All Badgers

The Big Ten's top teams can't avoid each other any longer

The last week of January could be the week that ultimately decides the Big Ten race and impacts seeding
Benjamin Worgull|
Wisconsin guard John Blackwell (25) is fouled by Minnesota forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson (5) during the second half of their game Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Wisconsin beat Minnesota 67-63.
Wisconsin guard John Blackwell (25) is fouled by Minnesota forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson (5) during the second half of their game Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Wisconsin beat Minnesota 67-63. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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In a little over a month from now, when a team hoists the Big Ten regular season championship trophy, we may look back at the last week of January as when that team emerged from a crowded pack.

With a conference schedule that mostly kept the Big Ten's top contenders away from one another for the first half of the season, all five of the league's top teams have started colliding, which has resulted in some drama-filled basketball.

Illinois got 46 points from Keaton Wagler and clutch three-point shooting down the stretch to win at Purdue on Saturday, and Michigan ended Nebraska's 21-game winning streak in a performance that could be debated showed more validation to the short-handed Huskers than the Wolverines on Tuesday. The Wolverines have another test Friday against No.7 Michigan in a stand-alone national game on FOX.

The Spartans may have been peaking ahead, considering they needed a late push and overtime to survive Rutgers at the RAC.

Without football on Sunday, we'll be treated to Illinois traveling to Nebraska, with the Illini's 85.4 ppg facing a Huskers team holding teams to 58.5 points at home.

The one big casualty so far has been Purdue, which entered the season as the Big Ten's favorites and national title contenders, and has avoided injuries, but find themselves alone in fifth place.

Welcome to life in the Big Ten. Here is week 12 of the Big Ten Power Rankings.

1, Michigan Wolverines (19-1, 9-1) Previous: 1

Michigan committed 19 turnovers, shot 6-for-23 from three-point range, and trailed for over 36 minutes. Yet, the Wolverines buckled down when they needed to most. Morez Johnson finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds, covering for forwards Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara's quiet nights, as the Wolverines held the Huskers without a field goal for the final 3:20.

Coupled with its 12-point home victory over Ohio State on Friday, the Wolverines won their 14th Quad 1/Quad 2 game - easily the best in the country.

Up Next: Friday at No.7 Michigan State

2, Nebraska Cornhuskers (20-1, 9-1) Previous: 2

The separation between the Huskers and Wolverines is razor thin. The Huskers went to Ann Arbor without Rienk Mast (14.6 ppg) or Braden Frager (12.2) and outplayed Michigan for the majority of the game. The Huskers made four more field goals and hit five more threes, but the Wolverines went 19-for-23 from the line and Nebraska - averaging 12.5 free throws per game - was 3-for-4.

Huskers fans have griped about Sam Hoiberg not drawing a charge on Trey McKenney's tiebreaking layup with 67 seconds left (and they may have a point if college basketball called charges anymore), but the game wouldn't have come to that had the Huskers not gone 1-for-13 from three in the second half and Pryce Sandfort not gone 6-for-18 from the floor.

Fred Hoiberg said after the game that he believed his team could compete with anyone. His group proved they can, whether they are fully healthy or not.

Up Next: Sunday vs. No.9 Illinois

3, Illinois Fighting Illini (17-3, 8-1) Previous: 5

Since getting stunned at home by the Huskers on December 13, the Illini rattled off eight in a row on a streak that mostly featured teams from the bottom half of the league. Illinois proved it wasn't a fluke with its 88-82 victory at Mackey Arena, highlighted by Wagler's 46 points.

Not only did Wagler (13-for-17) hit a school record nine three-pointers, but it was also the most points ever scored by a Big Ten player against an AP Top-5 team and most ever scored by a player in a road win over an AP Top-10 team.

Illinois tied a school record with 18 three pointers, including hitting threes on four consecutive possessions in the final 3:31 to turn a three-point deficit into a five-point lead. None were made by Wagler, but he shut the door with a pull-up jumper with 18 seconds left and free throws with nine seconds left, both pushing the lead back to four.

Illinois is 4-3 in Quad-1A games, representing the elite top-tier games on the schedule.

Up Next: Tonight vs. Washington

4, Michigan State Spartans (19-2, 9-1) Previous: 4

Playing three of four on the road and on both coasts almost caught up with the Spartans Wednesday.

Rutgers forced 10 turnovers and used them to score 17 points and lead 37-28 at halftime. The Spartans trailed by as many as 12 with 9:39 remaining before going on a 21-9 run to tie the game with 1:16 remaining.

Michigan State held Rutgers without a field goal for the final 4:40 of the regulation. Divine Ugochukwu forced overtime with a three-pointer with 11 seconds left, and the Spartans didn't look back after scoring the first five points of overtime.

After registering 17 assists in a win over Maryland, Jeremy Fears had two points in the first half, 17 in the second, and 10 in overtime on his way to a career-high 29.

Up Next: Friday vs. No.3 Michigan

5, Purdue Boilermakers (17-4, 7-3) Previous: 3

It might be premature to panic about a team that ranks eighth overall, second in offensive efficiency, and 29th in defensive efficency in KenPom. Purdue also has arguably the nation's best point guard and a tremendous frontcourt. However, something hasn't looked right with Purdue since winning at Wisconsin on January 5.

After four straight single digit wins, Purdue has imploded at UCLA, couldn't guard Illinois' Wagner, and looked flat in a rivalry loss at Indiana. Purdue has been held under 70 points three times in the last four games.

The Boilermakers still have as much talent as anybody in the league, and it's up to Matt Painter to figure out why it's suddenly stopped clicking.

Up Next: Sunday at Maryland

6, Wisconsin Badgers (15-6, 7-3) Previous: 6

Like the difference between Michigan and Nebraska, the gap between 6-11 in the league is so small that one could make an argument for any arrangement of the teams and it would be acceptable. Wisconsin still has one of the best wins in the league (at Michigan) but is coming off a bizarre week of games. UW scored 98 points and shot 51 percent in a 27-point road win at Penn State and then spent three of the next four halves of basketball forgetting how to score. UW gave away its Sunday game against USC and tried to give another one away against Minnesota, only to shoot 70 percent in the second half of a four-point win.

Up Next: Saturday vs. Ohio State

7, Iowa Hawkeyes (15-5, 5-4) Previous: 8

The Hawkeyes have rebounded from their three-game skid with three straight wins and are rated by KenPom as the conference's sixth-best team and 23rd nationally. Iowa's offense ranks 40th in adjusted offensive efficiency and 17th in adjusted defensive efficiency. The Hawkeyes have a brutal final seven games of the season, so adding any kind of wins now - like the 73-72 survival over USC Wednesday - are critical.

Up Next: Sunday at Oregon

8, USC Trojans (15-6, 4-6) Previous: 8

USC split on its Midwest trip, knocking off a cold shooting Wisconsin team Sunday and nearly erasing a 17-point deficit at Iowa Wednesday in a 73-72 loss. Kam Woods hadn't scored more than eight points on the season but scored 33 on 12-for-17 shooting. He played all 40 minutes, had a solo 12-0 run to get USC back in the game, and scored 19 straight USC points in one stretch. His potential winning three-pointer was slightly off target, allowing Iowa to escape.

If Woods can become more consistent in scoring, it'll will give the Trojans the third scoring piece they've been missing since Rodney Rice's injury.

Up Next: Saturday vs. Rutgers

9, Indiana Hoosiers (14-7, 5-5) Previous 10

It appears Assembly Hall is where ranked Purdue teams come to die. The Hoosiers' 72-67 win over Purdue marked the fourth victory in the last five home matchups for Indiana against a ranked Purdue squad, finally giving the Hoosiers their first Quad-1 win in seven tries.

Indiana took control with a 21-6 spurt to close the first half, turning a 23-21 deficit into a 40-29 lead, and absorbed Purdue's late charges thanks to Conor Enright. He only scored eight points, but his three pointer with 1:26 remaining boosted the lead to five, and his two free throws with 28 seconds left closed it out.

Still needing to travel to Illinois and Purdue and host Michigan State, this was a big win for the Hoosiers.

Up Next: Saturday at UCLA

10, Ohio State Buckeyes (14-6, 6-4), Previous: 11

Five of the Buckeyes' six conference wins have come against sub.500 Big Ten teams. The only outlier? UCLA at home. The two teams are right next to each other in the KenPom rankings, which makes Saturday's road trip to Madison big for the Buckeyes resume.

Up Next: Saturday at Ohio State

11, UCLA Bruins (15-6, 7-3) Previous: 9

It's been nine days since Mick Cronin has complained about something stupid. That's a positive sign! The Bruins didn't look great in their home win against Northwestern and road victory at Oregon, but UCLA is two games out of first at the halfway mark of conference play with four remaining games against the teams above them in the standings.

Up Next: Saturday vs. Indiana

12, Minnesota Gophers (10-11, 3-7): Previous: 12

It's entirely realistic that the Big Ten puts 11 teams in the NCAA Tournament field, but it would take something crazy for that number to be any higher, as there's a step drop off in the bottom third of the league.

Niko Medved has the Gophers playing impeccably hard, but injuries are making it hard to field a team. Minnesota led by 20 against Wisconsin in the first half without leading scorer Cade Tyson. However, its six-man rotation wear down in the second half as the Badgers kept attacking.

Minnesota has lost only one of its six straight games by more than 10 points.

Next: Sunday at Penn State

13, Washington Huskies (11-9, 3-6) Previous: 13

The Huskies ended a streak of losing four of six with a 15-point win over border-rival Oregon. Franck Kepnang and Hannes Steinbach had double-doubles, and Washington led nearly wire-to-wire to end a four-game losing streak to the Ducks.

Up Next: Tonight at No.9 Illinois

14, Rutgers Scarlet Knights (9-12, 2-8): Previous: 14

The Scarlet Knights led for 35:59 against the Spartans, from the time the score was 11-9 to the first possession of overtime. Tariq Francis scored 23 points but missed a floater at the regulation buzzer that could have won it.

Considering the report that came out this week that Rutgers' athletic deficit was $78 million in 2024-25, it's going to be hard to inject some NIL investment into a program that consistently looks overmatched in the Big Ten.

Up Next: Saturday at USC

15, Northwestern Wildcats (9-11, 1-8) Previous: 15

The Wildcats played solid basketball on their West Coast trip, earning a victory over USC and losing by seven to UCLA, which should give them some momentum heading into a week with two winnable home games.

Up Next: Tonight vs. Penn State

16, Penn State Nittany Lions (9-11, 0-9) Previous: 17

The only winless team in the conference, Penn State lost by eight to Illinois in Philadelphia, two at home against Michigan, by eight at Purdue, and by four to Ohio State. The Nittany Lions have a lot of young talent that is just struggling to get over the hump.

Up Next: Tonight at Northwestern

17, Oregon Ducks (8-13, 1-9) Previous: 16

With no Jackson Shelstad or Nate Bittle in the lineup, the Ducks would struggle in the West Coast Conference, let alone the Big Ten.

Up Next: Sunday vs. Iowa

18, Maryland Terrapins (8-12, 1-8) Previous: 18


From 1993-2021, Maryland made 19 NCAA Tournament appearances and never had a losing season. In his first season, Buzz Williams is about to join Mark Turgeon and Kevin Willard in coaching a losing season in College Park, which will happen for the third time in the last five years.

Up Next: Sunday vs. No.12 Purdue

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Benjamin Worgull
BENJAMIN WORGULL

Benjamin Worgull has covered Wisconsin men's basketball since 2004, having previously written for Rivals, USA Today, 247sports, Fox Sports, the Associated Press, the Janesville Gazette, and the Wisconsin State Journal.

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