By Jordan Hansen
The college basketball season will be here in a little under two weeks, and with that exciting thought squarely in the minds of the sports staff at The Daily Iowan, the fourth edition of the Big Ten men’s basketball previews is here.
Each team in the conference will be examined — who returns, whom the team lost, and what to expect.
The order in which the teams are analyzed are simply alphabetical, excluding Iowa, which will be at the end of the preview.
Nebraska
Man, remember when everyone was all hyped up about Tim Miles and the direction the Cornhusker program was going?
I’m talking about the 2013-14 season here. Terran Petteway was a redshirt sophomore, and the team made it all the way to the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals before earning the No. 11 seed in the West bracket.
The Cornhuskers got bounced in the first round, but the team seemed as if it was headed in the right direction.
But nothing ended up happening. Nebraska has finished 13-18 and 16-18 the past two seasons and is not projected to do a whole lot this year.
The Cornhuskers lost seven players from last year’s roster, two by graduation and five by transfer. That’s right — five.
Nebraska also plays one of the tougher schedules in the country, which won’t help in the wins-and-losses column. It will provide chances for upsets and good wins, but it might be kind of a stretch to expect them to make the NCAA Tournament or even the NIT.
In fact, if things don’t get much better, the notoriously quick-triggered Nebraska Athletics Department might pull the plug on Miles’ tenure.
Miles didn’t get a contract extension this year, meaning he has just four years left on his deal. That might sound like a lot, but in the world of college athletics, not having a five-year deal means someone in the Athletics Department doesn’t have a whole lot of faith. One of the biggest selling points to recruits is often the job security of the coach, and if a contract doesn’t run through the end of their four years, it starts to make things more difficult.
This season is important for Miles’ career, so expect him to come swinging out of the gate.
Northwestern
Bryant McIntosh is back for the Wildcats, which is good news for a team with aspirations of making the NCAA Tournament.
And yes, it’s talked about way too much, but it’s worth repeating that the team is still looking for its first trip to the Big Dance.
Last year wasn’t terrible for Northwestern, but its 20-12 record was full of wins against really bad teams, and it didn’t get an invitation even to the NIT. It doesn’t really lose a whole lot, but head coach Chris Collins has a huge task ahead in his fourth season at the helm.
He did get a huge boost this off-season; the university announced plans for a $110 million renovation plan for Welsh-Ryan Arena, which critically needed something done to it.
It’s about as close as a college athlete can get to being in a high-school gym at a Division-1 level, which is not at all a compliment. Maybe with some real cash influx into the program, good things will happen. That is, after all, the purpose of renovations and improvements to facilities, no?
While definitely a boost to recruiting, it will be interesting to see how the team performs the next few seasons. Shiny things are nice, but when the team is bad, no one is going to want to enjoy them.
This isn’t exactly a make-or-break year for Collins, but it is an important one.
Follow @JordyHansen on Twitter for updates on Iowa sports.