The Big Ten Tournament begins this week and there will be a few teams in the latest AP Poll vying for the trophy, and more importantly the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. In what many have considered being a down year for the Big Ten they still have a couple teams ranked in the top ten, but just four in the top 25. The four teams representing the Big Ten have been steady. The four Big Ten teams are Michigan State (2), Purdue (8), Ohio State (13), and Michigan (15).
The Spartans earned the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and finished their regular season ranked No. 2 in the country. MSU had to deal with a plethora of distractions this season, the latest being whether or not Miles Bridges would be eligible for the Big Ten Tournament. With Bridges cleared to play, a Big Ten Tournament Championship might be enough to finally convince bracketologists of Michigan State’s legitimacy. For now, their 89th ranked strength of schedule has some hesitant to give them a one seed.
Michigan is not likely to get a No. 1 seed but can make some significant movement were they to make a run in the Big Ten Tournament. Fortunately for the Wolverines, they are playing some of their best basketball right now and Duncan Robinson appears to finally have found his shot. The reigning Big Ten Tournament champions begin their title defense on Thursday against the winner of Illinois and Iowa.
Photo Credit: MGoBlog/FlickrIn other notable AP Poll news, North Carolina moved into the top ten, setting up a top ten match-up against fifth-ranked Duke this Saturday night. UNC won the previous matchup by four, but this time the game will be played at Duke’s home Cameron Stadium, in what will be an unbelievable and rowdy environment.
The full rankings look like this.
- Virginia
- Michigan State
- Xavier
- Villanova
- Duke
- Kansas
- Gonzaga
- Purdue
- North Carolina
- Cincinnati
- Wichita State
- Texas Tech
- Ohio State
- Auburn
- Michigan
- Tennessee
- Rhode Island
- Clemson
- Arizona
- West Virginia
- Nevada
- Saint Mary’s(California)
- Kentucky
- Middle Tennesse State
- Houston