Michigan's Tommy Amaker will try to win the Wolverines' first game of the year against Duke on Saturday. AP
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Indiana
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Minnesota
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Illinois
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Michigan State
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Wisconsin
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Purdue
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Ohio State
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Northwestern
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Iowa
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Penn State
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Michigan
15-20
Big Ten’s record against the ACC in the four years of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Big Ten has never won the annual event.
"We were trying to see if Billet could set a North American scoring record in the last five minutes."
-- Michigan State coach Tom Izzo on Virginia guard Todd Billet, who scored 26 of his 28 points after halftime in the Spartans’ 82-75 win.
By Brian Hamilton, Special to CNNSI.com
Just to recap here: Michigan has banned itself from postseason play. The program is on probation, and any and all banners from seasons affected by the Ed Martin fiasco must come down. The NCAA may very well add its own batch of sanctions after its Infractions Committee hears the school’s case this winter.
One veteran has already been dismissed from the team. Another promising player has decided to transfer, effective the end of the semester. The team is off to the worst start in school history, losing all five of its games. The five losses have come, seemingly impossibly, to the likes of St. Bonaventure and Western Michigan and Central Michigan.
You know that popular refrain for athletes, the one that goes, "No one thought we could do this?" Michigan can say that and actually be right.
"We recognize that it is a long horse race," Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said. "If the season would end today we would all feel ... well, I don't know what word to use. But it wouldn't be a good one."
How about, relieved? Or fortunate? That way, the Wolverines wouldn’t have to play Duke on Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium -- a sixth loss that couldn’t be more guaranteed if it came by certified mail. That way, also, Michigan wouldn’t have to find a way to motivate itself when there is zero waiting for it at the end of the season.
All flippancy aside, this is a dire time. Amaker knew there were problems to fix when he replaced Brian Ellerbe two years ago. He didn’t count on building from scratch.
"It is what it is," Amaker said. "We recognize that it hasn't been an optimal situation in many ways, and that isn't meant to point any fingers in any direction. Certainly, we are here for reasons and that is to right the ship, to coach this team, to lay our foundation and build this program.
"We aren't off to the start that we wanted, and that has been well documented. Regardless of where we are right now, we haven't stopped looking forward and finding ways to succeed."
That is indeed the question: With how bad things have gotten now, how long will it take Amaker to return the program to some semblance of competitiveness? Remember, the Wolverines lost, at home, to a Central Michigan team that lost to DePaul by 36. DePaul, in case you were wondering, was picked by precisely no one to win the NCAA title.
The bad part is, rock bottom may still be a few months off. The final NCAA ruling could include scholarship-related penalties, which would hamstring Amaker even more. Still, just three years after being rockewd by a 1999 scandal, Minnesota is expected to contend for a Big Ten title. Amaker had a solid recruiting class come in this season, featuring point guard Daniel Horton -- though Horton has struggled thus far -- and has another coming next year. Hope is not imminent, but it’s not unreasonable, either.
"This school is too great for it not to happen," said Central Michigan coach Jay Smith, a former Michigan assistant. "That's not saying they're not going to hit potholes, because we all hit them. You just have to get back up off the canvas and keep fighting."
Amaker’s players are saying all the right things, that their coach is a port in the storm -- not necessarily a guy looking to get out while the going is, well, awful and going to get a little worse.
"He's a rock," forward LaVell Blanchard said. "That's what we need as a team and he's been nothing but that."
He best be. To think, a long season isn’t even a month over.
"I'm hoping," Amaker said, "that we can all look back and find that this was an interesting chapter in the story one day."
Who else but Bracey Wright? It’s early, but against highly respectable competition, the Indiana freshman has displayed all the makings of the Big Ten Freshman of the Year favorite.
In the Maui Classic, his first three games as a college player, he averaged 17 points per game and was named the tournament’s MVP.
Then, against No. 11 Maryland in a rematch of last year’s NCAA final, Wright didn’t shoot terribly well (7 of 21) but still managed to drop in 19 points.
The question was whether the 6-foot-4 freshman could meld well with senior leader Tom Coverdale in the Hoosiers’ backcourt. Indiana’s 5-0 start so far pretty much answered that question and any others about Wright.
HOT: “Barn” burners
Two straight games at Williams Arena -- aka, The Barn -- have resulted in one-point Minnesota wins, both of which went down to the last shot.
NOT: Penn State’s long-distance plan
Despite having a couple renowned sharpshooters, the Nittany Lions are last in the league in 3-point percentage (24.5 percent).
HOT: Illinois’ offense
The Illini lead the Big Ten with 90.8 points per game -- no one else is above 80 -- and field goal percentage (54.1).
NOT: Charity
Five Big Ten teams currently shoot worse than 70 percent from the free-throw line.
One of the stumbling blocks for Michigan State was going to be how Chris Hill, a somewhat awkward fit at point guard, filled that role this year with basically no one else on the Spartans’ roster being capable of it. After a 2-2 start that picked up with a win over Virginia on Wednesday, one might’ve suspected some problems in this area. One would’ve been wrong.
Hill’s individual performance has been as strong as almost any in the Big Ten so far. Over those first four games, he averaged 17.5 points and 4.3 assists per game, hitting 15 3-pointers along the way. Against Virginia, Hill’s 22 points served as basic reinforcement. Maybe the questions aren’t totally answered as far as the Spartans being fluid, though 82 points on Wedneday suggested that wasn’t a problem. One definite answered question: Hill’s a player, no matter where he lines up.
Tom Coverdale, Indiana
Nothing like 30 points in a 80-74 win over Maryland to erase the bad taste from the NCAA title game last April.
Brian Cook, Illinois
Finally emerging as a superstar, Cook poured in 22 points against North Carolina and is averaging 19.5 a game.
Rick Rickert, Minnesota
Rebounded from a slow outing against Georgia for 17 points and the game-winning bucket with less than 10 seconds to play against Georgia Tech.
You know it’s a slow week in terms of marquee matchups when an 0-5 team is inhabiting said marquee. But so it is with Michigan, off to the worst start in school history, traveling to Duke on Saturday for a nationally televised thrashing -- er, game. On the one hand, it’s a chance for Tommy Amaker’s crew to pull off what might be the biggest upset of a college basketball season that’s not even a month old. On the other, more realistic hand, it’s a chance for Duke to set the land-speed scoring record, having beaten the Wolverines by an average of 33 points in the last two meetings.
Redshirt freshman Sean Kline played 20 of the last 25 minutes in Indiana’s 80-74 win over Maryland after not playing more than 11 minutes in any of the Hoosiers’ previous games. Kline also notched a career-high 10 points, subbing for George Leach, who was slowed by a shoulder injury. "He looked good," Hoosiers coach Mike Davis told the Indianapolis Star. "He was really aggressive. I think people forget that he's only a freshman." ... Minnesota got its first big test for its much-maligned backcourt against pressing Georgia Tech, and the results were mixed. Senior Kevin Burleson made a key deflection on the Yellow Jackets’ last play, but he also committed eight turnovers that virtually negated his 10 assists. Junior Ben Johnson managed just one assist against four turnovers. "Me and Kevin didn’t take care of the ball the way we should have," Johnson said. Still, the Gophers pulled out a one-point win. … Illinois coach Bill Self had an interesting perspective on his team’s advantage going into the North Carolina game: While blowing out their first three opponents, the Illini didn’t delve deep into their playbook, meaning the Tar Heels saw a lot more than they expected. "We didn't have to run our stuff the first three games, so we were a tougher team to scout," Self told the Chicago Tribune. … Purdue center Ivan Kartelo is apparently going to miss three to four weeks after suffering a dislocated elbow against Xavier on Tuesday night. X-rays on the injury were negative. … Iowa coach Steve Alford finally has his full complement of scholarship players available. He was down to seven due to suspensions levied on Brody Boyd and Sean Sonderleiter before the Florida State game, but now he has the full eight-man rotation -- though even that is five fewer scholarship players than the NCAA allows.
Brian Hamilton covers the Big Ten for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. His “This Week in the Big Ten” column appears Fridays during the season.
Tom Coverdale, Indiana
