At least one secret scrimmage is in the books. Open-to-the-public exhibitions start Thursday. The official season-openers are just three weeks away. In other words, it’s a wonderful time to dive head-first into Big Ten hoops.
Which All-Big Ten studs are hurting and unavailable to their teams right now? Why do you suddenly need to know about the Nanjing Monkey Kings? Why does the league’s scoring king feel disrespected? Which school has the most international imports? Why might Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year Braden Smith (and other fourth-year seniors) be eligible to come back in 2026-27?
Without further ado, let’s begin this Big Ten basketball feast.
Starting with Minnesota’s exhibition against North Dakota State on Thursday, there are 171 days of hoops leading up to the NCAA championship game on Monday, April 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. (That’s just a 66.1-mile bus ride from Purdue’s Mackey Arena, by the way.)
Let’s get to the headlines:
Illinois Can’t Get the Balkan Five on the Floor
Brad Underwood’s Illini have one of the biggest groups of newcomers in the league, highlighted by Arkansas transfer Zvonimir Ivisic, Cal transfer Andrej Stojakovic, 22-year-old pro point guard Mihailo Petrovic and freshman David Mirkovic. Throw in incumbent center Tomislav Ivisic, perhaps Illinois’ best player, and you get what’s known as the “Balkan Five.”
But Underwood has yet to have them all on the floor together. Mirkovic didn’t make it to Illinois until the end of July and Petrovic arrived in August just before school started, and by the time they reached the practice floor, Stojakovic suffered a knee strain that has kept him out since (though he went to the doctor Friday to set the timetable for a return expected to be soon).
However, Tomislav Ivisic underwent a tonsillectomy on Wednesday that will sideline him for a week or two. Could the Illini have everybody for their “secret scrimmage” with defending national champion Florida on Oct. 25 in Florida? That would be 17 days after Ivisic’s procedure. “It’s just a matter of how his body handles the healing process,” Underwood said. “So I don’t know. But he’ll be out a little bit.”
Petrovic, meanwhile, has not been cleared to compete by the NCAA. Last year, Ivisic was not cleared until four days before the season opener — though no two NCAA eligibility-review timelines are the same.
Oregon’s Shelstad Shelved With a Broken Hand
Oregon junior point guard Jackson Shelstad looked sharp for the Big Ten media day festivities on Thursday. Even the black cast on his right arm seemed to work.
The third-team all-Big Ten honoree last year — who built a reputation with his huge shots at the end of games — suffered the injury at the start of October. Given his four- to six-week healing process, he’s uncertain for Oregon’s opener Nov. 4 vs. Hawaii. The Ducks also host Rice (Nov. 7) and South Dakota State (Nov. 12) by the six-week mark.
“Hopefully sooner than that,” Shelstad said. “I’m doing everything I can to get back. I’m doing cardio and staying in shape. Ballhandling.”
“I’ve seen him working on his left hand,” said teammate Nate Bittle.
“I just have to stay away from contact,” Shelstad said.
Shelstad and Bittle, by the way, were among the 10 players voted to the Big Ten’s preseason all-league team. Purdue’s Braden Smith, the nation’s only returning first-team All-American, leads the cast that includes Big Ten returnees Trey Kaufman-Renn (Purdue), Nick Martinelli (Northwestern), Bruce Thornton (Ohio State) and John Blackwell (Wisconsin). UAB transfer Yaxel Lendeborg (Michigan), Drake transfer Bennett Stirtz (Iowa) and New Mexico transfer Donovan Dent (UCLA) also made the cut.
Shelstad’s potential replacement committed to the Ducks on Oct. 2: Six-foot-4, 190-pound sophomore Wei Lin, who spent the last three years playing professionally for the Nanjing Monkey Kings in the Chinese Basketball Association. Lin, 22, averaged 21 points and five assists per game last season while shooting 34.9 percent on three-pointers and 87.6 percent at the line. He’s the first Chinese pro to join an NCAA team.
Big Ten Scoring Champ “Humbled” in Offseason
Over the last 30-plus years, five players have led the Big Ten in scoring in back-to-back seasons: Zach Edey, Luka Garza, Evan Turner, Glenn Robinson and Steve Smith. Four of the five were top-10 picks in the NBA draft and Garza went in the second round.
Why bring this up? Because Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli, who averaged 20.5 points per game last year, has a chance to go back-to-back this season. But when Martinelli declared for the draft last summer and was invited to workouts, he didn’t feel like he was taken seriously. “Full transparency: I think that, obviously, the two things they were looking for in my game, as everyone knows, is three-point shooting and defense,” Martinelli said. “But it was a super-humbling experience coming off a pretty good season. I thought that I’d get a real look — and definitely I got the sense I was kind of just there to be a sparring partner with those really high-level guys that teams were looking at. That’s definitely a humbling experience, a motivating experience for me.”
Martinelli will have ample opportunities to score again this year as the Wildcats graduated their other three double-figure scorers. Sophomore guard K.J. Windham (5.6 ppg) owns the next-best average among returnees.
Building Virtually From Scratch
There are four new coaches in the Big Ten this year: Indiana’s Darian DeVries, Iowa’s Ben McCollum, Maryland’s Buzz Williams and Minnesota’s Niko Medved. All four essentially got to pick every player on their roster.
Maryland retained nobody from its Sweet Sixteen squad. Indiana welcomed back two walk-ons who combined to play one minute last year. Iowa kept one scholarship player: redshirt freshman Cooper Koch, who played just 136 minutes as he endured a collapsed lung. Minnesota boasts two scholarship returnees, though sophomore guard Isaac Asuma was the only one who played last year.
Considering that retention is regarded as one of the leading indicators of a team’s potential for success, these four teams have ground to make up on the likes of Purdue, which retains 69.7 percent of its minutes, Ohio State (49.5 percent), Illinois (45.0 percent), UCLA (43.0 percent), Northwestern (42.7 percent) and Michigan State (41.7 percent).
But maybe Iowa deserves an asterisk because McCollum brought five players with him from Drake, and that quintet logged 3,579 minutes on the same team last year. But point guard Bennett Stirtz, who led the nation with 39.4 minutes per game, says Iowa won’t be Drake 2.0. “We’ve added some pick-and-pop threats,” Stirtz said. “We’re still trying to figure out who we are on offense, but we can really space the floor and I can really feel that in practice. There’s a lot more space out there on offense.”
But when Iowa traveled to Saint Louis for a “secret scrimmage” on Saturday, the Billikens reportedly claimed a 99-74 win.
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Michigan’s Potential X-Factor
Despite losing Danny Wolf to the NBA Draft’s first round and fellow 7-footer Vladislav Goldin to graduation, Michigan’s frontcourt might be even better this year with transfers Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB), 7-foot-3 Aday Mara (UCLA) and rebounding savant Morez Johnson Jr. (Illinois) joining stellar backup Will Tschetter.
Returning starters Roddy Gayle Jr. and Nimari Burnett and freshman Trey McKenney, a McDonald’s All-American, have a handle on the wings. This makes North Carolina transfer Elliot Cadeau, who takes over the point for the departed Trey Donaldson, perhaps the young man with the biggest question mark next to his name. Cadeau averaged 9.4 points and 6.2 assists for the Tar Heels last year, but he’s a career 28.1 percent three-point shooter on limited attempts. “I think Elliot is going to be able to play so fast,” Gayle said. “He’s extremely quick. He’s extremely agile. His ability to play in the pick-and-roll and be able pick defenses apart is really next-level. He’s very similar to Trey. I think Trey was probably a better shooter. Elliot’s going to be able to get downhill and create for others.”
“His IQ and his playmaking is exceptional,” Burnett said. “There’s times where he’s going so fast and I’m thinking like, there’s no choice but to finish, and then he just stops on a dime, makes a read, makes a pass … it’s just a joy to play with him.”
The Five-in-Five All-Stars
Momentum has been building for the NCAA to change the eligibility rules to allow all athletes to play five seasons, but in a five-year window. If the “5 in 5” plan becomes law soon, there are 41 fourth-year seniors on scholarship in the Big Ten who could conceivably return for a fifth season.
The potential at the point guard position alone is ridiculous with Purdue’s Braden Smith, Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz, Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton and UCLA’s Donovan Dent all eligible under the proposed criteria.
Of course, this would be just one more cluster for Big Ten coaches to sort out. But Michigan State’s Tom Izzo sees at least one positive. “That’s one of the things that would be even for all of us,” Izzo said. “Some of the other things are not even for all of us. If that’s what they think is right, I’m fine with that. The only problem with it that I see is, now, if you want to get freshmen in there, then all of a sudden you’re playing against 24-year-old guys. That’s hard.”
Exhibitions to Whet Your Appetite
While fans can’t attend the “secret scrimmages,” there are several big-time exhibition games that will draw large crowds before the regular season begins Nov. 3.
Oct. 18: BYU at Nebraska
Oct. 24: Purdue at Kentucky, Oklahoma vs. Wisconsin (in Milwaukee), Utah at Oregon
Oct. 25: Michigan vs. St. John’s (at Madison Square Garden)
Oct. 26: Baylor vs. Indiana (in Indianapolis), Northwestern at Iowa State
Oct. 28: Michigan State at Connecticut
By the Numbers
Twelve players jumped from one Big Ten school to another during the offseason, and Washington coach Danny Sprinkle grabbed four of them: USC starting backcourt Desmond Claude (15.8 ppg) and Wesley Yates III (14.1 ppg), Indiana wing Bryson Tucker and Rutgers big Lathan Sommerville.
USC compensated by adding Maryland shooter Rodney Rice (13.8 ppg). As mentioned above, Michigan brought in UCLA’s Aday Mara and Illinois’ Morez Johnson Jr., while UCLA filled its lanky center role with Michigan State’s Xavier Booker.
Indiana guards Myles Rice (Maryland) and Gabe Cupps (Ohio State) found new places to play. Ohio State’s Sean Stewart joined Oregon’s teeming frontcourt, where he gets to be teammates with older brother Miles (a Howard transfer). Last but not least, Iowa sharpshooter Pryce Sandfort joined Nebraska.
Speaking of Nebraska, the Cornhuskers are among the eight Big Ten teams who boast at least four international players. Illinois, Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, Washington and Wisconsin also have four players who list their hometown outside the United States, while Rutgers leads the league with five international players.
