Big Ten among nation’s best in ’09-’10

CHICAGO - Big Ten basketball observers fondly remember the days of Bob Knight, Jud Heathcote, Gene Keady and Tom Davis marching up sidelines in the 1980s.

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If those were the glory days of Big Ten basketball - and they were - then get ready for a golden era of hoops act two. Seven different Big Ten coaches have taken teams to the NCAA regional finals and four (Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Illinois' Bruce Weber, Minnesota's Tubby Smith, Ohio State's Thad Matta) took teams to the national title game. The league features the defending national runner-up (Michigan State), No. 4 ranked Purdue and two teams (Northwestern and Wisconsin) that have beaten teams in four different BCS conferences.

League play opens Tuesday with Iowa hosting Purdue.

“I honestly see ... eight, nine teams that realistically could win the league,” Izzo said. “Top to bottom, the league is the best it's been in a long time.”

Michigan State won the league going away last year at 15-3, four games better than runners-up Purdue and Illinois. The Spartans propelled to the national title game with a balanced mix at all positions and were spurred by emotion to play in Detroit's Final Four. Seven teams last year qualified for the NCAA tournament. Two others played in the NIT with Penn State winning it.

The Spartans were tabbed once again as the Big Ten favorites by media in October. Izzo has led Michigan State to five Final Fours, two title games and one championship in his 15 years. Purdue returned nearly its entire cast and gains an extra benefit this year with a healthy Robbie Hummel. Ohio State was picked third.

The Big Ten initially had six teams ranking among the nation's top 25 entering the season. Three teams are ranked - No. 4 Purdue, No. 9 Michigan State and No. 17 Ohio State .

Much of the league's respect comes from its first collective win against the Atlantic Coast Conference in the 10th annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The league also returns 18 members of its all-conference teams from a year ago, including all five first-team members who were sophomores.

Michigan State guard Kalin Lucas, the league's reigning player of the year, was joined by guards Manny Harris (Michigan), Evan Turner (Ohio State) and Talor Battle (Penn State) and post JaJuan Johnson (Purdue). On the conference's preseason team, Johnson was replaced by Hummel, who suffered a stress fracture in his back last year and was limited in several games.

“We just have an unbelievable junior class in college basketball,” Purdue Coach Matt Painter said. “And it's evident, obviously, in the Big Ten.”

The conference's potential has the league-owned Big Ten Network salivating as well. In each of its three years, the BTN presents a series “The Journey” on a specific team. This year, it picked men's basketball as a whole.

“We're going behind the scenes at as many of the Big Ten schools that will allow us,” Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman said. “We're going to show footage from practices and locker rooms. We're going to basically trace the Big Ten season as it evolves. As the teams start performing, we'll spend more time with teams that are in competition for the Big Ten championship.”

Although Purdue and Michigan State enter Big Ten play as the favorites, Ohio State, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Northwestern and Wisconsin are considered legitimate contenders. Ohio State's chances slipped a bit when scoring sensation Evan Turner suffered a broken back earlier this month and won't return until at least mid-January. Penn State boasts Battle, who ranks second in scoring at nearly 20 points a game. Indiana, which finished last a year ago, has the nation's highest-scoring freshman in Maurice Creek.

With the stature, the coaches and players, the Big Ten could assume its place among the nation's best. The coaches are banking on it.

“I think we'll have the opportunity now to grow and be one of the premier leagues, if not the premier league, in the country,” Painter said.