Tag: Big Ten Basketball

Big Ten media preseason media poll has Michigan State basketball in the top-5

The media has Michigan State as a top-5 team in the expanded Big Ten heading into the season

Big Ten basketball is almost here, and with that comes the preseason media polls. On Wednesday, John Fanta posted the Big Ten preseason media poll on social media, and the media actually seems decently high on the Spartans heading into the season.

The Spartans are No. 5, according to the media. Purdue is still on top despite losing Zach Edey to the NBA.

You can see the full poll below:

1. Purdue

2. Indiana

3. UCLA

4. Illinois

5. Michigan State

6. Oregon

7. Rutgers

8. Ohio State

9. Michigan

10. Maryland

11. Iowa

Tied for 12th: Wisconsin, Nebraska

13. USC

14. Washington

15. Northwestern

16. Penn State

17. Minnesota

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Wisconsin blanked from Big Ten basketball preseason All-Conference team

Wisconsin blanked from Big Ten basketball preseason All-Conference team

Zero Wisconsin men’s basketball players earned a spot on the 2024-25 preseason All-Big Ten team on Tuesday.

The first-team includes Indiana center Oumar Ballo, Iowa forward Payton Sandfort, Minnesota forward Dawson Garcia, Northwestern guard Brooks Barnhizer, Ohio State guard Bruce Thornton, Oregon guard Jackson Shelstad, Penn State guard Ace Baldwin Jr., Purdue guard Braden Smith, Rutgers guard Dylan Harper and Washington forward Greg Osobor.

Smith, Purdue’s all-world guard and 2023-24 All-Big Ten Team member, was selected as the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year.

Wisconsin’s absence from the list doesn’t come as much of a surprise, especially given its recent departures. Those include guard Chucky Hepburn (Louisville), wing A.J. Storr (Kansas) and veteran forward Tyler Wahl (graduation). Wahl and Hepburn both earned preseason honors ahead of the 2022-23 campaign.

The only remaining postseason nominee from 2023-24 on UW’s roster is sophomore John Blackwell, who earned Big Ten All-Freshman team nods following a his eight-point, 3.2-rebound per-game averages a season ago.

Wisconsin will now look to lean on its senior center, Steven Crowl, alongside its three transfer additions Camren Hunter, John Tonje and Xavier Amos. The crew went 22-14 in 2023-24 and fell in the opening round of the 2024 NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament.

LOOK: Wisconsin basketball full 2024-25 Big Ten conference schedule

LOOK: Wisconsin basketball full 2024-25 Big Ten conference schedule

Wisconsin’s men’s basketball program released its 2024-25 Big Ten conference schedule on Thursday.

A total of 10 Big Ten squads, which features conference newcomers Oregon and Washington, will visit the Kohl Center this season.

Greg Gard’s crew will welcome the Michigan Wolverines for its conference opener on Dec. 3, roughly a month before the Iowa Hawkeyes venture to Madison for a Jan. 3 contest.

Wisconsin will then square off against Minnesota (Jan. 10), Ohio State (Jan. 14), Nebraska (Jan. 26), Indiana (Feb. 4), Illinois (Feb. 18), Oregon (Feb. 22), Washington (Feb. 25) and Penn State (Mar. 8) to close its 2024-25 conference home game slate.

UW will play 10 conference away games this season.

The Badgers will travel to Champaign, Illinois to face the Illinois Fighting Illini on Dec. 10 and Piscataway, New Jersey, for a test against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Jan 6.

Wisconsin will then head west for a two-game trip against the USC Trojans on Jan. 18 and UCLA Bruins on Jan. 21 before flipping coasts for a game against the Maryland Terrapins in College Park on Jan. 29.

The Badgers finalize the away slate with Northwestern (Feb. 1), Iowa (Feb. 8), Purdue (Feb. 15), Michigan State (Mar. 2) and Minnesota (Mar. 5).

Here’s the program’s schedule release video from Thursday afternoon:

https://twitter.com/BadgerMBB/status/1836873380542201999

The Badgers will also play non-conference games against Holy Cross (Nov. 4), Montana State (Nov. 7), Appalachian State (Nov. 10), Arizona (Nov. 15), UT-Rio Grande Valley (Nov. 18), UCF (Nov. 22) and either LSU or Pitt (Nov. 24) before the holiday.

Chicago State (Nov. 30), Marquette (Dec. 7), Butler (Dec. 14) and Detroit Mercy (Dec. 22) are scheduled as well.

Wisconsin will kick-start its loaded 2024-25 schedule with an exhibition game against UW-River Falls on Oct. 30.

Nebraska men’s basketball in ESPN 2025 Top 100 recruit Antione West Jr’s final four

An ESPN 2025 Top 100 recruit is down to his final four schools heading into his final year of high school. Antione West Jr. announced that he is deciding between Purdue, Dayton, Ohio State, and Nebraska. Nebraska is in the mix to land a three-star …

An ESPN 2025 Top 100 recruit is down to his final four schools heading into his final year of high school. Antione West Jr. announced that he is deciding between Purdue, Dayton, Ohio State, and Nebraska.

Nebraska is in the mix to land a three-star shooting guard following a massive 2023-2024 season. The Huskers finished 23-11, the second most wins in school history, in a season that involved their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2014 and a semi-final finish in the Big Ten Tournament.

West, a 6-foot-3 guard, received an offer from Nebraska in October 2023. He is ranked No. 77 in the ESPN 2025 Top-100 recruit list. He is one of three Top 100 recruits with Nebraska in the hunt. Koa Peat is No. 4 on the list, while Jalen Wilson is No. 95.

The Toledo, Ohio, native is coming off a strong junior campaign. At Whitmer High School, he averaged 20.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game. He hit 49 percent of his shots from the floor and 70-of-187 from beyond the arc.

He also eclipsed the 1,000-point mark in his career midway through his junior year. He helped the Panthers to the semi-finals and finished 25-3 on the season. He scored 16 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and four steals in Whitmer’s state semifinal loss to Centerville.

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Duke returns to Madison Square Garden in February to face Illinois

Duke and Illinois set matchup at Madison Square Garden in February of 2025.

Duke ensured the program’s 60th all time game at the infamous Madison Square Garden would be a big one. The Blue Devils are taking on Big Ten foe Illinois at MSG on Saturday, February 22, 2025 in an epic non conference battle.

This matchup will be broadcast on FOX and features a pair of teams that went to the Elite Eight last season. Duke has now played at least one game at MSG in 11 of the past 12 seasons and 21 of the past 23. The Blue Devils are a whopping 41-18 all time at Madison Square Garden, and coach Jon Scheyer is 21-5 in his time as a player, assistant coach, and head coach.

Illinois won the Big Ten for the third time in the past four years last year, while reaching the Elite Eight and finishing sixth in the AP Poll.

For Duke this represents another excellent non conference matchup. The Blue Devils are already playing Auburn, Kentucky, Kansas, and Arizona as they load up the schedule to prepare a young roster – led by incoming freshman phenom Cooper Flagg – to win the ACC and make another deep run in March.

BTN to feature ‘B1GWelcome’ programming for new schools on Friday

The Big Ten will officially expand to 18 members this week and the Big Ten Network will be ready to celebrate the event

The Big Ten will officially expand to 18 members this week and the Big Ten Network will be ready to celebrate the event.

The Big Ten Network announced this week that on Friday it will feature #B1GWelcome programming to welcome each of the four new schools. Those four new schools, of course, are Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC.

Click on the post below to see all that Big Ten Network has planned to celebrate and welcome the Ducks, Huskies, Bruins and Trojans:

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WATCH: Wisconsin women’s basketball leaders gearing up for 2024-25 campaign

WATCH: Wisconsin women’s basketball upperclassmen gearing up for 2024-25 campaign

Wisconsin’s women’s basketball team showcased upperclassmen Serah Williams, Halle Douglass and Natalie Leuzinger in their first practice footage of the offseason on Tuesday.

Wisconsin kick-started its offseason practices weeks ago, but the Badgers had yet to display their three longest tenured players honing in on their skills this summer.

Williams, a junior from Brooklyn, New York, registered a team-best 17.4 points per appearance during her 2023-24 season. She also took home 2024 Big Ten Defensive Player of Year honors and earned 2024 Big Ten First Team nods during her sophomore season.

Leuzinger, a graduate student, averaged 7.7 points and 9.5 minutes per game in 2023-24, while Douglass played in 25 games and posted 3.8 points per contest.

As a team, the Badgers will participate in the 2024 Cancun Challenge from Nov. 28-30 alongside Providence, San Diego State, VCU, BYU, Idaho State, Iowa, Rhode Island, Rice and Vermont.

Wisconsin will also host eight Big Ten opponents, including new conference foes UCLA and USC. Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State, Minnesota and Rutgers round out that list.

Away games against Washington, Oregon, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Nebraska, Purdue and Minnesota are also on UW’s horizon.

While Williams, Douglass and Leuzinger will serve as this crew’s veteran trio, UW will welcome four new players this fall. International guard Alba Martin Mesa, walk-on Reese Jaramillo, former Northern Kentucky center Carter McCray and former Duquesne guard Tess Myers will play their first games as Badgers during the 2024-25 slate.

Marisa Moseley’s group will look to build off its 15-17 mark and Great 8 appearance in the WNIT last season.

Gonzaga and UCLA finalize two-year scheduling agreement

Gonzaga and UCLA will square off at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles in December and again in 2025 at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs and UCLA Bruins will continue what has been among the best non-conference rivalries in college basketball for at least the next two seasons, agreeing to a pair of matchups starting in the 2024-25 season.

The Zags will face UCLA at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on December 28, before meeting in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena on December 13, 2025.

It will be the tenth and eleventh all time meetings between these two powerhouse programs. Gonzaga has won seven of the last nine, including four in a row – although three of the games have been decided by less than 10 points. Last year Gonzaga held off UCLA in the fifth place game of the Maui Invitational behind 32 points from Anton Watson.

Prior to that, Julian Strawther hit a three pointer with 7.2 seconds left to send UCLA packing in the 2023 Sweet 16, and before that Jalen Suggs hit a half-court buzzer beater in the 2021 Final Four – propelling the Zags to the national championship game which they lost to Baylor.

This year’s event has been named the West Coast Hoops Showdown, and will be the first college basketball game played at the Intuit Dome, which will be the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers when it opens this August.

4-star guard decommits from Illinois, might reclassify to 2024

2025 four-star guard Jeremiah Fears has reopened his recruitment and could reclassify to 2024 after initially committing to Illinois.

Guard Jeremiah Fears, among the top players in the 2025 recruiting class, announced on social media he is decommitting from Illinois and reopening his recruitment.

Fears is a 6’3 four-star guard who comes in at No. 32 in 247Sports composite class rankings. Initially from Joliet, IL, Fears is playing at Compass Prep High School in Arizona, and told reporters back in May he was still undecided about staying in the 2025 class or attempting to reclassify to start college in 2024.

The Illini have an open scholarship but a crowded guard rotation that includes Ty Rodgers, Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, and Arizona transfer Kylan Boswell. If Fears is wanting to play big minutes right away in the 2024-25 season, reopening his recruitment is a logical decision.

Fears chose Illinois out of a top five that included Kansas, Ole Miss, Providence, and Michigan, although the 6’3 guard indicated his recruitment at this time is wide open.

It is also worth pointing out that Fears’ older brother, Jeremy, plays for Tom Izzo and Michigan State.

USC installs new basketball floor with Big Ten logo at Galen Center

USC has put down its new Big Ten court inside the Galen Center.

It’s a new era at USC. The Trojans are moving into the Big Ten, and that means the next time you watch a USC sports event, you will see a Big Ten logo on the field or court. This seems to be the week in which crews at all of the schools transitioning to the Big Ten are replacing Pac-12 logos with Big Ten logos on football fields and basketball courts. USC basketball has installed a new floor at the Galen Center. Gone are the Pac-12 markings. The Big Ten logo is now found in the painted area. The move which was announced two years ago and has been in the works for a long time is now finally happening in an outward, tangible, physical way. This is history unfolding in front of us.

Get ready for a new USC basketball season with games on Big Ten Network instead of Pac-12 Network. USC basketball will be more visible than before. USC women’s basketball will begin the most anticipated season in school history since 1993-1994. New floor, new era, new optimism. It’s a fresh start at USC.

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