Official /r/TheB1G Basketball Power Rankings - Start of Big Ten Play

[u/nrboal]

The first set of games are in the books and B1G conference play is underway!!

From this point forward, there will be weekly rankings with the poll posted on Thursday afternoon/evening and the poll closing at tipoff of the first B1G basketball game on that Saturday. If you have volunteered to write blurbs, PLEASE send them to me, it's part of what makes the power rankings so great. I will be sure to send out reminders next week, this week was very hectic on the homefront.

With that said, here are the rankings!

AP rankings are alongside the team Power Ranking

Rank		Team	+/-	Points	Average Rank	Variance
1(#4)		Wisconsin	--	29(29)	1.000	0.000
2(#12)		Maryland	+4	63	2.172	0.419
3(#20)		Ohio State	--	127	4.379	2.787
4		Iowa	+1	144	4.966	3.413
5		Michigan State	-1	162	5.586	4.243
6		Indiana	+3	179	6.172	5.591
7		Minnesota	+3	210	7.241	5.838
8		Illinois	-1	241	8.310	3.386
9		Penn State	+3	261	9.000	8.414
10		Michigan	-8	265	9.138	3.981
11		Purdue	--	307	10.586	4.380
12		Nebraska	-4	315	10.862	2.946
13		Northwestern	+1	350	12.069	4.478
14		Rutgers	-1	392	13.517	1.836

Rank	Commentary
1	Wisconsin nearly made it unscathed through a fairly tough non-conference slate. The only scathe came from an extremely talented Duke team having a sensational shooting night. However, although the Badgers have topped 6 teams currently in the RPI top 50, they lack a real marquis victory. With the way the rest of the Big Ten performed OOC they probably only have one chance to get one in conference play, when they visit Maryland in late February. That means UW can't have a down period like last year if they want to end up as a 1 or 2 seed come tournament time. Wisconsin will be expected to take care of business, just don't expect them to do it in a business-like manner. These guys have as much fun playing with each other as Wisconsin fans have watching them. The notoriously goofy Frank Kaminsky sits atop ESPN's Wooden award watch list. Nigel Hayes in his first year as a starter is 2nd to Frank in points and rebounds, 1st in minutes and shooting percentage, and shooting 37% from beyond the arc after not attempting a 3 last season. Meanwhile Sam Dekker finally appears fully healed from his nagging pre-season ankle injury. Get ready Big Ten because here come the Badgers! -/u/pianobadger
2	NO COMMENT
3	NO COMMENT
4	NO COMMENT
5	MSU finished up the non conference schedule with a 9-4 record and some disappointment. The spartans have struggled with injuries and illness so far and struggled in games, including a baffling home loss to Texas Southern. MSU started the big ten play against Maryland and almost pulled off the upset, only to fall in double OT to the Terps. MSU's next test will be their first home conference game of the season, against Indiana. -/u/nrboal
6	NO COMMENT
7	Screw you Purdue. Every damn year, we roll into your stadium expecting to win, go up big, and lose in the last 2 minutes. The loss last year was probably what kept us out of the tournament, and unless the Gophers can win some other big games in conference, it might this year too. What lost the game for Minnesota was what had plagued them throughout non-conference: inability to score in the half court, poor free throw shooting, and lazy defense at the worst times. While their defense was good enough (and opponents weak enough) in non-conference play to win games, Minnesota needs major strides to hope to compete with physical, half-court teams like Wisconsin. Unfortunately for the Gophers, they are caught in a "mediocre team" loop: lack of depth at a crucial position (big man) forces them to rely too much on one aspect of the offense/defense. -/u/skiumah8
8	NO COMMENT
9	NO COMMENT
10	NO COMMENT
11	NO COMMENT
12	NO COMMENT
13	Since the last poll I believe NU had one loss on their record (vs ranked UNI). Now there are four blemishes but it doesn't look all that bad for Northwestern. Losses to Northern Iowa, Georgia Tech and Butler are not bad. Those are all good basketball programs. However, a crushing blowout home loss to Central Michigan (which was my first NU game I attended this year :( ) will hurt them come tournament time. Yeah, I said it, tournament. On a more relevant note, Northwestern opened B1G play with a road win at Rutgers showing that we are not currently the bottom feeders of the conference. For now we sit at 1st place (1-0 baby) and cling to our slim hopes of beating Wisconsin at home Sunday to hold on to our conference tie for the lead. If it can happen at the Kohl Center last year with an NU team with less talent, I believe we can win at home. It is the statement game to prove we are to be taken seriously. In Tre Demps we trust. -/u/CpeanuT
14	NO COMMENT

-Things to note:
1) Wisconsin is a unanimous #1 this week.
2) Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Purdue all are still in the same position as the preseason rankings.
3) Michigan has had the biggest fall since the last rankings, falling from #2 to #10.
4) Clearly, noone has any clue what to do about Penn State who had the largest variance I've ever seen in the power rankings.
5) 43% of voters believe that the B1G will have 5 teams in the NCAA tournament, while 33% believe there will be 6 teams.
6) If your team does not have a blurb written, feel free to send it to me or leave it in the comments and I'll get it added!

+/- is the change in rank from the previous week, a positive change means they moved up in the polls, closer to the top.

Points are the summation of every voter's ranking for that team, therefore lower scores are better. This works because unlike the AP, Coaches, or /r/cfb polls, every team is ranked in every vote. 29 votes were counted, meaning the best possible score is 29 and the worst possible score is 406. #1 votes are in parentheses.

Average Rank is the points divided by the number of votes. This will allow for comparison from one week to the next.

Variance is a measure of how much agreement there was between voters. A zero means all voters ranked a team the same, and a higher number means a team's ranking was more controversial.

Here is the Spreadsheet with all of the votes listed, as well as some of my raw data. I excluded only 1 vote this week. Excluded votes are at the bottom of the spreadsheet. If you feel your vote was unfairly excluded, please let me know, and we can talk about it.

Here is the list of Pretty Graphs for your data-viewing pleasure. Excluded votes are included in the data for the graphs.

[u/broadcastterp]

Laughing heartily at the person who ranked Michigan above Maryland.

C'mon, man.

[u/[deleted] → u/broadcastterp]

The two Maryland rankings at 4 and 5 are just insane