Big Ten Basketball Power Rankings: Week 11 edition

Nebraska can beat any team in the conference, but the Cornhuskers are also inconsistent. Tim Miles has been a fantastic coach for this program over the past few years and he’s had some big-time talent come through such as Shavon Shields, Terran Petteway and Andrew White, but those names have come and gone and he’s left with a young roster. The Cornhuskers beat Indiana and Maryland to start conference play, along with Iowa, but they’ve lost two consecutive games, the most recent coming against Michigan Saturday.

Will Penn State make the NCAA Tournament? No one knows that answer right now, but we do know that the Nittany Lions are much better this season than in years past. Over the past couple of seasons, Penn State was considered an easy win, but now the Nittany Lions are beating teams like Michigan State and, last week, No. 24 Minnesota. There is athleticism and depth on this team and the scary part is that the Nittany Lions are relatively young. A couple of years from now, maybe even next season, they will be a force in the Big Ten.

Richard Pitino’s young Golden Gophers took the biggest dive in this week’s power rankings. After making it all the way to No. 3 last week as the hottest team in the conference, Minnesota lost to Michigan State on Wednesday by 18 and then scored just 50 points in a two-point defeat against Penn State on Saturday. Amir Coffey and Nate Mason look to be two solid pieces to the conference race puzzle, but they need to find consistency. They have a chance to make up for those losses with a home win over Wisconsin this week.