With last grains of 2007 slipping through the hourglass and the eighteen questions of the Big Ten exam looming the conference’s teams enjoy a brief tabula rasa moment, taking stock of what has passed and girding themselves for the three and a half most important months of their new year. (more…)

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Confirming its nonpareil regard among the basketball cognoscenti, the bleachers at Proviso West (Hillside, Illinois) high school were filled Thursday not only with the usual compliment of encyclopedically knowledgeable fans but lieutenants from some of the nation’s best programs. In what was typically robust Big Ten representation, Iowa’s Joel Cornette, Bill Carmody and Mitch Henderson from Northwestern, and one of Bo Ryan’s red and white clad operatives were among the clipboard wielders. (more…)

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The ink’s dry on the November letters of intent for the lucky high schoolers fortunate offered D-I basketball scholarships. Lost, however, in the parsing of recruiting classes, the accolades of team rankings, and the rating of players with “stars” is an unseemly recruiting trend: A handful of coaches have chosen to aggressively pursue and accept verbal commitments from ninth, and in some cases, eighth graders. As the competitive dust settles, we must ask: When is a kid simply too young to be subjected to a coach’s hard sell and push for a verbal commitment? (more…)

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On the eve of the Winter Solstice we pause to consider several barometer games in the Big Ten. After tomorrow night, fans from frozen Grand Marais, Minnesota to Orville, Ohio (home of Smuckers Preserves and Bob Knight) will have a better understanding of where their respective teams stand in astronomical if not hoops circles. (more…)

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The story is an increasingly familiar one. Facing criticism from fans, alumni, boosters, and the media class, an athletic director capitulates to the most superficial elements of the peanut gallery, snow-jobs the president and the budget director, and makes a budget-busting hire that has glamorous curbside appeal. (more…)

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Armed with the charms of NBA talent and blessed with legs of youth and in State many consider the epicenter of basketball, Kelvin Sampson’s Indiana Hoosiers are poised to reclaim their place at the pinnacle of the college basketball world. Is IU’s potential for greatness a one year aberration or is this an Indiana team built to restore their tradition? (more…)

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With his acceptance of the Green Bay Packers team presidency Northwestern Athletic Director Mark Murphy will depart Evanston by January 1. The question in his wake is whether his tacit two-year evaluation window of Bill Carmody will remain in effect. (more…)

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The remnants of dissatisfaction from a stale Big Ten basketball weekend are nearly gone. Despite solid wins by the upper and lower tiers of the Conference, the losses by Purdue, Illinois and Wisconsin left me questioning the decision to forego raking and let my yard pile up with wet leaves on Saturday. Eleven days remain before the Conference’s next weekend of big games and it’s time most Big Ten teams should spend addressing some fundamental weaknesses. (more…)

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November and December will deliver eleven teams to the doorstep of conference play. Several are in the earliest stages of wholesale rebuilding projects, a couple are consensus locks for the upper tier of the conference and late March dancing, and then there is a vast middle scrum of teams of significant, but more elusive potential that will make this year’s Big Ten race a fascinating spectacle. Time will tell many tales as we move into winter, but several teams will enter the new year with at least one distinct advantage over their conference brethren. (more…)

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