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Purdue Top Team Among 4 Big Ten Teams in AP Poll

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Purdue is the 14th ranked team in college basketball.

You know it’s getting closer to college basketball season when preseason games and secret scrimmages are being played. The opening AP Poll is the biggest thing that makes everyone know the season is upon us. The top 25 for the start of the 2024-25 season has been released. To no surprise at all, the Big Ten has some work to do.

Not that there aren’t some talented teams in the Big Ten, but four teams do find themselves amongst the Top 25. The highest is the Purdue Boilermakers, who come in at 14th. The other teams are No. 17 Indiana, No. 22 UCLA , and No. 25 Rutgers. They aren’t alone, as several other impactful Big Ten teams just missed out on the Top 25 AP Poll . First off, is Illinois just behind Rutgers by a mere 10 points. Six other teams from the conference received votes, including Michigan State, Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Maryland.

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Despite no teams among the top 10 in the AP Poll, the Big Ten is in a position to have some great teams this season. Plenty of the Big Ten’s best will have a shot to get some quality wins in the non-conference. Michigan State will play No. 1 Kansas at the Champions Classic during the first week of the season. The Big Ten remains without a National Champion since 2000, is this the year they snap the drought? Expectations certainly aren’t high for the conference, so why not this year?

Purdue Top Team Among 4 Big Ten Teams In AP Poll

The Boilermakers had a season to remember in 2023-24; they won both the Big Ten Regular Season and the Big Ten Tournament. They also had the best player in college basketball. Zach Edey helped lead Purdue to their first Final Four since 1980. They even reached the National Championship Game. Edey wasn’t enough, as they lost to the UConn Huskies. Sure, Edey is gone, but the Boilermakers have easily retooled. Having a now junior point guard in Braden Smith can only help the Boilermakers right back in contention this year.

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Coach Matt Painter is oozing with confidence, or that’s what he told Dave Sketta from the Associated Press .

” We have three starters back from a final four team. We have five freshmen. We have a lot of guys with experience outside of those three starters,” Painter said. ” We’re excited about it. We’re excited about this group.”

Does Mike Woodson Finally Get it Right?

The Hoosiers have plenty of talent on the roster once again for 2024-25. The real question is, can Coach Mike Woodson get the most out of the talent? Sure, they had a great player haul last season when they landed Kel’el Ware in the transfer portal. But now Ware is off to the NBA. Woodson again went portaling for another elite-level big and bagged former Arizona center, Oumar Ballo; he is paired with Malik Reneau in the front court for the Hoosiers. The Hoosiers missed out on the Big Dance last season as they finished 19-14 (10-10). When you think of Indiana, the expectation is to be a NCAA tournament team, highly ranked in the AP Poll. They get a chance to start the year ranked, but can Coach Woodson get it right in 2024-25? The Hoosiers have lacked a true point guard for much of the last 10 years. Until they get that spot right, it probably won’t matter how many elite bigs they have.

New League, Same Expectation for UCLA

Yes, Mick Cronin and the UCLA Bruins have a lot of adjusting to do. That doesn’t mean the expectations have changed for the Bruins. They proved they could be among the elite since Cronin got the gig in 2019. The Bruins reached the Final Four in 2021. They followed it up with back-to-back Sweet 16 in 2022 and 2023. Sure, they have lost a lot of talent the last last several years. Sure, they finished 15-16 last season, but they were youthful.

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This season, they come in with arguably the deepest roster yet, according to Coach Cronin . They added a lot via the portal, highlighted by Kobe Johnson and Skyy Clark . Of the four new teams to the Big Ten, the Bruins have a real shot to compete for the Big Ten Crown.

Rutgers Looking to Live Up To Hype

Just because they come in at No. 25 doesn’t mean Rutgers isn’t feeling some pressure. The Scarlet Knights brought in the most historic recruiting class in school history. The RAC is going to be rocking this season. This marks Rutgers’s first preseason AP Poll ranking since 1978. Coach Steve Pickell will be putting the ball in the hands of his two highly touted freshman guards. Those guards are Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper . They won’t be alone, as Rutgers also added some key depth pieces via the transfer portal.

Coach Pickell completely understands the pressure the team will be under to live up to the hype.

” I’m excited about the expectations,” Pickell told the Associated Press. “We always had high expectations, and now in a league with 18 teams, you know, people are saying, ‘How good are you? There’s 18 teams. They’re great coaches,’ I don’t know where we sit. If you came to our practice yesterday, you would say, ‘Oh boy.’ And if you came a couple of days earlier, you mike think, ‘Hey, they’re going to be pretty good.’”

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I get it the hype is hard to live up to, but Coach Pickell and the Scarlet Knights have long proven they are going to fight tooth and nail to compete. That shouldn’t be any different this season.

Don’t Sleep on Tom Izzo

It’s great to see four Big Ten teams ranked to start the season, but hello people are sleeping on Tom Izzo again. Yeah, the Spartans haven’t been to a Final Four since 2019. However, that doesn’t mean Michigan State can’t make some noise in 2024-25. They return plenty of talent, with guards Jaden Akins , Tre Holloman , and Jeremy Fears Jr . Furthermore, Xavier Booker looks to have taken the next step in his development this offseason. Sure, the Spartans have disappointed when they have been highly rated to start seasons. This year, they don’t appear to have any expectations. That makes them that much more dangerous.

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They will take their lumps, but everyone knows the process. I have faith that Izzo will have the team in contention come March.

The post Purdue Top Team Among 4 Big Ten Teams in AP Poll appeared first on Last Word On Basketball .