Upsets plentiful in balanced Big Ten

Indiana gets it now.

After a pair of surprising losses -- to Minnesota and Nebraska -- and a more understandable loss to Ohio State, the Hoosiers snapped their skid with a 73-54 win over Penn State on Sunday.

The Hoosiers, who have tumbled from the Top 10, now realize that they can't afford to relax in the Big Ten this season. It's too tough. It's a lesson that unexpected losses tend to deliver more effectively than words from a coach.

"If we get three more stops combined in the Minnesota and Nebraska games, we likely win two games, and that's a big deal," Indiana coach Tom Crean said.

Indiana, now ranked 16th, isn't the only league team to get a reality check during league play. Among the head scratchers this month: Penn State over Illinois, Northwestern over Michigan State and Iowa over Michigan. In each case, an unranked team in the lower half of the standings defeated a ranked team and jumbled the conference race.

Perhaps the word "upset" shouldn't apply.

"I'm not sure what's an upset, if there are upsets," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said a day after losing at home to Wisconsin. "You've got a very balanced league, you've got to bring your game, you've got to play. Your main guys have got to play and be consistent if you're going to have success, and you can't have any off days."

As of Monday, the Big Ten was the only Division I conference in which every team has at least two wins and at least two losses in league play.

You could call it 'January Madness.'

"I think we sometimes tend to, especially these days, to jump to March so early," Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. "Every week the standings change. Every week there are what are perceived to be upsets, but I'm not sure they are. Along the way, you're going to see some people get knocked off and you're going to see some people moving up, maybe some surprises, maybe a couple teams sneak into that top tier and then get into the NCAA tournament. That's what we're trying to do."

The balance doesn't appear to be a case of mediocrity. The league has an .802 non-conference winning percentage, the best in the nation. The Big Ten won the Big Ten/ACC Challenge 8-4, and that was before Indiana shocked No. 1 Kentucky on Dec. 10. Eight Big Ten teams are ranked in the top 45 in Jeff Sagarin's ratings, and he ranks the league No. 1.

"I think it's a very well-rounded league, and I think anybody that looks at it and doesn't see a lot of very talented, tough-minded, well-coached teams in this league is not looking at it from a realistic view," Crean said. "It is a high-powered league that's been years in the making."

Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Wisconsin's Bo Ryan, Illinois' Weber, Ohio State's Thad Matta and Minnesota's Tubby Smith have had long, successful careers. Purdue's Matt Painter has been one of the nation's most successful coaches the past five years. John Beilein is reviving the Michigan program, and Crean is doing the same at Indiana. Northwestern's Bill Carmody, Iowa's McCaffery, Nebraska's Doc Sadler and Penn State's Patrick Chambers already have big wins in league play.

"There's a lot of set programs here," Crean said. "Even the guys that are new in the league like Doc Sadler and Pat Chambers know exactly what they want to do, and they're running strong programs. It's an extremely well-coached league that's got excellent continuity in it, and have had success, sustained success over a period of time."

Crean said the tendency for Big Ten players to stay in school improves the quality of play. They include Ohio State's Jared Sullinger.

"It's not a league that has a lot of players jumping out early," he said. "There are very good young players in the league, but there's an excellent amount of juniors and seniors on the teams that have been through so many different things."

Then, there's playing on the road in the conference. Penn State, for example, has a 10-11 overall record, but is 8-4 at home, including a win over then-first-place Illinois and a 20-point victory over Purdue.

"If somebody is ready to play and they're hooked up and they have the talent, it's going to be tough to beat them on their home court," Painter said. "It just is in this league. You really have to be special when you go on the road, or the other team has to be down or something has to be going on within their program, an injury, things of that nature."

Painter believes the tough league play will serve the conference's teams well in the NCAA tournament.

"We're always quick to say we've got the best league in the country," he said. "We're one of them."