BIG TEN WEEK TWO RECAP
Illinois Impressed, but Others Did Too in the Big Ten Last Week
Who is good and who is bad — I still don’t know for sure
Week 2 of the Big 10 basketball season provided a lot to talk about — a couple of teams impressed, a couple disappointed, and a couple just confuse me. Let’s talk about it.
We have to start with Illinois. The Fighting Illini completed the week at 2–0 after one of the best wins (and best games so far) in the college basketball season: an 81–77 win at home against Texas Tech.
I love highly anticipated and ranked games as much as the next guy, but I love them even more when the stars of both teams shine. Illinois was led in points by Andrej Stojakovic in his first game of the season. He showed his scoring chops with 23 points and three assists. He scored from every level on the court and didn’t do a whole lot else — He didn’t need to.
Apart from the Stojakovic masterclass, we had a great game from point guard Kylan Boswell, who put up 22 points, three assists, and two rebounds. Boswell is looking as comfortable as ever in his second year at the program. He continues to show that he should be in the conversation of the top three point guards in the league. He is productive, smart, and is a great defender who puts other point guards in their place.
Texas Tech’s own JT Toppin had a killer performance in his own right with 35 rebounds, 11 rebounds, and three assists. Goodness gracious…
Toppin seems under the radar to me in the first two weeks of the season when it comes to projected All-American conversations. Granted, there have been some incredible performances and players that are sprouting all over the place so far, but… DO NOT FORGET ABOUT JT TOPPIN. He is that guy and should be on every All-American first team list as far as I am concerned.
Apart from the Texas Tech win, Illinois rolled past Colgate 84–65 as David Mirkovic had 27 points and 21 rebounds. No, that is not a typo; just insane numbers from a freshman as he continues to be a leader on both sides of the ball for the Illini.
Illinois has five or six guys that can have a night and lead their team in scoring, and this is completely rare in this conference. Illinois continues to roll.
Purdue rolls by Tide, Akron
Purdue had a comeback week with wins against Alabama away and Akron at home.
The difference in the Alabama game came down to a simple truth: Purdue had Braden Smith, and Bama didn’t. Really, it is as simple as that.
The preseason player of the year had a nuclear scoring game where he ended with 19 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. He dominated the game down the stretch. He scored from the three-point arc, mid-range, the cup, and at the charity stripe.
Smith talked about the game afterwards and mentioned that he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder leading up to the matchup because of the national media attention being on Alabama’s star guard Labaron Phylon and his ability to take over games.
Smith stated that he “had a lot of respect for Labaron” and “loved his game,” but that felt as though he could take over the game and win — and he did exactly that in an extremely hostile environment. Truly special stuff from Smith.
The game can’t be talked about without mentioning Purdue’s ability to absolutely dominate in the glass, 48–23. This effort was a team contribution for sure, but senior Trey Kaufman-Renn led the charge, putting up 19 points, 15 rebounds, and five assists. In my eyes, the best game of his career. The sum of his offensive presence and his defensive chops led me to that conclusion.
Not only TKR, but transfer Oscar Cluff took his turn to get comfortable in the rotation, ending the game with nine points and 11 rebounds. A special game from the big man, where he also seemed to be flying around for boards all over.
Purdue followed the win against Bama with a home win against Akron. This 18-point win is a bit misleading, as the Boilermakers were up 28 with seven minutes left on the clock.
All of the stars on this team played well in this game, but I want to highlight two things:
- The rebounding seems to be here to stay. TKR ended the game with 15 boards, and Cluff ended with 14. This is key for the Boilermakers to continue winning big, as someone flipped a switch in regards to this front court’s ability/effort to grab boards.
- Freshman Omer Mayer had a coming-out party here at home with 14 points, four rebounds, and six assists. It was a good amount of minutes as Smith spent some time on the bench with foul trouble. Mayer showed some great scoring and passing flashes that should be a great sign moving forward as a second ball handler.
In a game where they scored 97 points, Purdue had 5 players with 14 or more points… Not really what Purdue is known for, but Boilermaker fans should be really happy with this result.
If the Boilermakers can keep up the rebounding that they displayed in this game, their ceiling opens up drastically from what we saw in the Oakland game last week, where Purdue got smoked on the boards at home.
Michigan wins, but questions remain
Michigan ended the week 2–0, but I leave this week feeling a lot different about the Wolverines than the other two teams I’ve covered.
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Its wins were a narrow 85–84 overtime win against Wake Forest, a team that I don’t think is really any good… But maybe they are? Hard to say.
The main takeaway from this game is that Yaxel Lendenborg needs to be active and aggressive, especially on the offensive side of the ball. He looked really passive and unengaged — unacceptable for a player who was paid $4 million to play for Michigan this year. He has to be better because he has the skill of a professional player, and that alone raises the ceiling for this team.
Regardless of the performance from YL, Aday Mara had a breakout game with 18 points and 17 rebounds, where he really couldn’t come off the floor. He is all of seven feet, three inches, and 255 pounds. His presence in the paint should probably account for a couple of missed shots in themselves from Wake.
Quick note: Purdue transfer Miles Colvin had the best game of his early career at Wake with 13 points and seven rebounds, with a three-pointer that essentially sent the game to overtime. He also had a poster dunk over Michigan point guard Elliot Cadeau that circulated online for a couple of days — worth watching.
Michigan followed this tight win with another tight victory over TCU, 67–63. Another poor shooting performance from the Wolverines let TCU hang around until free throws ended the game late.
Yaxel had a better game with 14 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists. His offensive aggression late led to athree point playas well as another clutch shot to give Michigan a win. Morez Johnson Jr. had a nice double-double with 10 points and 12 assists. The rebounding battle won by Michigan (42–20) proved to be the difference to secure the win.
One more note on this TCU game was Elliot Cadeau — clearly the worst game of the season, putting up three points, five rebounds, and one assist with six turnovers. Michigan needs him to be more consistent and have fewer turnovers. Turnovers are proving to be a bit of a consistent problem for this team (21 in this game and 17 against Wake Forest).
The narrow win over Wake Forrest and the tight win over TCU are a cause for concern with Michigan in the areas of defense, effort, and shooting (4/25 from deep in against Wake and 5/16 against TCU). These are things to look for when watching this team moving forward.
Huge win for Huskers
Nebraska received a spotlight this week as it started the season 4–0 with a huge 105–99 win over Oklahoma.
Pryce Sandfort, welcome to the big stage! The Junior dropped 28 points, five rebounds, and seven assists in a massive comeback against the Sooners. It was a takeover game on the offensive side of the ball, and Sandfort was joined by nobody else but Rienk Mast (I am higher on this guy than anyone I know).
The duo combined for 54 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. Just unreal numbers.
Yes, these two were really good and fun, but what stuck out to me was the comeback. The Cornhuskers were down 16 points early in the first half, but clawed their way back into the game (thanks to Sandfort and Mast offensively) and stuck it out for a win.
This Nebraska team has been really fun in the past (Keisei Tominaga), but this team seems to have some grit and fortitude that I’ve not seen in the past as much — something different about them.
A big win combined with stellar offensive performances deserves more than just a quick thought — happy for the Nebraska Nation on this one. They take on New Mexico State this week.
Other notable things from week 2:
- UCLA kept it tight with Arizona (who I think is a top 5 team in the country). It had decent scoring from the main five players; I do have concerns about roster depth. Regardless, I was really impressed that the Bruins were able to challenge Arizona. I predicted a larger Arizona win.
- Washington (my hot take for one of the top 3 best teams in the conference) went 1–0 this week against state rival Washington State and won easily. But the Huskies don’t look impressive by any means. I am keeping an eye on the Huskies.
- Michigan State took care of business against San Jose State. Coen Carr had a massive transition poster dunk — it's incredible how normal a thing this is. This kid is special (and needs to rebound for the love of God). The Spartans have a huge test in the Champions Classic this week that I think will reveal where this team really is nationally.
- Wisconsin is quietly beating up on every team it comes in contact with. John Blackwell is averaging 19.5 points, five rebounds, and two assists. He is elite. His supporting cast includes Nick Boyd, Austin Rapp, and Nolan Winter, who are all being productive as well. Nobody is talking about it, but they have looked really good. The Badgers have BYU this week for their first underdog spot of the season.
- Ohio State beat up on Appalachian State and beat Notre Dame, 64–63. The Buckeyes shouldn’t have a challenge until Illinois on Dec. 9.
- Northwestern hasn’t really beaten anyone notable, but the Wildcats looked cohesive and have one of the most productive Big men in the country in Nick Martinelli (18.2 points per game and 5.8 rebounds per game).
- Iowa is in a similar boat to Northwestern. The Hawkeyes have looked good, but haven’t beaten a single team that tests them. I have an issue with rating them too high or thinking too much into it when Iowa hasn’t had a challenge yet.
Did I miss anything notable from week 2?
What are your expectations for week 3?
Let me know what you think about the top teams — who is a contender, and who is a pretender?
Thanks for reading my story.
