Interestingly, Wisconsin has been atop the power rankings for the entire season yet it was only about halfway through conference play that the national polls started to reflect their excellent play. Props to Bo Ryan and the rest of the Badgers for the conference title.

Now, the exceptions. Both Michigan State, #2 in the power rankings, and Illinois, #6, are substantially higher than they eventually wound up in the real rankings. Undoubtedly most of their fans would agree with the disappointment that both teams were underachievers this year. Illinois is the real odd ball however. Their power ranking would suggest that they are a Top 40 team, yet when they are actually playing they look like they could care less whether they win a game or not. I wouldn’t want to face them in the tournament because they appear to have the raw talent to actually make a deep run.

Unfortunately, they turn out to be PSU’s opening round opponent, so here’s hoping that they mail in their effort like they did in the first two games we played them.

Speaking of PSU, you can through a very small blanket over the Nits, Hawkeyes, and Wolverines when it comes to 8th through 10th place in the power rankings.  The three teams are also stacked right up on top of each other in the national rankings holding down the three consecutive spots from 112 on.   So it’s probably appropriate that the actual standings for these three weren’t finalized until the last two conference games of the season late Sunday afternoon.

Penn State got a little bump from their upset over Indiana. PSU’s Pomeroy ranking moved up to 112 from 115 and their RPI went from 155 to 148. Note however, that even with a 148 RPI, the Nits are way behind where one would want to be to lay claim to one of the 113 post season tournament bids.

# 

Team

Pace

Off

Def

Pwr

Rank

1

Wisconsin

63.1

1.14

0.82

1.39

4

2

Michigan St.

65.4

1.15

0.88

1.31

16

3

Indiana

68.7

1.16

0.90

1.29

18

4

Purdue

67.4

1.10

0.86

1.28

20

5

Ohio St.

64.9

1.08

0.88

1.23

32

6

Illinois

63.7

1.05

0.87

1.22

38

7

Minnesota

68.0

1.10

0.91

1.20

43

8

Penn St.

65.4

1.06

0.98

1.08

108

9

Michigan

66.0

1.04

0.97

1.08

110

10

Iowa

60.2

0.98

0.91

1.07

113

11

Northwestern

62.6

1.03

1.03

1.00

162

PSU’s win over Michigan has allowed them to sneak a little ahead of both Iowa and Michigan in the rankings, but for all intents and purposes you can toss a blanket over the three teams. Wisconsin continues to lead the pack and Illinois continues to look out of place.

Amazingly, there’s no change in either the RPI or the Pomeroy rankings today vs Thursday. PSU still sits at 159 in the RPI and 108 in Pomeroy’s system. It’s almost like Saturday’s game didn’t happen.

Penn State’s Pomeroy and RPI rankings, #110 and #162, following their defeat at Minnesota showed virtually now change from their pregame rankings which were #110 and #161.

The teams are so close that the calculation actually has to be carried out to the ten thousandth decimal place to sort out the 8th through 10th places. Michigan’s loss to Minnesota last night dropped them back to tenth.

Almost as amazingly, Illinois continues to maintain a strong power ranking climbing six spots nationally to 32nd. They absolutely must be the most underachieving team in the country based on their power ranking. To give you an idea of how screwed up that is, there are only TWO teams with losing records in the top 85 in the power ranking. Illinois at #32 and Georgia Tech at #64. Illinois is four games under .500. You have to drop all the way to South Florida at #98 to find the next team four games under. Something doesn’t make sense.

Here’s the actual rankings for the Big Ten:

Not much change at it in either of the rankings. In the RPI, PSU slips three spots from 155 to 158 despite winning the game, reflecting the impact of Illinois’ poor 11-15 win/loss record. In the Pomeroy Ranking, there was no change as PSU remained at number 96. The low scoring 52-51 game meant that PSU’s offense rating worsened while their defensive rating improved resulting in a net no change.