2016-17 basketball preview

Nigel Hayes [Getty]

PREVIOUSLY: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers

Note: Wisconsin has played two games thus far, overwhelming a cupcake at home and losing to a solid Creighton team on the road, 79-67. Surprisingly, they allowed 1.20 points per possession to the Blue Jays and went 11-39 from three themselves. Turnovers, typically uncharacteristic of Wisconsin teams, were also a problem. Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig led the Badgers in scoring in that game.

It’s hard to believe that Wisconsin opened up the 2015-16 season with a home loss to Western Illinois; they started out 7-5 (with only one of those losses to a tournament team) before Bo Ryan surprisingly retired midseason. Long-term assistant Greg Gard was given a trial run to secure the job permanently, and when the Badgers started conference play 1-4, it looked like the odds of that were slim. Three of those losses were to quality opponents but a loss to Northwestern was particularly tough. It looked like even an NIT bid would require a significant turnaround.

Fast-forward to this offseason and Wisconsin – which returns all five of its starters – is the consensus favorite to win the conference. They responded to that Northwestern loss with a home upset over Michigan State by a single point, and including that game, finished on an extended 11-2 streak to end the regular season – they beat every tournament team in the league except for Purdue. Even with a first round upset loss to Nebraska in the Big Ten Tournament, they made it safely into the NCAA Tournament.

[Rest of the preview after the JUMP]

Corey Sanders [Jason Towlen – AP]

PREVIOUSLY: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue

NOTE: Rutgers defeated D-II Molloy College in their season-opener on Friday, 86-57. On Sunday, they faced their first D-I opponent and won easily against Drexel, 87-66. Six Knights scored in double figures.

Last year, Rutgers was more or less a running gag for Big Ten basketball – the Scarlet Knights went 7-25 on the season, started conference play with an 0-17 record (before beating a Minnesota team that was also terrible and decimated by suspension in the season finale), and finished 279th nationally in Kenpom’s algorithm, easily the worst of any Big Ten team in his website’s database, which starts in 2002. Eddie Jordan, an alum who’d spent time coaching in the NBA, was fired after the season.

[Preview after the JUMP]

Previously: John Beilein media day transcript, Billy Donlon media day quotes, MGoPodcast 8.7, Point Guards, Wings (Part I), Wings (Part II), Bigs

Alex's team previews: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue (last couple still to come)

New uniforms, new defense, same Beilein. [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

You're forgiven for not feeling basketball fever this year. The football team is in the midst of a magical season. The hoops squad has followed an outstanding three-year run with KenPom finishes of 74th and 50th the last two years. Tonight's season-opener is against the #275 team in the country, isn't on television, prefaces a huge road game for the football team, and falls during a week in which basketball hasn't been at the forefront of many people's minds.

Yet there is reason to be very excited about this season. Michigan brings back the core of last year's tournament team, one which overcame the loss of their best player to come within a half (and, yes, a subsequent game against a 14-seed) of making the Sweet Sixteen. While the Big Ten has a number of decent teams, it's unclear if any are capable of dominance.

And, of course, the program has undergone its biggest offseason of change since 2010. That summer, John Beilein overhauled his coaching staff after a 15-17 season. In came Lavall Jordan, the point guard whisperer, and Bacari Alexander, who molded Jordan Morgan into an impact big man. This summer, both Jordan and Alexander moved up to head coaching jobs, and Beilein had an opportunity to mold the staff as he saw fit again.

[Hit THE JUMP for the Billy Donlon overhaul, info on tonight's opener, and Alex Cook's projected Big Ten standings and all-conference teams.]