that will be bulletin board material.

While the last press conference wasn’t exactly exciting, some interesting things were said.

“Again, better each week. He finds another thing to be really good at every single week. This past week, his running ability, his ball-handling was superb with the fakes, with the carrying out the fakes, with the decision-making, ball security,” Harbaugh said about his quarterback, Shea Patterson.

The Ole Miss transfer threw for only 124 yards and no touchdowns against Wisconsin, but had three touchdowns the game prior against Maryland. During the Wisconsin game, Patterson had no turnovers, and that’s another point that Harbaugh mentioned. “He does a great job of taking care of the football. He had one that he forced in this ball game last week, but that’s the first one I can remember in a while, in several games anyway. Does a great job making decisions. Team trusts him.”

Harbaugh also said a little bit about his team’s quietness coming into this important matchup. “I think we could all use a break from the clichés that have been plowed so thoroughly on both sides.”

However, fans will have to wait until the actual game to find out more specific details. Harbaugh stated that he wouldn’t talk about injuries or schemes, meaning we won’t know which of Michigan’s injured players could show up for this game. Rashan Gary is the most notable of those players, and the star defensive lineman is listed as questionable.

But even with the high stakes, and with Gary potentially being out, Harbaugh isn’t panicking. It remains to be seen how much of that calmness is real, and how much is coach-speak. “The way it always has been, the way it is, the way it always will be. Approach it the same as it always has. Big game.”

Penn State: The Season Is Already Over For The Nittany Lions

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This isn’t what the more optimistic fans will want to hear, but the season is effectively over for Penn State. Not that there aren’t more games to play, but they just don’t mean the same thing that they meant before the Nittany Lions went down to Michigan State on Saturday. You can tell yourself that Penn State is historically just below the blue bloods in terms of accomplishments, and that finishing the year with a couple of losses and a bowl win would be satisfying.

But deep down, not many people truly believe that. There’s a reason why Penn State fans wanted revenge against Ohio State this year, after all. Not just because of the way the game ended last year, but because of the effects of that game. Penn State had been on the brink of making it into the College Football Playoff, and losing to Ohio State effectively eliminated them from the running.

Why was the result so disappointing? Because that team had enough talent to make the Playoff, and they underperformed. It’s the same story with this year’s team, which also lost to Ohio State and now Michigan State… The same two teams that Penn State suffered losses to in 2017. But this year’s Michigan State loss isn’t the same as the one last time.

The team scored less, failing to even put up 20 points, and allowed MSU quarterback Brian Lewerke to bully the defense for 259 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Those are better numbers than Trace McSorley’s 192 yards, and despite putting his all into his performance, the PSU signal caller couldn’t bail the team out again with late game heroics. Not with this playcalling on offense.

You can pretend that it’s business as usual, but the fact is, this isn’t a normal loss and this isn’t the kind of loss that should be expected and excused. The losses against Ohio State in back to back years were bad, but it’s easier to justify those. Ohio State is one of the top teams in the country every year, and many favored them going into those games. You could argue that Penn State holding leads in both games was a fluke, and that the better team won, as expected.

But Michigan State? They’re unranked right now. They already had two losses coming into this game. Not only that, but it was in front of a packed home stadium and it was on Homecoming. Not exactly the best circumstances to drop a game. Some will say that every team loses games. That’s true. But championship teams don’t lose games like these.

Penn State doesn’t need to be Alabama, and finish the season as the number one undefeated team. But they do need to stop dropping games like the Michigan State one this year or even last year, if they ever want to make the Playoff. Some Penn State fans fall into the trap of thinking that the team has to be above average, and not elite.

The truth is, the potential is there to do better. Penn State has shown over the past years that they can play with anybody, after all. If one or two drives had gone differently, they could be undefeated right now. Something needs to change, to unlock that potential.

It’s starting to look like James Franklin’s most successful years were less about him and more about the generational talent coming out of his backfield, Saquon Barkley. And about offensive coordinator Joe Moorehead, who is now in Starkville. It’s time for Franklin to move on from his assistant coaches, because if that doesn’t happen soon, it will be hard to not place the blame on him rather than the rest of his staff.

Of course, Franklin has some benefit of the doubt after playing a big part in bringing Penn State football back to relevance. But it’s becoming increasingly clearer where his ceiling is. Franklin needs to do something to change this perception, that the team will pick up two losses every year under him no matter what the expectations going into the season are. More changes on the staff isn’t what the team really needs, but the play on the field isn’t leaving many option.

Or no changes can happen, and Penn State can become another Auburn. A team that can sometimes play with the top ones in the country, but also one that frequently under-performs based on what the expectations entering the season are. Whatever the case, it looks like this season is going to be a crucial turning point to determine which of those routes the team takes.

Heisman Watch: Make Or Break Game For Jonathan Taylor

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This will be a big weekend for some of the best players in the Big Ten. Penn State’s quarterback Trace McSorley stayed alive in the Heisman running by putting in a good performance in the loss against Ohio State, and will return to action this week. OSU’s Dwayne Haskins Jr. will have a chance to continue racking up touchdowns, against a Minnesota team that has already lost both conference games.

But Jonathan Taylor, the prolific running back from Wisconsin? He might have the most to gain or lose this Saturday, when his Badgers play Michigan in a Saturday night clash. Wisconsin’s loss to BYU hit them hard and sent them out of the top ten, and since then, they’ve been recovering their old rank slowly. If they want to get back to where they were, they’ll have to win tonight.

Their opponent is a fellow top fifteen team that’s a couple of spots above them in the rankings, and this is their chance to continue their climb. Michigan is also one of only two ranked teams on the remaining part of the schedule. Lose here, and their only other ranked game will be the one against Penn State.

It’s important for the team as a whole but especially for Taylor, who needs big performances against big names to win the Heisman. He’s coming off of his second straight game of 200 or more yards, but when talking about the top players in the country, that number is devalued a bit because of the level of competition. After all, Nebraska’s defense is awful this year, and the team as a whole is 0-5 at the moment.

Michigan, though, has enough names on their defense to make a big rushing performance against them notable. Defensive end Rashan Gary is expected to be a high pick in the NFL Draft, and defensive lineman Chase Winovich already has 29 tackles at this point in the season. That includes 9.5 tackles for a loss, and three sacks. Michigan has considerably more quality than Nebraska, and this game will also be watched by many more people.

It’s the kind of game that can give someone momentum in the race for the Heisman. If Taylor falls flat, the narrative could be that he can’t play against ranked teams. None of Wisconsin’s opponents until this point have been ranked, after all. Another strong game, though? That would bring national attention back to Wisconsin and back to Taylor, and it would look great to the Heisman voters.

It’s a make or break game for both teams. But let’s not forget that, while this is a team sport, there’s some implications for the top individual trophy in the nation too. It’s time to see if Jonathan Taylor can keep doing it against not just another top fifteen team, but one of the top defenses in the conference and the country.