Sparkplug

Player of the Week

Kendrick Nunn, Illinois

And for only the second time this season, the Illinois Fighting Illini have strung together back-to-back wins, and since a troubling 2-3 start that included a pair of losses (and two close calls) to mid-major opponents. But since the return of Kendrick Nunn, Illinois has gone 3-2 with the two losses coming to very good teams in Iowa St. and Notre Dame.  

Coming into this season, Nunn was expected to be more of the complementary second option to Malcolm Hill on offense as he was last year when Rayvonte Rice was hurt. But Nunn, the 6’3” shooting guard, has come in and made this team look a lot better. Instead of losing to bad teams, they are giving good teams a run for their money, and this week, the numbers were there to prove how important Nunn has been to this team. In wins against Western Carolina and Yale, who is a competent mid-major opponent, Nunn averaged 27.5 PPG on 18/30 shooting (60%), including 9/13 from three (69%).  With his lights-out three-point shooting and his 21 points a game, Nunn has begun to right the ship for the Illini, but they have a long way to go still to be in the tournament discussion. But Nunn, along with Hill, make one of the more potent duos in the conference and can score big on anybody.

Who’s Hot?

Yogi Ferrell, Indiana

Like Illinois, Indiana rolled against a couple of cupcakes this week, so no heroics were needed to get the win, but Yogi Ferrell put up ridiculous numbers this week, scoring a career-high 38 against IPFW, in addition to 15 against Morehead State. Overall, he shot 64% on 25 field goal attempts this week, and the Hoosiers got just the spark they needed after a disheartening loss to Duke.  He hasn’t made a huge jump so far as a senior, but he’s putting up career-bests of 17.3 PPG and 6.4 APG, both good for Top 5 in the conference. Ferrell will likely only continue to play better and better, as he’s proven how good he is over the last three years, and this Indiana team will look to keep things going with three winnable games before conference play.  A 12/19 date with Notre Dame in Indianapolis looms especially large.

Andrew White, Nebraska

A star is in the making out in Lincoln. Andrew White III scored 58 points in two games this week, a scoring explosion that had been hinted at with White’s early performance.  The Kansas transfer earned a whopping 16 trips to the line against Abilene Christian, making 14 of them, then earned his first double-double in a tough loss to intra-state rival Creighton. His 17.5 PPG puts him at 4th in the conference, and his emergence has Nebraska as a potential dark horse in the conference race. They haven’t been able to pull one out against the ranked opponents they’ve played, and the double-digit loss to an underrated, but unranked Creighton team was especially though, but this team is better than their 6-4 record suggests, and they will certainly play spoiler to some conference frontrunners with the dynamic duo of White and Shavon Shields leading the charge.

Corey Sanders, Rutgers

Coming into this season, there wasn’t a lot for Rutgers to look forward to. The team that finished last in the conference last season lost their two senior leaders, Kadeem Jack and Myles Mack.  But one thing they did bring to the table this year was top 100 recruit Corey Sanders. But despite his prodigious hype and talent, I wouldn’t have guessed that they would lean on him this heavily this early.  Playing over 3/4ths of the point guard minutes this season, Sanders leads the team in scoring and assists, and when they win, he’s usually a big part of that. In this week, Rutgers split games, falling well short against rival Seton Hall, but beating Central Connecticut State handily.  Sanders played well in both games, averaging 16 points on 67% shooting to go with 6 assists in each. In some games, Sanders has put up big numbers simply due to his usage and Rutgers’ alliance on his talent.  But against Central Connecticut St., we saw how good and well-rounded Sanders can be, as he had a statline of 18 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 steals, and a perfect 4/4 from outside. His team will certainly struggle this year, but Sanders is a player that they can build around for the future.

Who’s Not?

Mike Gesell, Iowa

It’s been an interesting season for Gesell.  He looked good last season, running the Hawkeyes offense, and this year, he has really run the show, earning 7 assists per game, a vast improvement from his career average. But this week, Gesell just didn’t quite look right, scoring only 2 points in each game, in 45 total minutes of play, and turning the ball over 5 times while missing his only two free throws. The Hawkeyes got a pair of easy wins, but Gesell just didn’t put of a lot of numbers in those outings.  There are some good scorers on this team, and he doesn’t need to create for himself a lot, but I would imagine that more than 4 points in a two-game stretch is what they’re going to want out of him.

Carlos Morris, Minnesota

Things were looking good for Minnesota and then they went and lost a pair of games to the South Dakota schools this week. Bad shooting doomed them both times as they shot under 37% in both games, and shooting guard Carlos Morris has been a part of that. Shooting 3/17 (18%) this week, Morris was hardly a factor in both losses, which isn’t good when he’s relied on as one of the two main perimeter scorers.  He’s currently shooting under 40% for the season.

Top 5 Point Guards

1. Melo Trimble, Maryland

Trimble put forth a valiant effort to keep his team undefeated against North Carolina, but it wasn’t quite enough on the road. Otherwise, he has them winning games and most recently scored 25 against a great UConn team, including a 14/15 performance at the free throw line.

2. Yogi Ferrell, Indiana

As mentioned above, Yogi has been pretty good this season.  He’s an excellent scoring guard and one of the better defenders on an Indiana team not known for good defense. His four-year career has been phenomenal, but he’ll have to take it to a whole new level if he’s going to carry his team past the Sweet Sixteen this go-round.

3. Bryant McIntosh, Northwestern

McIntosh is a player who’s really coming into his own in his sophomore season, and, together with dynamic seniors Tre Demps and Alex Olah, he has Northwestern within striking distance of that elusive tournament bid. He sits at fourth in the league in assists and is currently connecting on half of his 3’s.  He’ll only get better and better, and could easily be an All-Conference selection by the end of conference play.

4. Bronson Koenig, Wisconsin

He’s not the greatest distributor for a point guard, but this guy can drive and finish like crazy.  He’s often had to carry the Wisconsin offense, and he’s done a fairly good job of helping to replace the scoring void left by Kaminsky and Dekker. He’s not the most complete point guard, but he can really fill it up.

5. Derrick Walton, Jr., Michigan

Walton isn’t quite as dynamic as the top 4 guys on this list, but for three years, he’s been a steady starting point guard for Michigan when healthy. He’s averaging 3.6 assists and nearly 2 steals, and he has thus far connected on 64% of a decent volume of three-pointers. Quality wins have been avoiding the Wolverines more often than not, but Walton has played solidly in his junior season.  He’s not an NBA prospect but he’s the kind of solid point guard who can hold a lineup of LeVert and Dawkins and Irvin together. They’re going to need him now as much as ever following Spike Albrechts’ announcement of the premature end to his career.

Big Ten Power Rankings

1) Michigan State
2) Purdue
3) Maryland
4) Iowa
5) Northwestern
6) Wisconsin
7) Indiana
8) Michigan
9) Nebraska
10) Ohio State
11) Illinois
12) Penn State
13) Minnesota
14) Rutgers