https://www.insidethehall.com/2024/05/10/an-early-look-at-where-each-big-ten-team-stands-in-bart-torviks-projections-for-the-2024-25-season/Way too early but it is the offseason in both FB and BB so, from an IU site, Torvik's rankings based on rosters are being updated in real time with all the changes so here are the B1G teams with their national ranks:
- 10 UCLA
- 11 Purdue
- 19 Michigan State
- 21 Indiana
- 23 USC
- 27 Michigan
- 31 Rutgers
- 32 Northwestern
- 33 Ohio State
- 36 Wisconsin
- 38 Nebraska
- 44 Oregon
- 45 Maryland
- 51 Iowa
- 56 Illinois
- 74 Washington
- 82 Minnesota
- 92 Penn State
Honestly, I think that not only is now too early, it will still be too early even when the season starts. I guess that has always been true to an extent but with the massive roster upheaval in the modern era I think things are MUCH more unpredictable than they ever were before.
The craziest example of this is USC. According to the link above, USC has:
- 1 guy returning
- 4 guys departed to the professional ranks and/or are out of eligibility
- 7 guys departing via the transfer portal
- 10 guys arriving via transfer or as recruits
You can rank based on talent but you've never seen those guys play together. You have no idea how well they will all fit together.
I don't mean to pick on USC because the same is true more-or-less everywhere including Ohio State where the starting lineup for 2024/5 will probably be something like:
- 1 returning player from the 2023/4 team - Bruce Thornton
- 1 player who originally signed with Ohio State out of HS, played for tOSU, then transferred to USCe where he was the leading scorer on a pretty good team last year and he is now back at Ohio State for what will be his senior year - Meechie Johnson
- 2 5* recruits who signed with Blue Blood CBB programs and played sparingly for those programs (Dook and Kentucky) last year and have now transferred to Ohio State - Sean Stewart and Aaron Bradshaw
- 1 1* recruit who signed with a mid-major school as a freshman years ago and played at a lower level for several years and now arrives at Ohio State with experience including playing on a team that finished in the top-25 last year, playing in the S16 last year*, winning a F4 game in 2023**, and playing in the 2023 NC game*** - Micah Parrish
* Micah Parrish against UCONN in the 2024 S16:
- Started and played 27 minutes.
- 4-9 including 2-4 from long range.
- 3 Rebounds
- 3 Fouls
- 10 points
** Micah Parrish against FAU in the 2023 F4:
- Played 20 minutes.
- 2-6 including 2-4 from long range.
- 5 Rebounds
- 2 Fouls
- 6 points
***Micah Parrish against UCONN in the 2023 NC:
- Played 16 minutes.
- 0-5 including 0-4 from long range.
- 3 Rebounds
- 4 Fouls
Final thought, it would be nice if we match that and avoid having any just dreadfully bad teams this year. The last few, we have:
- In 2024 both Rutgers (103) and Michigan (133) had triple-digit final NET rankings.
- In 2023 Minnesota's final KenPom ranking was 216
- In 2022 both Minnesota (109) and Nebraska (140) had triple-digit final NET rankings.
- Nebraska was 109 in 2021.