Top Players in Conference
Raymar Morgan, Michigan St.
Goran Suton, Michigan St.
Robbie Hummel, Purdue
E'Twaun Moore, Purdue
Marcus Landry, Wisconsin

Player of the Year
Raymar Morgan, Michigan St.

Player to Look Out For
Kalin Lucas, Michigan St.

Projected Big 10 Finish
1. Michigan St. 16-2
2. Purdue 15-3
3. Wisconsin 14-4
4. Ohio St. 13-5
5. Illinois 9-9
6. Penn St. 8-10
7. Minnesota 8-10
8. Michigan 7-11
9. Iowa 4-14
10. Northwestern 3-15
11. Indiana 2-16

Michigan St.
I'm going to give Michigan St. the edge over Purdue as the Big 10 favorites heading into the season. There's no question that the losses of Neitzel and Naymick hurt, but they return everyone else. Not to mention, sophomore Kalin Lucas looked really good last year, and incoming freshman Delvon Roe will make a huge impact right away.

Purdue
Purdue returns more than any team in the conference, but I'm not sure that they're as talented as the Spartans. Winning 16 conference games for being as young as they were a year ago was very impressive and they should be a better team overall this year. The main concern has to be their post play on offense because they weren't good in that regard last year and are too perimeter oriented.

Wisconsin
On paper, they surely aren't the 3rd best team in the conference, but Bo Ryan always gets his players to overachieve as they are one of the best teams defensively year in and year out. Marcus Landry is a bright spot as he's one of the better players in the conference. PG Trevon Hughes is probably a bit overrated.

Ohio St.
The Buckeyes should be able to be at least a decent team despite losing three starters because they bring in one of the best recruiting classes in the country which features 5-star freshmen William Buford and B.J. Mullens. If Ohio St. wants to go the next level, however, they need Lighty or Turner to step up as well.

Illinois
Don't sleep on Illinois just because they only won five conference games last season. They were better than that as they made the Big 10 Tournament finals and took down teams like Arizona St., Oklahoma St., and Missouri in their non conference slate. The Illini are always tough defensively and they return their top 3 minute getters from last year.

Penn St.
Penn St. is another team that could be better than you think as they return a good portion of their squad, and have some good talent. Everyone thought they were done for when Claxton went down but they still ended up getting wins over Michigan St. and Indiana in conference. Cornley will be a solid senior leader for them.

Minnesota
Some people are going out on a limb and projecting them to make the big dance. I'm not sure how they're going to do that. They were only 8-10 in conference and lost more of their team than teams like Illinois and Penn St. They have some good talent coming in so they'll be good down the road, but they don't have the talent to make the jump just yet.

Michigan
They should be good enough to challenge some of the better teams in conference on their home floor. Defensively, they've been pretty solid the past couple of seasons, but offensively, they're still fairly young without a lot of talent. Their top three 3 point shooters last year combined to go 120-397 (30%). Yikes.

Iowa
Iowa may have been the worst team in the conference after Northwestern last season, and they lost a lot of their team including Johnson, Gorney, and Freeman. Hard to imagine them lighting up the scoreboard with the guys they're left with. The Hawkeyes are always sound defensively but that's only going to take them so far.

Northwestern
Northwestern didn't lose much, but they were so bad last year (one conference win and only eight overall) that it's hard to imagine them improving significantly. They do have some decent talent in Kevin Coble and Craig Moore, but they were awful on defense last year.

Indiana
Indiana's going to be horrible, there's just no way around it. They made a good move bringing in Crean as he can recruit some very good talent, it's just going to take some time for him to rebuild this program. Everyone is gone from this NCAA Tourney team a year ago.