Big Ten Power Poll No. 1: Minnesota, Wisconsin tied for fifth

[Reserve]

Kudo's to Myron for this one.

As a college basketball writer for the Star Tribune, I’m asked to vote for a lot of things. The Naismith Award, All-Big Ten teams, the Associated Press top-25 poll and more.

To participate in these polls, you usually have to be a credentialed reporter, school official or a coach. My Big Ten Power Poll isn’t like that.

I’ve recruited a variety of college basketball minds who represent different perspectives. I have fans, a ref, a lawyer, former players, bloggers, students and writers on my 13-member panel.

This is the people’s poll.

Each Wednesday, I will post the results. (A dead battery and a lack of wifi on my flight to Puerto Rico delayed this week’s poll, but look for it on Wednesdays from now on).

I’ve asked the voters, whom you will meet soon, to offer their most unbiased assessments each week. You’ll see their individual votes at the bottom of the page. The official tally will sit at the top of the blog each week. A team receives points based on its position in each poll. No. 11 gets one point, No. 10 gets two, etc.

Without further ado …

Read the rest here and see the " experts in the poll "

I'll be looking forward to reading this one Wednesdays.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/g...9.html?elr=KArks47cQiU17cQiU47cQU17cQ_bDaEP7U

 

[josh087]

GL and I are part of the panel. It should be a fun time!

Note - I would have put OSU #1 on my ballot but I turned mine in before the OSU/Fla game started. They will be #1 next week barring a loss.

 

[SelectionSunday]

Out of curiosity, any idea how Myron went about selecting the panelists? I emailed him to indicate my interest but never heard back from him.

 

[josh087]

Out of curiosity, how did Myron go about selecting the panelists? I emailed him to indicate my interest, but never heard a word from him.

I'm not sure. You totally should have been a part of the panel. I was really surprised you were not on there.

GL - do you think you could convince Myron to add in Hodger?

 

[howeda7]

I'm not sure. You totally should have been a part of the panel. I was really surprised you were not on there.

GL - do you think you could convince Myron to add in Hodger?

He posted a thread on here asking for nominations. SS was the almost unanimous nominee and then he didn't include him. Odd.

 

[Blizzard]

I emailed him to indicate my interest, but never heard a word from him.

SS..I know you're not kidding..but you have GOT to be kidding me. I'm not knocking the other panelists because I also think that was pretty well done, but honestly, you could have added a lot of depth to that.

 

[SelectionSunday]

No, that's OK Josh. You and Nadine will be fine representatives of the GH; I'm not worried about that. I was just surprised that Myron didn't even acknowledge receiving an email from someone who expressed an interest in participating.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Well, it's commonly known that SS is somewhat an MSU fan as well and his opinion(s) are unbiased which probably eliminated him from consideration

 

[GopherLady]

When Myron spoke to me about this idea, I thought it was a fantastic one. It's basically just how I love the input of posters on this board vs. the "experts" on TV - it adds a fresh twist.

GL and I are part of the panel. It should be a fun time!

Note - I would have put OSU #1 on my ballot but I turned mine in before the OSU/Fla game started. They will be #1 next week barring a loss.

I'm with you, I didn't turn mine in that early, but was at class. However, I do still think MSU has the best team.

Out of curiosity, any idea how Myron went about selecting the panelists? I emailed him to indicate my interest but never heard back from him.

I'll ask him about that, I'm sure it was an oversight, as when I emailed him - you were the #1 person I suggested. I would happily give my spot up for you to be on the panel, SS.

 

[MinnesotaBoiler99]

Big Ten Power Rankings

I actually do this exact same thing (without the panel) for the Purdue Rivals website every Monday - so this does not take into consideration any games played after Sunday.

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Here's my weekly rundown of the Big Ten so far. Not really much to go on yet but the games and tournaments pick up this week.

1. Illinois (3-0) Already 3-0 with an impressive blowout of future Purdue non-conference opponent Southern Illinois. Other 2 victories were rather easy by simply going through the motions. Despite what many say about their subpar performance in their exhibition games, the Illini are very good.

2. Michigan St. (1-0) Spartans rolled Eastern Michigan in the opener without Lucious. They’re in this spot simply because they’ve done nothing in their one game to suggest otherwise.

T3. Ohio St (1-0) Sullinger with 19 points and 14 boards in just 21 minutes in his debut. Pretty impressive albeit a very inferior opponent. Interesting tilt with Florida this week (Tuesday).

T3. Purdue (1-0) After a slow start shooting-wise, the Boilers rolled to an easy victory over Howard. JJ needs to start knocking down jumpers and hopefully guys like Byrd and Smith continue to shoot well. The Barlow to Moore alley-oop was the best Purdue highlight reel play I’ve seen since G-Rob’s dunking on Ostertag.

5. Wisconsin (1-0) Frosh Josh Gasser poured in 21 points in his debut. I’ve honestly never heard of him. Prairie View A&M is about as bad as a D-I team you’re going to find. Bo Ryan reminds me a lot of Coach Keady in that he can find 5 random guys on the street and coach them up to be a legit Big Ten contender. Not to say Sconny doesn’t have any talent but I think you all know what I mean.

6. Minnesota (1-0) I attended their 14 point win over Wofford on Friday. Like the BTT game where they destroyed us, their frontcourt depth will create problems for a lot of teams. Trevor Mbakwe (suspended last year) will be a double-double machine this year. Devoe Joseph is suspended indefinitely (probably 5-7 games) so they lack guard depth at the moment. Not sure if they can contend for a league title but they can beat anyone in the conference this year. I was offered freebies again for their game tonight vs. Siena (I can't make it) but it will be on ESPNU at 9pm EST for those interested. They then head to Puerto Rico this weekend where they should meet UNC in the semi-finals Friday night.

T7. Northwestern (1-0) Man, too bad Kevin Coble quit. I’d love to see this Northwestern team with him (healthy of course). They’re definitely a bubble team and Coble could’ve been the difference this year especially with 3 additional spots now into the Big Dance. They took care of business against Northern Illinois over the weekend.

T7. Indiana (2-0) They actually impressed last night with their 23 point beatdown of Wright State. There were some college basketball insiders that thought Wright State was going to walk into AH and win. Didn’t really see much of the game other than highlights but it appears VJ3 and the Hoosiers shot out of their minds from the floor.

9. Penn St (1-0) Not much to say here. Their win over Lehigh was less impressive than Michigan’s win over SC Upstate (Huh?) but the Nittany Lions have Talor Battle and that makes them better than the Wolverines IMHO.

10. Michigan (1-0) Tim Hardaway Jr. looked good in his debut. However, no Sims or Harris this year which means not very many wins for Beilein and Co.

11. Iowa (0-1) Only Big Ten to lose already and it was at home to South Dakota State. Ouch. Fran McCaffrey might have bitten off more than he can chew. No Matt Gaetans for a few more games either. The over/under for wins this year is 5.5

 

[Radio Badger]

I'm also a part of the Power Poll. I saw that a lot of people had recommended SS to participate and I certainly thought he belonged.

On a side note, I also did my rankings before the Ohio State game and probably would have moved them up to 2nd or 3rd, but not #1 overall. I still think that their guard play will be an issue when they face a team that can actually play defense. That said, Sullinger is a beast. Here's hoping that Bo is planning on using all 15 fouls that Nankivil, Bruesewitz, and Berggren have to offer.

 

[GVBadger]

The Badgers are going to be very tough this year. Leuer has stepped up his game again. Taylor will be running the show full time now and they have a bunch of nice players that have been there and know what they are doing. Add in Gasser, who is going to play heavy minutes as a freshman and has impressed Ryan tremendously so far and the makings are there for a conference title run. That should not be a surprise. Only finished one game out last year. This team will be better then last years.

The top 2/3 of the conference is as good as it has been in a long time. Iowa, Michigan, PSU and possibly Indiana? Not so much.

 

[Reserve]

The Badgers are going to be very tough this year.

With all the flopping your boys do they'll have to be, that floor is hard you know.

Lol. Sorry, couldn't help myself.

SS would have been great on the panel, especially once March rolls around. Great job by everyone involved though.

 

[Dr.Don]

Out of curiosity, any idea how Myron went about selecting the panelists? I emailed him to indicate my interest but never heard back from him.

Myron is not as stupid as some people think I look. He picked Nadine over you, and that was because she won the coin flip. Luck sucks!!!