Player of the Week:
Jahmir Young, Maryland
Maryland’s offense has been atrocious this year. We’ve talked about that in past blogs; however, they’ve stayed afloat at 8-4 and recently have picked up the pace offensively to sustain a 5-game win streak. Jahmir Young just had the best offensive game of his career against the Bruins on the 22nd before sitting out against Coppin State with an illness. He put up 37 points in the win against UCLA, handing the Bruins their fourth straight loss and showing that despite a regressive season for the Maryland offense, he can still go get buckets. Young has shown legitimate promise as an NBA guard so far this year, averaging a career high in essentially every statistic. What sticks out the most to me are his shooting splits, Young is damn-near a 50-40-90 guy this season, meeting the criteria everywhere except for his 3pt%, where he’s still shooting 35.1%. He’s averaging 19 a game as well in an offense that has been everything but explosive the entire season, so the numbers stick out in my eyes since he’s largely accomplished those efficiencies in a system where there aren’t great spacing or elite scorers around him to allow him excellent spacing. I legitimately think he’s a sleeper in the draft because of his scoring prowess and could end up being a sneaky pick up either undrafted or in the second round and make an immediate scoring impact for a contender, kind of like Brandin Podziemski has done for Golden State this year.
2023: In Recap
Due to the lack of games over the past week, we’re going to take a brief peek into how every team has fared so far this season instead of our normal formula. The order goes by record from worst to best so far this season.
14: Penn State Nittany Lions (6-6)
Despite having a stingy defenese with good on-ball defenders around the perimeter, PSU has struggled mightily with rebounding and protecting the paint. New head coach Mike Rhoades and his transfer-laden crew haven’t exactly panned out as well as the team did last year and will need to immediately find some sort of interior game on both ends of the floor before they win any more games.
13: Michigan Wolverines (6-6)
One of the better offenses and the statistically worst defenses in the conference, the leaving of Hunter Dickinson, struggles with Juwan Howard’s health, and lack of continuity on offense at times has left Wolverines fans begging for the firing of Howard or some sort of change on the coaching staff. He’ll need to turn things around quickly for Michigan.
12: Michigan State Spartans (7-5)
Despite the preseason hype, MSU hasn’t lived up to the expectations placed upon them this season. However, they’ve won three straight and as I said a few weeks back, Izzo-led teams are notorious for coming alive at the tail-half of the season. With New Years coming, now is their time to continue building on this three game win streak they find themselves in.
11: Iowa Hawkeyes (7-5)
Similar to Michigan, they have a high-powered offense with some great scorers and some of the best passing in the nation (they rank 8th nationallly in assists per game), however the defense is extremely suspect and not fun to watch. They’ll need a new scheme to protect their lesser on-ball guards and paint protectors to figure it out.
10: Rutgers Scarlet Knights (7-4)
Now, the antithesis of Iowa. One of the best defenses in the conference and country as a whole, hardworking and stingy, paired with one of the worst offenses in the country. They’re 340th in the nation in scoring and top 20 in points allowed, they’re like Maryland in that way, however, they don’t have the proven scorers that Maryland does. I don’t foresee them sustaining a winning record for long because defense gets worse the more a season goes on if you can’t score enough points to give that defense momentum.
9: Maryland Terrapins (9-4)
The Terps are on a 5 game win streak, longest in the conference, and heading into the New Year with a lot of momentum. Their offense leaves a lot to desire but as just mentioned, they at least have guys that can carry that offense to wins. If they, collectively, can find their shots and create better opportunities for the whole team I could see them winning a bunch of games in the conference and dancing once again.
8: Indiana Hoosiers (9-3)
0-3 against top 25 opponents, but they’ve showed fight in those losses. They haven’t been too showcase-worthy in any one stat this year but they’ve certainly showed heart, and a lot of that comes from the history of the program. They can make a run this year for sure but guys like Malik Reneau are going to have to consistently put up great shooting performances for that to happen.
7: Wisconsin Badgers (9-3, no. 23 AP)
Great wins so far this season, especiallly over Marquette at home. Some really fascinating ball movement for the Badgers. They’re cohesive and easy to watch, along with having some really explosive scoring outings from multiple guys on the roster any day of the week. They’ve had some struggles of recent, but they seem poised to bounce back and finish top 5 in the BIG10 this season. Chucky Hepburn is a dog, too.
6: Minnesota Golden Gophers (9-3)
They have one of the best playmakers in the country in Elijah Hawkins and one of the most explosive wing scorers in Dawson Garcia. It’s great to see the Gophers winning games and looking fun while doing it, those two guys could easily lead them to a lot of wins in the conference and a solid finish as well. It’ll be interesting to see if they can sustain this hot streak up considering they’ve already played 10 home games this season.
5: Northwestern Wildcats (9-2)
The champions of Purdue, Northwestern continues to impress after their surprise season last year. Boo Buie is one of the best guards in the country and will hopefully be in contention for the Bob Cousy award come season’s end. They should be ranked soon and will continue to win scrappy games with good offensive performances, they’re a great watch and I’d highly recommend tuning into a Wildcat game this season for some fun basketball.
4: Illinois Fighting Illini (10-2, no. 11 AP)
This one’s tough. The horrible allegations against Terrence Shannon Junior are scary and horribly saddening to say the least. Hopefully the allegations prove false, but regardless of outcome the Illini will be without one of the best players in the country for some time and will likely see a steep fall-off in offensive output over the length of his absence from the team, an absence that may end up being forever.
3: Nebraska Cornhuskers (10-2)
Nebraska scores a lot of points and has handled business against lesser opponents, overall it’s great to see Pinnacle Bank Arena getting a lot of wins (8-1 at home this season) in a sport other than Women’s Volleyball. They score a lot in isolation and don’t necessarily have any great playmakers but hey, they’re super fun to watch. Tough shots and iso ball all the time is pretty cool to watch in college.
2: Ohio State Buckeyes (10-2)
How are they still not ranked? Bruce Thornton and gang have really showed out this season and allthe credit should go to Chris Holtmann who has done an excellent job retooling the team after fans were calling for his job at the end of last year, wishing for the days of Thad Matta to return. They’ll make a lot of noise this season in the BIG10 and might finish with a high seed in March this season, don’t say I didn’t tell you so.
1: Purdue Boilermakers (11-1, no. 1 AP)
The best team in the country. The defending player of the year and some of the best 2-way wings in the country all circling around a creative offense and a stifling defense. They’ve taken care of every single challenge this year and will be the national favorites for the entire year. If they escape that first weekend, I see no reason why Purdue doesn’t finally break through this season and win the whole dang thing.