Big Ten Hoops Weekly: Navy SEALS & Rod Stewart

You're not going to get what you need from preseason magazines, folks. Plus, they cost money.

Wisconsin: The Badgers have never finished worse than fourth in the Big Ten in 12 years under Bo Ryan, and has reached the NCAA tournament in every one of those seasons. Which is fantastic. So, a culture change hardly seems necessary. And yet ...

“I know what's going to happen this year,” Wisconsin junior point guard Traevon Jackson said. “I know what the expectation we have as a team and how we're going to change the culture here and how we're going to win and how we want to do things that have never been done here before. So I'm just excited for it to come true.”

Added sophomore forward Sam Dekker: “We want to get to the next level, which is championships,” Dekker said. “That's what we want. We don't want to just have a little run of (15) straight NCAA tournament appearances, we want to have a run of titles - Big Ten titles, NCAA titles.”

Ohio State: The Buckeyes are coming off their worst shooting season in Thad Matta's nine seasons as coach, 45.1 percent.

So, the players shot a lot this summer. How many shots?

“I think, as a team, we were at 15,000-plus a week,” said OSU forward Sam Thompson.

Illinois: The Fighting Illini went through Navy SEAL team military training this summer.

Each member of the team, as this story from the Peoria Journal Star tells us, was given an orange wristband this year with the acronym E1H written in blue on it.

E - It takes everyone to win; 1 - one person to screw it up; H - If a teammate is confused, help them.

That comes from the Navy SEAL training, so it's probably not wise to mock it.

Michigan: Trey Burke's NBA odyssey is off to a rough start.

After leading the Wolverines to the national-title game last spring, Burke was the No. 9 pick in the NBA draft, going to the Utah Jazz. But he has broken a finger, and will miss the season's first 8 to 12 weeks.

Burke was going to start for the Jazz from the get-go.

Minnesota: First-year Gophers coach Richard Pitino, the son of Louisville coach Rick Pitino, is finding his program needs to get a foothold just to get visits from top local prep players.

Forward Reid Travis of De La Salle High in Minneapolis is the only one of the Twin Cities' three top players to give Minnesota an official visit. Duke, Stanford and Gonzaga are in the hunt for Travis.

According to this Minneapolis Star Tribune report, Apple Valley's Tyus Jones and Golden Valley's Rashad Vaughn haven't committed to taking official visits to Minnesota. They have made unofficial visits.

Vaughn is now at a prep school in Las Vegas. As of a month ago, he was set to make an official visit to Iowa State on the same November weekend the Cyclones play Michigan in Hilton Coliseum.

Michigan State: Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook has made Michigan State its preseason No. 1 choice.

Blue Ribbon President/Editor Chris Dortsch told mlive.com why he picked the Spartans ahead of popular pick Kentucky.

"I think Michigan State is experienced, I really like Keith Appling and Gary Harris. Adreian Payne is on our cover, one of our five All-Americans, his decision to stay was huge. "And Tom (Izzo), he'll play anybody, anywhere, any time, in Germany or on a boat, he's got it dead on, those types of games get them ready for postseason.''

Penn State: Nittany Lions Coach Patrick Chambers (@Coach_Chambers) attended Rod Stewart's concert in PSU's Bryce Jordan Center Monday night.

Here was Chambers' tweet:

@rodstewart unbelievable tonight @JordanCenter!! One of the best performances I've been to in awhile.