The Big Ten title race presents itself as one of the most intrigued in university basketball while the regular section of the regular season arrives with at least three teams legitimately in the running for the Crown. While n ° 12, Michigan is in solo possession of the first, it will instantly change if the Wolverines (20-5, 12-2 Big Ten) lose Friday against n ° 14 Michigan State.
After a brief February funk, the Spartans (21-5, 12-3) went up with victories on Illinois and Purdue last week. Another team to look in the title race is No. 11 of Wisconsin, which won five after having run Roughshod on the Illinois on Tuesday. Badgers (21-5, 11-4) play four of their last five games against teams with sub500 league records.
At the beginning of last week, Purdue would have been a popular choice to win the League. But after losing three consecutive games for the first time since 2019-2020, the boilermakers (19-8, 11-5) have land to catch up.
A joker to watch is Maryland. The terraaps (21-6, 11-5) would need a roaring finish. But given that Michigan State and Michigan are both on the file in the next two weeks, the team of coach Kevin Willard has an external chance to film the needle and make his way to a part of the title.
So who will win the Big Ten crown? Our writers have made their choices in the transfer of dribble this week:
Michigan
Wisconsin is the best rated big ten team in my 25 best and 1 on the basis of a set of works featuring a record of 14-5 in the first two quadrants highlighted by eight victories of the first quarter And zero losses outside the first quarter. No one else in the conference can correspond to this. But the problem for badgers, with regard to the Big Ten race, is that they already have four championship losses and will probably end with at least five.
Meanwhile, Michigan has a 12-2 sheet in Big Ten and plans to be a favorite in five of its last six regular season games. In other words, as long as the Wolverines simply win the matches they are supposed to win in the future, starting on Friday against Michigan State – Dusty May should soon have a Big Ten title to go with the C -USA title Pure and simple that he won in Florida Atlantic two years ago. – Gary Parrish
Michigan
No team in Big Ten is playing better at the moment than Michigan. The Wolverines won six successful games by driving the Dynamic 1-2 punch of 7 feet Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin, who trained together one of the most coherent offsets in the opposing teams in the league.
The regular hand of Tre Donaldson at La Garde, combined with Nimari Burnett, Roddy Gayle or Rubin Jones which breaks out every night, makes this team deep, dynamic and deadly. Their bench will deeply, skills and talents are comparable to any other team in the country, and the experience of the heart of this team has all the external signs of a club ready to do a deep running race.
In short, there are few obvious holes for Wolverines and a litany of forces on the list. It was good enough to bring them to 20-5 over the season so far with victories on Wisconsin and UCLA on the road, among others. And my bet is that it will be good enough to pass them on the bump to their first big ten -season title regular season since 2021 too. – Kyle Boone
Wisconsin
The last seven victories of Michigan are four points or less. Credit to the Wolverines for having done so. But they hung up by the edge, even when they play non -NCAA tournament teams. The Big Ten team that plays the best basketball is Wisconsin. Although badgers are technically two games in the loss column, their closing section is easier than closing stretching for Michigan and the state of Michigan. Winning the title of the League could be a longhot, but it is easy to see this team finish 4-1 or 5-0 and share the title with a last championship record of 16-4 or 15-5.
If nothing else, badgers deserve a little love for their transformation into an offensive mastodon. It is over time to mount the ball on the ground, throw it into the post, then settle for an attempted 2 points contested at the end of the chronometer. This team has several competent 3-point shooters, including an American candidate for John Tonje, who was the most unexpected transfer star in university basketball. The Wisconsin is ready to push the pace and whisk the ball around the arc in search of an open look or driving tracks. It’s a fun team to look at, and it is positioned to continue to go late. – David COBB
Michigan
To counter the cobb point on Michigan which wins the tight matches, there are two ways to watch it. You can say that the way Michigan wins is unstable in the long term, or watch it through a different lens and conclude that this is how a (majority) of the matches is won in March. I’m going with Michigan to win the Big Ten title. Friday’s match against the state of Michigan will greatly help determine a champion, but the last day of the regular season will see these teams play again. This game can ultimately determine a pure and simple co-championship.
It is difficult not to like what you see of this Michigan team under May. Wolverines have one of the most unique front currents in the country with Goldin and Wolf. I had the chance to look at Michigan in person last month against the USC. The fluidity with which Wolf moves as a large man reminds me of the stars of Houston Rockets Alperen şengün. Michigan is 59.1% of its 2 points, which ranks fifth in the country, by Kenpom.com. Wolverines also do a good work to define fire inside the arc, only granting 46.8%, which ranks n ° 31. May deserves a legitimate buzz for the national coach of the year. This will only intensify if Michigan wins the League in its first season which runs the program in the post-July Howard era. – Cameron Salerne
