Big Ten Weekly Men's Basketball Central - Jan. 31-Feb. 3

WEEKLY RELEASE - JAN. 31

Big Ten. Big News.

Michigan State and Purdue enter this weekend’s action perched atop the Big Ten standings at 9-0 and 8-2, respectively, while the trio of Michigan, Maryland and UCLA own seven conference wins each, one more than Illinois and Wisconsin. Behind them is a log jam of 10 teams with between three and five conference victories.
Milestone Watch... Michigan State’s Tom Izzo has collected 352 Big Ten wins, just one shy of tying Bob Knight’s all-time conference wins mark... UCLA’s Mick Cronin stands just four victories from becoming the fourth Big Ten head coach with 500 career wins.
Four of the Illinois’ top scorers and rebounders are all in their first year of collegiate basketball. Freshman guard Kasparas Jakucionis ranks first in scoring (16.0 ppg) and third in rebounding (5.8 rpg). Sophomore center Tomislav Ivisic nearly averages a double-double at 13.0 points (second on team) and team-leading 8.5 rebounds. Freshman forward Will Riley is the Illini’s No. 4 scorer at 10.4 points per game. And Freshman forward Morez Johnson Jr. ranks second on the team at 6.5 rebounds per game with a team-leading 52 offensive boards (2.5 per game).
Indiana’s Trey Galloway has averaged 4.8 assists in his nine appearances off the bench this season. He ranks second nationally (Rahmir Barno, Florida Gulf Coast) in assists per game in a reserve role. He is one of four B1G players (Brock Harding, Iowa; Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Maryland; Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State) to average at least 4.0 assists while shooting 35.0 percent from the three-point line while playing under 30.0 minutes per game.
Iowa’s Brock Harding is tied for third in the Big Ten with 125 assists through 21 games, while his 6.0 assists per game also rank fourth in the conference. Nationally, the sophomore lists 21st in total assists and 22nd in assists per game. Harding has recorded at least 10 assists twice this season and owns three career points-assists double-doubles, tied for fourth most in program history.
After Maryland’s win over Wisconsin on Wednesday, the Terps improved to 13-1 at the XFINITY Center, tied for the second-most home wins among all teams in Division I. Only Missouri (15-0) has more home wins than the Terps.
All five Michigan starters average double figures in scoring -- Vladislav Goldin (15.7 points), Tre Donaldson (12.9), Danny Wolf (12.0), Roddy Gayle Jr. (11.6), and Nimari Burnett (10.7). The five have led the Wolverines in scoring in every game this season -- Goldin (nine times), Wolf (four), Burnett (three), Gayle Jr. (three) and Donaldson (two).
Michigan State’s win over Minnesota on Tuesday marked the Spartans’ 13th consecutive win and improved the team to 7-0 in January. This is the first time in the 30-year career of head coach Tom Izzo that the Spartans have gone unbeaten in both December (5-0) and January (7-0).
Minnesota’s Dawson Garcia holds a league-best 14 20-point game performances on the season. Garcia has had 18 double-digit point games and two 30-point games. He’s averaging 19.8 points this year, which ranks second in the Big Ten. His six-straight 20-point games beat out Amir Coffey’s five-game production between Feb. 28 and March 15, 2019. Of those 14 20-point games, eight have come against Big Ten opponents.
With Thursday’s win over Illinois, Nebraska improved to 3-2 against ranked opponents this season. Nebraska has three ranked wins in a season for the first time since 2013-14. The Huskers are tied for the second-most wins over ranked teams as an unranked team.
Northwestern has scored at least 70 points in five consecutive Big Ten games for the first time since Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 1990. Its 72 points in Wednesday’s loss to Rutgers were the most it has scored against the Scarlet Knights since March 9, 2017.
Ohio State’s Devin Royal has made a major jump from his freshman campaign. The sophomore is averaging 13.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. That is an increase of nearly 10 points and five rebounds per game from his rookie season. He’s led the team in scoring six times this season and is shooting over 54 percent from the floor.
Oregon’s Nate Bittle ranks second in the Big Ten with 41 total blocks and is averaging 2.5 per game in conference play, the best mark in the league. The senior currently sits sixth in Oregon program history with 96 career blocks, nearly half of which have come this season.
Penn State senior Nick Kern Jr. has scored double figures in 17 of the last 18 games, including two 20-plus point efforts. He leads the Nittany Lions with 18 double-digit scoring efforts this season and is currently Penn State’s leading scorer in Big Ten play, averaging 13.8 points per conference game.
Purdue’s win over Michigan improved the Boilermakers to 23-9 (.719) against ranked teams since the start of the 2021-22 season, the best record in such games in the country. Since the start of the 2017-18 season, Purdue now has seven wins of at least 25 points against top 25 teams. The next closest team is Connecticut with four.
In Wednesday’s win at Northwestern, freshman Ace Bailey posted 37 points on 13-for-20 shooting from the field, including a blistering 9-for-10 shooting in the first half, six rebounds and three blocked shots. This stat line has only been accomplished three times this season, twice by Bailey and both in January, and only nine times by a freshman since 2007.
UCLA’s win over Oregon on Thursday extended the Bruins’ current win streak to five games. During the run, UCLA has averaged 80.8 points per game and shot 52.9 percent from the field and 40.8 percent from three-point range. The Big Ten’s top-ranked scoring defense has also allowed just 68.2 points per game, while holding its opponents to 33.8 percent three-point shooting.
Desmond Claude and Wesley Yates III are one of the best duos on the court for USC. Entering last weekend’s game against UCLA, they had a plus-minus of 117 and an offensive rating of 118.8 in the 648 possessions during which both players were on the floor. They also have one of the highest field goal percentages of any duo on the team, making about 49.7 percent of their shots. When both players are not on the court, USC falls to the bottom five percent in the NCAA in offensive rating, effective field goal percentage and net rating.
Each of Washington’s seven opponents this calendar year are all ranked inside the top 35 of the NCAA Net Rankings, including five in the top 20. All seven opponents have had a winning percentage of .700 or higher and are in the top eight of the Big Ten standings. The Huskies have gone 1-6 during the stretch, including six consecutive losses.
The Badgers are on pace to shoot (27.5 3FGA) and make (10.0 3FG) more three-pointers than ever before since the inception of the three-point line in 1986-87. Wisconsin has made 10 or more three-pointers in 11 of 21 games this season after doing so in seven of 36 games all of last season.
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+.

Big Ten Weekly Men's Basketball Central - Jan. 31-Feb. 3

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