The Big Ten’s 20-game conference schedule opens Tuesday, which means Michigan’s Dusty May finally gets to coach a team in what he regards as his family’s home conference.
May attended Indiana (where he served as a student manager under Bob Knight) and his wife graduated from Purdue, so they were seeking a Big Ten experience when it came time to move on from Florida Atlantic. With just three scholarship players returning (Nimari Burnett, Will Tschetter and Jace Howard), May and his staff essentially had carte blanche to customize Michigan’s roster to their liking.
Among other things, the Wolverines wanted positional size and a balanced scoring attack — and they couldn’t have done much better in both regards. With 7-foot-1 Vladislav Goldin (FAU) and 7-foot Danny Wolf (Yale) starting together, Michigan ranks No. 8 nationally in height, per KenPom. That’s relevant because the nation’s leader each of the three previous years — Purdue, Purdue and Arizona — has earned a No. 1 NCAA seed.
“Overall, it’s been good,” May tells Hoops HQ. “Danny has moved well guarding the basketball. We’re still tweaking some ball-screen coverage with him at the four, but the numbers and the eye test say they play very well together. And we’re still figuring out things with those two. Every game, they learn a little bit more about each other, and they’re learning how to stay out of each other’s way and read the situation in front of them.”
During Michigan’s 6-1 start that has May’s squad No. 22 in KenPom’s overall ratings, Goldin and Wolf have been on the floor together 34.5 percent of the time. In those 96 minutes and 38 seconds, the Wolverines have a point differential of +59. In the other 183:22, the Wolverines are +86. So the Wolverines are more successful when they’re together, but not so much that they’re overly reliant on the duo.
The Wolverines are shooting .504 from the field and .385 from 3-point range, and they’re earning assists on 60 percent of their baskets. All these rank among the Top 45 in the country. And the offensive side of the ball isn’t Michigan’s better side. Through Saturday’s games, the Wolverines ranked No. 10 nationally per KenPom in defensive efficiency, with 93.3 points allowed per 100 possessions. Michigan ranks eighth nationally in forcing turnovers (24.5 percent of possessions) and the Goldin/Wolf duo helps limit foes to 40.7 percent shooting inside the arc. That leads the Big Ten and ranks top 10 in the nation.
In other words, May’s team is ready for the Big Ten to begin — and he’s eager to enjoy Tuesday night’s debut at unbeaten Wisconsin.
“It is cool to get into Big Ten play — especially against someone who has played as well as Wisconsin,” May says. “A ranked opponent on the road to start out. Just excited to learn more about our team because every Big Ten game, we’re going to be taught some more things about ourselves.”
Oregon center Nate Bittle stayed and grew. Now he’s balling.
Nate Bittle’s emphatic two-handed putback slam with 4.5 seconds left lifted Oregon to an 83-81 upset of No. 9 Alabama Saturday night in the inaugural Players Era Festival. The 7-foot senior, who finished the night with 19 points and nine rebounds, paces a balanced Oregon squad with 14.6 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. The 2021 McDonald’s All-American with the 7-foot-5 wingspan also serves as the answer to a trivia question in this portal-crazy era: Who’s the only Top 20 player on either the RSCI 2021 Top 100 recruits list or 2022 Top 100 recruits list who’s still at his original school?
Bittle has stuck with the Ducks for multiple reasons. The first is something all old-school college fans figure to be giddy to hear: He loves his school. Growing up in Central Point, Oregon — 160 miles south of Eugene — Bittle made so many unofficial trips to the school over the years that he never needed to visit officially. The five-star big took officials to Arizona, Gonzaga and UCLA before he did what he was going to do all along – pick the Ducks.
“I just feel like (head coach Dana) Altman has a good program and a good plan for me,” Bittle told Hoops HQ the night before his game-winning slam. “I’ve never thought about going anywhere else. I grew up a Ducks fan. It was my dream school.”
Another reason? His first three seasons in Oregon didn’t play out like they frequently do for blue-chippers. As a freshman, he backed up N’Faly Dante and only appeared in two-thirds of the games. As a sophomore, he made 22 starts alongside Dante, but he also had to share time with five-star 7-footer Kel’el Ware and stretch four Quincy Guerrier.
Last year, after Ware and Guerrier transferred to Indiana and Illinois, respectively, Bittle earned a starting job for good — for all of three games. He broke his left wrist Nov. 17 against Tennessee State and needed surgery that cost him nine weeks. He returned for 24 minutes over two games in late January, then was felled by an illness that knocked him out the rest of the year.
The Ducks are working on a redshirt waiver so he can be eligible for a fifth season next year, but he might not need another season to prove himself a potential pro — especially if he can start to get his 3-point shot to fall. Altman has given him the green light, but his 0-for-5 showing against Alabama moved him to 3 of 21 for the season. Even so, we learned two important things about Oregon in Las Vegas: Bittle is really good and he’s getting plenty of help from his friends. “I think we have a really good team this year,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of depth and a lot of guys who’ve played a lot of basketball. Everybody’s starting to know their roles.”
AROUND THE RIM:
- There are no official single-game records when it comes to 7-footers shooting three-pointers, but here’s what Hoops HQ research has uncovered: When Illinois’ 7-foot-1 Tomislav Ivisic swished six three-pointers against Arkansas (and his twin brother, Zvonimir) in the Illini’s convincing win over the Razorbacks on Thanksgiving Day, he joined Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky as the only seven footers in Big Ten history to hit six 3-pointers in a game. Kaminsky drilled all six attempts on his way to a school-record 43 points against North Dakota on Nov. 19, 2013. He also blocked three shots.
Tomi is one of our best shooters,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “We had a day [in practice] where he was 9 of 11 from three. He is that guy. Our challenge has been at the other end, getting Tomi dialed in on our ball-screen coverage — and he’s so cerebral. He’s very, very smart. But challenging shots, using his length, using his ability to go challenge shots is something we’ve been working with him on. He was dominant (Thursday).”
Could Ivisic, who has canned 13 three-pointers through seven games for Illinois, be on his way to being the best three-point shooting 7-footer in college basketball history? Former Vanderbilt forward Luke Kornet apparently owns the record for career threes by a 7-footer with 150. Perhaps, but it’s unlikely that Ivisic will stay in college long enough to eclipse that mark. He paces Illinois in scoring (16.3 ppg), rebounding (8.9 rpg) and field-goal percentage (.566) while starting to get comfortable playing “drop” defense. The Illini would be lucky to have him back for one more season, much less three.
- Michigan and Oregon weren’t the only Big Ten teams to bring home a title during Feast Week. Wisconsin (8-0), the league’s other unbeaten squad, knocked off UCF and Pittsburgh in West Virginia to claim the Greenbriar Tip-Off. Sixth-year wing John Tonje continued his ridiculous start with 33 points in the title game against Pitt. He enters Big Ten play shooting 69 of 73 at the line. Tonje’s efficiency all over the court (.945 FT%, .421 3PT%, .600 2PT%) ranks him as the nation’s No. 9 player, per KenPom.com.
- Washington won the Acrisure Invitational in Palm Springs, Calif., behind Great Osobor’s MVP performance. The Two-Million-Dollar Man continues to stuff the stat sheet on a nightly basis as he leads the Huskies in scoring (14.6 ppg), rebounds (10.3 rpg), assists (3.9 apg) and steals (3.3 spg). But if the Huskies are going to get off to a good start in Big Ten play, they need to shoot better from three (31.6 percent) and at the line (60.8 percent). Those aren’t Osobor’s strengths as he hasn’t made any of his rare three-point tries and hits just 55.1 percent at the line.
- Purdue turned a 17-point first-half lead into a seven-point deficit with five minutes to go in the Rady Children’s Invitational final at San Diego, but Myles Colvin’s putback with 0.5 seconds remaining lifted the Boilers to the title over Ole Miss. Colvin and Cam Heide joined Purdue’s starting lineup last week as Matt Painter has decided the Boilers’ best bet is go small. The change certainly has benefited Trey Kaufman-Renn, whose move to the five has jumped him to No. 6 in KenPom’s Player of the Year standings. In the three games since Painter’s switch, Kaufman-Renn has averaged 21.7 points and 8.0 rebounds while shooting 61 percent from the field.
- Not that anybody was doubting the hype attached to Rutgers freshman duo Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, but they answered virtually all questions at the Players Era Festival in Vegas. Harper isn’t great from three-point range (28.6 percent), but it hardly matters because nobody can keep him from getting to the hole whenever he wants. The lefty produced a career-high 36 points Nov. 26 versus Notre Dame, then came back 24 hours later and set another career-high with 37 against stud-laden Alabama — though Texas A&M’s zone defense limited Harper to 6-of-20 shooting Saturday. Harper entered Sunday’s play ranked No. 3 nationally in scoring (23.8 ppg). Meanwhile, Bailey (18.8 ppg) has proven nearly unstoppable in the midrange, yet he’s good enough from three (37.9 percent) that opponents have forced to close out hard on him, thus becoming more susceptible to the pullups and drives.
- At the topsy-turvy Maui Invitational — where No. 2 UConn lost all three games — Michigan State showed some toughness to claim third place with wins over North Carolina and Colorado. Junior guard Tre Holloman earned his third career start in the UNC game and might not be giving up that spot after amassing career-highs for points (19) and minutes (36) and handing out seven assists. One big issue? The Spartans are absolutely dreadful from three-point range: 22.4 percent, which is 362nd out of 364 Division I teams. One of the potential fixes? Moving Xavier Booker to the five. He scored a career-high 12 points versus the Tar Heels while sticking mostly to the post.
- In Derik Queen and Julian Reese, Maryland has a center-power forward combo to challenge Michigan’s Goldin and Wolf. They’re combining for 29.9 points, 16.5 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in 48.1 minutes per game while shooting 62.3 percent from the field. Belmont transfer Ja’Kobi Gillespie gives the Terps a steady ball handler and a disruptive defensive influence at the point. He has more steals (13) than turnovers (10).
- Do-it-all senior wing Brooks Barnhizer is back with a vengeance for Northwestern. After missing the first four games with a foot injury — which allowed junior Nick Martinelli (20.3 ppg) to assert himself as the Wildcats’ new No. 2 man — Barnhizer stacked up 80 points, 32 rebounds, 16 assists and 7 steals in his first four outings. Prediction: Barnhizer will finish among the Big Ten’s top 15 in all four categories.
- Ohio State freshman John Mobley Jr. has wasted little time making his bid to become known as the Big Ten’s leading sharpshooter. He shares first in the league in makes per game (3.0) and ranks second in three-point percentage (56.8) while averaging just 21 minutes off the bench. Purdue’s Fletcher Loyer is the only one ahead in percentage (58.6) and Penn State’s Zach Hicks also is making 3.0 threes per game while shooting 50 percent from behind the arc. Hicks and the Nittany Lions, by the way, got off to a 6-0 start for the first time in 25 seasons. They sit 7-1 entering Big Ten play.
- The Big Ten owns just two true road wins so far: Oregon at Oregon State and Nebraska at Creighton. In Hoops HQ’s estimation, the Huskers’ wire-to-wire win Nov. 22 on Creighton’s home court ranks as the league’s most impressive win to date. It’s absurd that the Huskers’ big-man trio of 7-foot-1 Braxton Meah, Andrew Morgan and Berke Buyuktuncel — with help from double-teams — limited Bluejays center Ryan Kalkbrenner to one shot attempt in 39 minutes. That shot came from three-point range. Prior to that game, Kalkbrenner had hit 38 of 42 from inside the arc in four games.
- Ohio State has been without highly touted Kentucky transfer Aaron Bradshaw for the last three games. Per Adam Jardy of the Columbus Post-Dispatch, the school is investigating Bradshaw for a “possible domestic incident.” Without Bradshaw, Devin Royal has entered the starting lineup and averaged 15.0 points and 7.3 rebounds while 6-foot-6 Evan Mahaffey has blocked six shots in 84 minutes.
- When USC scored just 36 points on Thanksgiving night against Saint Mary’s, it marked the Trojans’ lightest offensive showing since a 42-36 home loss to Cal Poly on Nov. 19, 2011. That loss epitomized a 6-26 season under then-coach Kevin O’Neill. The Trojans finished 0 for 12 from three-point range against Saint Mary’s.
All-Access With No. 1 UCLA: A Little Sugar, a Little Spice and a Big Win Over Baylor
Exclusive: Hoops HQ goes behind the scenes with the Bruins as they prepared for their MLK Day showdown with No. 25 Baylor in NewarkGames To Watch (All times ET)
Michigan at Wisconsin, Tuesday, 9 p.m., Peacock. These are two teams predicted to be in the Big Ten’s bottom half who have proven they were woefully misjudged. The Badgers are off to their first 8-0 start since the 2014 Final Four team that began 16-0. Moreover, Wisconsin has not lost its Big Ten opener — or its Big Ten home opener — since 2018.
Washington at UCLA, Tuesday, 10:30 p.m., FS1. It feels like we need to celebrate the first Big Ten conference game on the west coast. The Bruins (6-1) haven’t played a challenging schedule — their neutral-court loss to New Mexico on Nov. 8 has been their only game against a top-half KenPom team — but Mick Cronin’s squad already has proven to be a defensive juggernaut while hassling teams for all 94 feet. They lead the nation in forcing turnovers (on 29.1 percent of possessions) and opponents are shooting 35.8 percent overall and 27.6 percent on threes.
Wisconsin at Marquette, Saturday, 1:30 p.m., Fox. This Badger State showdown never fails to thrill. Two of the last six games have required overtime and a third was won on a five-foot tip-in at the buzzer. Wisconsin, however, has won the last three games between these schools located 79 miles apart. We’re excited to find out how two-time Big Ten Player of the Week John Tonje fares against Stevie Mitchell’s indefatigable defense — and how the Badgers will decide to defend Kam Jones.
Iowa State at Iowa, Dec. 12, 7:30 p.m, FS1. We’re owed a close game in the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Rivalry, right? Last year, the Hawkeyes got whupped by 25 in Ames. The year before, Iowa won at home by 19. There hasn’t been a game closer than 14 points since 2018.
Dec. 14: Christmas comes early for Big Ten basketball fans on this Saturday. Everywhere you look, there’s a sweet non-conference showdown or two. Texas A&M vs. Purdue and Wisconsin vs. Butler comprise the Indy Classic doubleheader. Seton Hall vs. Rutgers in the Garden State Hardwood Classic. UCLA vs. Arizona in Phoenix. But the two biggest games appear to be Tennessee at Illinois (5:30 p.m on Fox) and Ohio State vs. Auburn in Atlanta (1 p.m. ET on ESPN2).
