Yesterday, it was Maryland. Today, it’s Rutgers. With today’s news, the Big Ten is primed to become a 14-team conference starting in 2014-15. While Big Ten basketball fans have at least some familiarity with Maryland’s hoops tradition, not much is known about these Scarlet Knights. Let’s take a look at what Rutgers brings to the conference from a hoops perspective.

With the news that Maryland will be joining the Big Ten in 2014, there are all sorts of implications to evaluate. Maintaining our narrow perspective of Big Ten basketball, let’s take a look at what the addition might mean strictly on the hardcourt.

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.

Minnesota held Tennessee State to 14-of-59 shooting, as defense led the Golden Gophers to a 72-43 victory on Thursday at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. Minnesota (3-0) held Tennessee State (0-3) to 24 percent shooting from the field, and the Golden Gophers never trailed in the game.