Big Ten Preview

It's a new year in the Nation's top conference. The WIS poll ranks both Purdue and Northwestern in the top 10, #2 and #10 respectively, Penn State and Michigan are the only other Big Ten teams to be ranked in the top 25 at #17 and #21 while both Ohio State and Illinois are receiving votes.

Last year this conference once again proved that they were taking over the top conference in the Nation title from the Big Sky that held the title during its prime. But what is to expect from the conference this season? Every team just keeps getting better. I guess that's what you would expect with almost 40k additional recruiting monies due to the conference superb success in last year's National Tournament where four of the final eight teams came from the Big Ten.

So on to this year, what is to expect? There were some big name recruits that came into the conference this year, especially at the shooting guard position where the conference locked up 2 of the top 3 in Northwestern Freshmen James McCourtney from Michigan and Illinois Freshmen Eddie Manley from Georgia. Also new on the scene in University Park, PA is highly recruited Michael Courtney a center from New Jersey.

Everyone from last years 1^st team All-conference team has graduated as have 5 of the other 10 All-conference selections from last season. Of the other 5 remaining Season 13 All-Big Ten selections all were juniors, James Myers of Iowa, William Berry of Illinois, Joseph Beckett of Northwestern, Stephen Landesberg of Minnesota and Norman Brainard of Purdue who was the 35^th pick of the NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings. This leaves only 4 players returning from last season's All-Big Ten team, which should make for an exciting season!

Recruiting Review

Rank	School	#	Top Recruit	Comments
1	Penn State	5	Michael Courtney	Hit big with all 5 'ships. Courtney and Duhon are future All-American candidates…
2	Northwestern	4	James McCourtney	McCourtney is a raw prospect, he will be a beast in a year or two… Pierce is arguably their best recruit, he can play…
3	Illinois	4	Eddie Manley	Manley is a great ball player, but how long before he is in the pros?... Fitzgerald is solid but does he have much room to grow?...
4	Ohio State	3	Joseph Middleton	No super studs here, but coach filled all the holes with some solid prospects…
5	Michigan State	3	John Zarebski	Zarebski is the future of this program, should be fun seeing him develop… Kirby is a solid prospect; he is still a few steps too slow to contribute a whole lot…
6	Michigan	3	William Werts	Werts comes in to an already crowded backcourt, he could develop into a very nice starting four man…
7	Iowa	4	Lyle Bradford	Bradford and Dix can help out right away off the bench… Alexander could develop into a very productive shooting guard…
8	Indiana	3	Edwin Gary	Gary is still unpolished but he could be a very good player given time to develop… Smitreski could start the season as the starting point…
9	Notre Dame	2	Jason Smit	Smit still needs to work on his foot speed to reach his full potential, but he could be a very good player…
10	Wisconsin	3	Samuel Peterson	Arthur Lusk could end up being the best player out of this class…
11	Minnesota	4	Ryan Parrish	Tough year In Gopher country, Parrish could be a solid player in a few years as could the others…
12	Purdue	2	Charles Weiss	Purdue struck out big, twice… Weiss could develop into a reliable Big Ten starter…

    

Big Ten East

School	Recruiting	Top Player	Top Newcomer
(#21/#21) Michigan	6	Corey Linthicum	William Werts
Minnesota	11	James Kimball	Ryan Parrish
Iowa	7	Joseph Barbour	Lyle Bradford
Notre Dame	9	Darrell Schroeder	Jason Smit
Wisconsin	10	Russell Griffin	Robert Pennell
Michigan State	5	Justin Cote	John Zarebski

Michigan wins a close fight for the title with Minnesota… Linthicum, Sweat, Mitchell and Freshmen William Werts are great on the perimeter but do they have the depth underneath? That's what separates this team from a National Title contender, unless Werts is able to adapt to the PF position… Seidel and Kimball have to carry the load for the Gophers of Minnesota; it might be enough to get them the conference title… Foxworth and Ruff make a great Senior laden guard combo that could lead to a few postseason wins… Iowa has some talent but can they put it all together? At times they showed they could last year but they had some really bad losses too… Myers and Barbour have to carry them, Thompson is a solid player but the guards in this conference are so good and they lose some there on almost every team… They return some good players in South Bend but are they really Big Ten Caliber?... Snyder is FAST and plays great defense but he really isn't cut out to be a starting point in this league… Schroeder is a great point option, but who plays the 2? Snyder is a good backup point but really isn't a two and Snyder isn't a starting point so you can't move Schroeder to the 2 if he could shoot… Griffin is a stud… Cole/Griffin is a great starting guard combo but after the two of them there really isn't any help after Graham at center… lawdogg comes over from Penn where he had 3 top 7 picks in the NBA Draft this year… Used some of the same strategy we saw at Illinois, got a big piece to build around, Zarebski will be a force… Cote was talking about going pro last year, scouts told him to come back and work on his jumper…

 

Big Ten West

School	Recruiting	Top Player	Top Newcomer
(#3/#10) Northwestern	2	Joseph Beckett	James McCourney
(#8/#2) Purdue	12	Larry Gardner	Charles Weiss
(#15/NR) Ohio State	4	Robert Ferguson	Timothy O'Baker
(#20/#17) Penn State	1	George Margolis	Michael Courtney
Indiana	8	Ronald Mott	Ivan Smitreski
Illinois	3	Gregory Roux	Eddie Manley

 

Evanston almost brought home the title last year, they look to be right back in the Final Four talk again this season… Beckett passed up the pros to come back and win the title, he leads a talented group that includes raw shooting guard prospect James McCourtney… West Lafayette is yearning for a title before legendary coach Rails retires as has been rumored… The talent is here, they are overloaded at guard but they can find time for everyone… Ohio State could easily win this conference outright… Ferguson and Cloutier are great together on the outside… Michael Courtney could be the NFOY… They might be young but they are very talented… You could argue Indiana as high as 2^nd in this conference, they prolly don't have the talent to actually finish there though… Ronald Mott is a talent, he is this teams leader… They went all out to get Eddie Manley, he's got a lot to live up to now… They have some pieces but who the hell is going to rebound the ball?...

 

Awards

First Team Big Ten

PG-Ricky Perry, Sr., Purdue
SG-Robert Ferguson, Jr., Ohio State
SF- Ronald Mott, So., Indiana
PF-Joseph Beckett, Sr., Northwestern
C-William Berry, Sr., Illinois

Player of the Year:
Joseph Beckett, Sr., Northwestern

Conference Tournament Champion: Penn State

National Tournament Bids: 7 (Minnesota, Michigan, Northwestern, Purdue, Penn State, Ohio State, Indiana)

Postseason Invitational Bids: 3 (Iowa, Illinois, Notre Dame)