Early season tournaments tantalize with their meaningful matchups (played in front of a lot of empty seats), and they offer a glimpse into what we should expect over the year. A thirty-point beatdown over Texas Pan Am doesn’t tell you as much about a team as a loss to Villanova. But still, we should take these with a grain of salt. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, some teams that really struggle with challenging early season games end up making lots of deep runs in March.

After a week of games, primarily of the cupcake blowout variety, the Big Ten is a cumulative 23-5. Can we learn anything from what we’ve seen so far? Here’s a few thoughts heading into the weekend.

On today’s point/counterpoint, we debate whether Purdue’s defensive branding is deserved, or just the result of having a very talented defensive player for four seasons.

Next up in our point/counterpoint series is Ohio State, which comes off a Final Four appearance and has been atop the Big Ten standings for the past three seasons. Today we consider whether the Buckeyes have enough bodies to keep that up this season.

In today’s Point/Counterpoint, we tackle a question that has already gotten some play in basketball circles across the nation – has Indiana really gone from an 11-7 Big Ten team to the best squad in the nation?

It’s already been proclaimed that the preseason expectations for Michigan is this year’s Rorschach test. You can find out where we stand by reading our Big Ten chapter in this year’s College Basketball Prospectus. You can also read about things like “beware negative covariance come March” and about the Six Degrees of Big 12 Coaches. For now, a referendum on John Beilein in today’s Point/Counterpoint.

For today’s point/counterpoint, we’re debating how Wisconsin can move on without Jordan Taylor.

Our point/counterpoint series takes on a special significance today, as we take on the question that Americans are debating over—whether Iowa will make the jump to the NCAA Tournament this season. 

We’re going to try something new this year. Instead of just previewing every team like we usually do, we’ll give the people what they really want—ammunition to win arguments. So for every team, we’ll have both sides of the debate covered. Today, we’ll look at what we can expect from Michigan State after it loses its leader, Draymond Green.

We’re going to try something new this year. Instead just previewing every team like we usually do, we’ll give the people what they really want—ammunition to win arguments. So for every team, we’ll have both sides of the debate covered. First up, Minnesota.

Ohio State’s season came to an end in the national semifinal in a close loss to Kansas. The Buckeyes led for the vast majority of this game, and most will probably remember the game as a great comeback by Kansas, but the truth is that Kansas played a much better game than Ohio State. Consider that the Buckeyes were held to 32 percent shooting on two-pointers for the game. Further, OSU was held to rebounding just a quarter of the available offensive rebounds.

Ohio State was our preseason pick for the cream of the conference, and, despite a bumpy Big Ten slate that left them sharing the title, the Buckeyes are now the last B1G standing. The Sweet Sixteen was rather cruel to Big Ten teams not from Columbus; let’s start with the happy news and work our way through the rest.

While Thursday is the potentially big night for the Big Ten, with three schools looking to reach the Elite Eight, Friday night brings the enticing rematch of Indiana and Kentucky. The Hoosiers have surpassed all expectations by reaching the Sweet Sixteen for just the second time in 18 years, and they now have a golden opportunity to knock off most people’s national title pick. Let’s look at the match-up.

After a wild opening weekend, the Big Ten emerged with four teams among the remaining Sweet Sixteen. Today, we’ll preview the Thursday games, two of which are conveniently in the same regional. In Boston, it’s a four-team tournament with a Final Four spot on the line, and Big Ten teams are on both sides of the bracket. The other B1G Thursday participant will be Michigan State. We’ll delve into the Boston regional before previewing the Spartans’ path.

As of this writing, there is a 45.9 percent chance your NCAA Champion will be from the Big Ten. It was a good weekend for the conference, as four teams advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. But before we get to that good stuff, let’s deal with the unpleasantness.