Big Ten Weekly Men's Basketball Central - Dec. 3-9

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WEEKLY RELEASE - DECEMBER 3

Big Ten. Big News.

• The Big Ten will open conference play this week with three games on tap tonight, including UCLA and Washington making their conference debuts inside Pauley Pavilion. Oregon will visit USC in their first league action tomorrow, as one of three games on Wednesday’s slate. Over the next two weeks, each team will play two conference games before league action breaks until Jan. 2, 2025.
• The Big Ten will enter this week’s action with a combined 111-26 overall record. The conference boasts most wins of any conference, while its .810 win percentage trails only the SEC (101-16/.870). Oregon and Wisconsin will enter this week sporting matching 8-0 records, leaving the duo among the nation’s 17 unbeaten teams.
• Four teams, Michigan, Oregon, Purdue, and Washington celebrated event wins last week. The Wolverines topped then-No. 22 Xavier 78-53 to win the Fort Myers Tip-Off behind 20 points and 17 rebounds from MVP Danny Wolf. Oregon’s Nate Bittle’s follow dunk with 4.4 seconds to play proved to be the difference, as the Ducks topped then-No. 9 Alabama 83-81 in the final of the Players Era Festival. The Boilermakers rallied to top then-No. 23 Ole Miss 80-78 on Myles Colvin’s offensive board and putback. Trey Kaufman-Renn paired had 25 points and 13 rebounds en route to MVP honors at the Rady Children’s Invitational. Acrisure Invitational MVP Great Osobor paired 19 points and eight rebounds to lead the Huskies to a 76-69 win over Santa Clara in Friday’s championship game.
• Eleven different B1G teams were ranked or received votes in the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Top 25 polls released on Dec. 2nd. Purdue led the way at No. 8 on the media poll, followed by No. 11 Wisconsin, then No. 12 Oregon, and No. 19 Illinois, while the coaches included the Boilermakers at no. 7, the Ducks at No. 10, the Badgers at No. 11, Illinois at No. 17 with Michigan and Michigan State at Nos. 23 and 25, respectively. Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, Ohio State, and UCLA also received votes in both polls.
• The first NET rankings of the 2024-25 season were released by the NCAA on Monday. Seven Big Ten teams were ranked in the top 25 and 12 in the top 50. Illinois was the league’s top ranked team at No. 10, followed by No. 12 Ohio State, No. 15 Oregon, No. 16 UCLA, No. 17 Wisconsin, No. 21 Purdue, and No. 22 Maryland. Penn State (#33), Michigan (#34), Michigan State (#40), Nebraska (#43), and Iowa (#47) were also included in the top 50. No other conference has more than five teams in the top 25 or more than 11 in the top 50. Both the Big 12 and SEC boast five teams in the top 25 and have nine and 11 teams in the top 50, respectively.
• Twelve of the Big Ten’s 18 teams rank in the top 50 of the Kenpom Ratings through Monday’s games. Purdue leads the way at No. 14, followed by Illinois (#15), UCLA (#17), Ohio State (#18), Oregon (#19), Michigan (#22), Wisconsin (#29), Maryland (#32), Michigan State (#36), Penn State (#37), Iowa (#45), and Nebraska (#47). Only the SEC has more teams in the Kenpom Top 50 (13) than the Big Ten.
• On Monday, the Big Ten announced its Player and Freshman of the Week honors. Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn was named Big Ten Player of the Week, while Rutgers’ Dylan Harper claimed his second Freshman of the Week honor of the season. Kaufman-Renn was named MVP of the Rady Children’s Invitational after leading No. 8 Purdue to a pair of wins, scoring 23.5 points on 61.5 percent shooting and 10.5 rebounds over two contests. In the final, the junior recorded his first career double-double with 25 points and a career best 13 rebounds in a win over then-No. 23 Ole Miss.
• Harper tallied 36 points in a win over Notre Dame and 37 points in a loss to then-No. 9 Alabama, becoming the first freshman in 20 years to score 35-plus points in back-to-back games and first Rutgers player to score 30-plus points in back-to-back games since Quincy Douby on March 9, 2006. In the Scarlet Knights’ three games last week, Harper averaged 30.3 points on .475 shooting from the floor and 29-for-34 from the free throw line.
• The 2025 Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament will return to Gainbridge Fieldhouse on March 12-16. This will mark the 14th time the tournament has been held in Indianapolis. The tournament will be the first to feature a 15-team field and begin with three games on Wednesday, March 12. Peacock will televise the opening three games of the 2025 Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament, with second-round and quarterfinal games on Thursday and Friday slated for Big Ten Network. For the 28th consecutive year, CBS Sports will broadcast the semifinals and championship game on CBS, with those games also streaming live on Paramount+.