So that was an eventful week. Some notable results from around the Big Ten since last week's post, home team listed second for each score:

• Rutgers 74, Maryland 60
• Minnesota 65, Illinois 92
• Ohio State 60, Purdue 67 (EJ Liddell sat out for OSU with mono)
• Gonzaga 99, Iowa 88 (neutral site)
• Louisville 48, Wisconsin 85 (UL down a high-usage starter but, uh, still)
• Butler 60, Indiana 68
• Notre Dame 78, Purdue 88
• UCLA 70, Ohio State 77 (Liddell back)
• Michigan State 65, Northwestern 79 (lmao)
• Illinois 88, Rutgers 91
• Saint Louis 82, Minnesota 90

Before the breakdown, let's look at the standings.

The Standings

Your biggest risers are Northwestern, Rutgers, and Purdue, which all saw double-digit bumps up the rankings. Michigan State and Maryland were the two teams to take significant plunges, falling seven and eight spots, respectively. Wisconsin has solidified their standing as the #3 team on both KenPom and Torvik and separated themselves a bit from the Illinois-Iowa-Michigan-Indiana-Rutgers-OSU-(MSU until last night) cluster of top-25 teams.

[Hit THE JUMP for MSU and Iowa defensive struggles, an impact mid-year transfer to a contender, and new tiers.]

First Place Rutgers

As we all expected heading into the season, your early candidate for Big Ten Game of the Year is Illinois at Rutgers.

For the moment, Rutgers now stands alone at the top of the conference with a 2-0 record. Yesterday's win over the Illini wasn't a shock in and of itself. The way RU got there, however, is not how they're supposed to do it: in a 91-88 barnburner that saw both teams score over 1.2 points per possession.

Ron Harper Jr. has gone from useful role player to non-Garza conference player of the year candidate; he had 28 points and nine boards in a scorchingly efficient performance against the Illini. Jacob Young added 24 points on 19 shooting possessions with four assists and three turnovers; he's no longer our beloved disaster artists but instead a solid senior guard.

Steve Pikiell's squad has been doing this mostly without Geo Baker, who's either been injured or ineffective to open the season (the latter for 30 minutes against Illinois). Pikiell continues to build his reputation as one of the best coaches in the country who's not at a blue blood program; what he's done in Piscataway in this short a period of time is astonishing. Rutgers isn't the conference favorite—that's still Wisconsin—but they're right up there in the group behind the Badgers and I don't think they're a team anybody is excited to play right now.

They Are Who We Thought They Were

While this site has collectively been skeptical of Iowa's potential Big Ten championship and Final Four chances despite their mountain of preseason hype, please don't confuse that with skepticism about their offense. Playing #1 Gonzaga, they crested a point per possession even though they shot an uncharacteristically awful 4/22 on three-pointers. Luka Garza scored 30 points and went 14/17 on twos. Jordan Bohannon still doesn't look the same as he did pre-injury and may need to see fewer minutes going forward; they remain the #1 or #2 offense in the country depending on where you're looking.

The defense, though? It's looking pretty Iowa-ish, and that's significant cause for concern. Must-follow film breakdown guy Eric Shapiro posted an extensive thread of Hawkeye defensive breakdowns; Gonzaga is a great team but it certainly doesn't have to be this easy:

I'm going to go chronologically, but I had to show this play first.

This is an example of how not to play ball screen defense.

Connor McCaffrey doesn't force Suggs to use the screen. Suggs has a straight line drive to the rim & Iowa doesn't provide help. pic.twitter.com/MtuZ9n6n4t

— Eric Shapiro (@eric_shap) December 19, 2020

Lack of timely help in halfcourt and problems matching up in transition were themes throughout. KemPom believes Iowa has a bad defense for a Big Ten team (82nd nationally) while Torvik believes they have an awful one (138th). Either way, it may hold them back from contending, particularly with Wisconsin fielding such a complete-looking, experienced squad.

Speaking of Bad Defense

I cannot stifle this laughter any longer.

Oh man. That felt good.

Last night, Northwestern's Boo Buie blew up for 30 points on 19 shooting possessions, while his MSU point guard counterparts, Rocket Watts and Foster Loyer, combined to score 11 on—hey, this worked out nicely—19 shots. The Spartans couldn't crack a 3-2 zone and desperately cycled through big men without finding a combination that worked with only Malik Hall playing at all effectively up front. Joey Hauser left the game with a banged-up knee for a bit because he got the worst of it while setting an exceptionally illegal screen.

Hauser started out standing over his right leg, classic form

He returned but didn't look very comfortable and missed a bunch of shots. Pete Nantz pulled down 12 defensive rebounds for Northwestern. It wasn't a proud day for the Spartan frontcourt. Or the Spartan backcourt, for that matter. We've got another Shapiro thread:

Tom Izzo called MSU's loss to Northwestern "one of the more inept performances in my 26 years."

Let's watch some of the defensive clips that contributed to that statement:

— Eric Shapiro (@eric_shap) December 21, 2020

This one really got the MSU coaches upset.

Gabe Brown is guarding Kopp, who passes and sets a screen for Nance.

Brown seems unaware. MSU was switching some, but he neither communicates the screen nor is in a ball screen coverage to prevent penetration. pic.twitter.com/vP2sVKXeBC

— Eric Shapiro (@eric_shap) December 21, 2020

State is now projected to go 9-11 in the conference by both KenPom and Torvik. Inshallah.

Hoosier Infusion?

Last week, Indiana beat out Arkansas, Kansas State, and Memphis for talented UT-Martin grad transfer Parker Stewert, who began his career as a productive freshman at Pitt before transferring to play for his father, who tragically passed away last month. He took on the role of high-volume gunner at UT-Martin last season and did pretty well with it given the surrounding talent, though it's worth noting his team was horrific on defense.

Stewart has two years of eligibility remaining—he impressively holds a masters degree already—and it's unclear if he'll be able to play immediately or sit out until 2021-22. The Indiana backcourt could really use his scoring punch. 

Meanwhile, reserve big man Jarvis Omersa has opted out of the rest of the season for Minnesota.

New Tiers, Quickly

First, last week's tiers:

TIER I: Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois
TIER II: Indiana, MSU, OSU
TIER III: Rutgers, PSU, Purdue, Minnesota, Maryland
TIER IV: Northwestern, Nebraska

Yes, I immediately regretted putting Rutgers in the third tier. Let's try this again.

TIER I: Wisconsin
TIER II: Michigan, Iowa, Rutgers, Illinois
TIER III: Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan State, Purdue
TIER IV: Penn State, Maryland, Minnesota, Northwestern
TIER V: Nebraska :(

Let's see the games that'll blow up these tiers by next Monday. This week's most important games, all times Eastern:

Tuesday: Purdue at Iowa (9 pm, BTN)
Wednesday: Rutgers at OSU (4:30, BTN), Illinois at Penn State (6:30, BTN), Northwestern at Indiana (8:30, BTN)
Friday/Christmas: Wisconsin at MSU (12:30, FOX), Maryland at Purdue (2:30, FS1), Michigan at Nebraska (6, BTN), Iowa at Minnesota (8, BTN)
Saturday: Ohio State at Northwestern (2, FS1), Indiana at Illinois (4, FS1)