Jan. 28, 2008

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Hoosiers Take Sole Possession of Top Spot: With Wisconsin's loss to Purdue on Saturday, Indiana now has sole possession of first place in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers are 17-2 on the season, tying the best start for an IU team since the 1992-93 squad opened 17-2 en route to a 31-4 record and a Big Ten Championship. IU's last crown came in 2002, sharing a piece of the title with Wisconsin. Indiana has won 20 Big Ten regular season titles, which ranks second only to the 21 crowns for Purdue. IU will square off with Wisconsin on Thursday in a critical tilt for both teams. A Hoosier win puts them at least one game ahead of the trio of conference foes that currently sits at 6-1. A win for the Badgers gives them a half-game edge over Indiana in the conference standings. The Hoosiers are led by the conference's leading scorers in Eric Gordon and D. J. White, who average 19.8 and 18.3 points, respectively, in Big Ten competition. The Badgers are led by Brian Butch and Trevon Hughes, averaging 13.2 and 13.1 points per game, respectively.

Then There Were Five: Indiana is one of five teams among the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10 and SEC conferences that is undefeated in conference play. The Hoosiers own the best record with a 6-0 mark as they enter this week's play. The Big 12 has two undefeated teams in conference play in Kansas (5-0) and Kansas State (4-0). The ACC and SEC each have one team with a perfect record in Duke (5-0) and Mississippi State (5-0), respectively. Three Big Ten Standouts Named to Wooden Award Midseason List: Three Big Ten standouts - Indiana's Eric Gordon and D. J. White and Michigan State's Raymar Morgan - were among the 30 players selected as midseason candidates for the 2007-08 John Wooden Award Player of the Year and All-America Team. Gordon and Morgan have played their way onto the midseason list, as neither student-athlete appeared on the preseason watch list. The 10-player Wooden Award All-America Team and the recipient of the Wooden Award Trophy as the nation's top collegiate men's basketball player will be announced on Saturday, April 12, 2008. Last year, Ohio State's Greg Oden and Wisconsin's Alando Tucker were named to the 2007 Wooden All-America team, while Purdue's Glenn Robinson was the last conference standout to win the Wooden Award in 1994.

Dynamic Duos: Indiana's Eric Gordon and D. J. White lead the Big Ten in combined points per game among teammates. Ranked first and second in the Big Ten in scoring, the Hoosier duo bids to become the first Big Ten teammates to finish first and second in scoring since Michigan's Glen Rice and Gary Grant finished first and second in the conference in 1987-88. Michigan State's Raymar Morgan and Drew Neitzel rank second among current duos and are both among the top 10 in scoring, averaging a combined 28.4 points per contest. Fresh Starts: Big Ten freshmen are on pace to start more games in 2007-08 than in any of the previous five seasons, as more than 25 percent of the starting nods for conference teams have gone to first-year players. Overall, Big Ten freshmen have opened 273 times out of a possible 975 starts, for an average of 28.0 percent of all starts. The conference is on pace to record more than 400 starts by first-year players for the first time in at least the past 11 years. The closest to this mark was in 1997-98 when 380 starts (21.6 of all starts that season) came from first-year players. Last season, the conference registered just 288 freshman starts of a possible 1,865, an average of only 15.4 percent, the lowest since conference frosh opened eight percent of the contests in 2005-06. 

Five Years of Freshmen Starters: Over the past five years (including 2007-08), Penn State leads all Big Ten programs with 167 freshman starts, an average of 33.4 per season. Purdue (161 freshman starts) is second to PSU over the last five years, while Indiana (144) ranks third. Ohio State has recorded the most freshmen starts in a season in the past five years, as frosh collected 78 opening nods in 2006-07. As for teams that rely on veterans, Wisconsin has had 11 starts by first-year players in the last five years--an average of less than 2.5 per campaign--all coming during the 2004-05 season. Illinois has the second lowest total (17) followed by Iowa (67).

Four Teams Reach 15-Games Win Mark: Michigan State (18-2), Indiana (17-2), Wisconsin (16-3) and Purdue (15-5) have all reached or surpassed the 15-win mark on the season. Purdue picked up its 15th victory with an upset of then-No. 11 Wisconsin on Saturday. The Boilermakers are off to their first 15-5 start since the 2002-03 campaign. Purdue has produced 53 seasons with 15 or more wins. MSU sports the best overall record among Big Ten foes. This is the 26th time in Spartans' annals that they have eclipsed the 15-triumph mark. IU has recorded 54 seasons in which 15 or more wins were recorded. UW has has 28 15-plus-win seasons.