Matt Painter – Purdue
There is no secret why Purdue’s Head Coach will be feeling at least some pressure entering this season, after becoming only the second #1 seed to lose to a #16 seed in the history of the NCAA Tournament. While there are many Purdue fans not happy with Painter at the moment, there is one historical precedent for this and that was 2019 Virginia. A year earlier, Tony Bennett’s team also lost to a #16 seed in the opening round, but returned just about every significant key piece and that resulted in a National Championship. The appealing thing about this Purdue team was the fact they were a #1 seed last season, should have been considered a massive victory.
With such an emphasis on age and experience in today’s era of College Basketball, it is very rare to see a team with such a young backcourt be so successful. The Boilermakers will return both Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer as Sophomores, alongside the reigning National Player of the Year in Zach Edey. The thing that was so perplexing about Purdue’s loss to Fairleigh Dickinson was there was no sense of urgency to get Edey the ball whatsoever. The National Player of the Year was held without a basket for the final 9 plus minutes of that game, and it was clear that Purdue’s inexperienced team around him would be unable to carry the load.
The hope in West Lafayette that another season playing together and gaining experience will be able to get this Boilermakers team over the top. There aren’t many people who actually believe Matt Painter is a bad coach, as he has led Purdue to 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, six Sweet 16’s and an Elite 8. However, there is a legitimate question if he is the right guy for this program if they ever want to reach their ceiling of championship aspirations is appropriate, considering just how badly the NCAA Tournament has ended for Purdue over the course of each of the last two seasons.
Chris Holtmann – Ohio State
The 2022-2023 season will go down as one of the more disappointing seasons for Ohio State Basketball in recent memory. The Buckeyes weren’t necessarily expected to be a team at the top of the Big Ten, however in his five prior seasons in Columbus, Chris Holtmann had set a pretty high precedent for winning basketball. From 2018-2022, Ohio State averaged just over 21 wins per season, and didn’t miss a single NCAA Tournament once in that span. If Ohio State would have just narrowly missed the big dance once it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, however it was alarming just how much Ohio State struggled down the stretch.
The Buckeyes started 2-0 in Big Ten play after their New Year’s Day Victory over Northwestern and their season was never the same after that. Ohio State would go on to lose 14 out of their next 15 games following that victory, and for the first time since he arrived there were some major questions about Holtmann and his future. Everything he has done up to this point has been universally considered a really good job, but with the lack of postseason success and a nightmare season, it is fair for Buckeyes fans to have some concern about their Head Coach. It is important to note that Ohio State did play significantly better at the back end of the season, winning four of their final six games and making it all the way to the Quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament in shocking fashion.
This season there is no excuse for Ohio State not to return to the big dance, as they return a rock-solid core headlined by youngsters Bruce Thornton, Roddy Gyale, Felix Okpara and a very experienced Transfer in Jamison Battle. Although my expectations for the Buckeyes will be quite high, another disappointing season would raise some serious questions for a Coach that I’m a believer in and Buckeyes fans would echo that same sentiment.
Juwan Howard – Michigan
It isn’t a secret right now, that Michigan fans aren’t particularly thrilled with their Head Coach. The crazy thing here however, is just how quickly the tides turned for Howard in Ann Arbor, as his first three seasons couldn’t have gone much better. That included a Big Ten Regular Season Title and #1 Seed in the NCAA Tournament in 2021. The Honeymoon period officially stopped for Howard last season, as the Wolverines missed their first NCAA Tournament since 2016. This was surprising not only due to Howard’s previous three seasons, but also the fact that Michigan had two future NBA first round draft picks on their team in Jett Howard and Kobe Bufkin, plus the best player to enter the Transfer Portal this offseason in Hunter Dickinson.
The reason for concern is clear, considering this will be the least talented roster for Michigan in the Howard era by a significant margin, and Michigan is much closer to the bottom of the Big Ten, than anywhere near the top of the league. In addition, at one point in the offseason it looked like Michigan had added a legitimate impact transfer in Caleb Love from North Carolina. Although this would have been a risky move, Love could have at least some upside that could make an impact for the Wolverines and maybe make them better than expected. However, things didn’t work out as Love decommitted from Michigan, due to what many people deemed an Academic Issue and now he will be playing at Arizona.
Michigan does have some appealing young players like Dug McDaniel and Tarris Reed, alongside some possible impact transfers in Olivier Nkamhoua, Tray Jackson, and Nimari Burnett. However, the energy around this program isn’t particularly great after the last 12 months and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
Fred Hoiberg – Nebraska
Hoiberg will be entering his fifth season as the Head Coach of the Cornhuskers, and he is still waiting for his first NCAA tournament Appearance. Although Nebraska is one of the more difficult jobs in the Big Ten, the expectations for Hoiberg had to be at least a little higher than this, considering what he did at Iowa State and the NBA Coaching Experience. Nebraska still has never won an NCAA Tournament game in program history, and hasn’t made it to the big dance since 2014. Nebraska finally had some moments under Hoiberg last season, winning 16 games which was the most in the Hoiberg era by a significant margin and the most victories in a season for the program since 2019. While you can make the argument, this could be a now or never season for Hoiberg, Nebraska continues to get hit with some brutal luck.
The Cornhuskers brought in a very solid Transfer Class, headlined by Iowa Transfer Ahron Ulis and New Mexico Transfer Josiah Allick. This was to go along with returning contributors like Kesei Tominaga, Juwuan Gary, and CJ Wilcher, to make up what was thought to be a pretty solid roster. However, during the offseason, multiple reports surfaced that this could potentially be involved in the NCAA’s gambling scandal, involving multiple Iowa and Iowa State Student Athletes, which would be a massive blow to this Nebraska team.
Ulis’ status for this season is currently unknown, but losing him would be a gut punch and it is unknown if Hoiberg and the rest of this Nebraska roster would be able to recover. Ulis had played in 84 career games during his three-year stint at Iowa, and had a very promising 2023, including a 17 point performance at Michigan State on January 26th. However, with Nebraska losing both Sam Greisel and Derrick Walker from last season’s team, losing the Iowa Transfer would be a detrimental blow.
Ben Johnson – Minnesota
It was definitely understood where Minnesota was coming from following the 2021 season, when they decided to move on from Richard Pitino as Head Coach. Although Pitino did bring the Golden Gophers to two NCAA Tournaments in 2017 and 2019, it was clear that the program needed a chance and the New Mexico program should be in a very good position with him running things for the next few years. Unfortunately, the same sentiment cannot be echoed for the guy that Minnesota decided to replace Pitino with in Ben Johnson. The former Xavier Assistant was hired prior to the start of the 2021-2022 season, and the Golden Gophers are a dreadful 6-33 in Big Ten Conference play during that stretch.
Things don’t seem to be getting any better either, as the Golden Gophers are projected to be the worst team in the Conference again and will lose two of their top three leading scorers from a season ago. During Johnson’s first season, there were at least some moments you can point to that will give you some optimism that included road wins at Michigan and at Mississippi State, when Minnesota was clearly the inferior team.
Last season however, was a nightmare that included a home loss to Big East bottom dweller DePaul, and a five-game losing streak from late November to early December. That is expected to continue in a very deep Big Ten Conference and unfortunately this Minnesota team has the least talented roster in the conference by a significant margin.
Zac Krull has covered College Basketball for the last 2 years while working with Aaron Torres of Aaron Torres Media and recording his own Zac Krull Sports Podcast. Currently, Zac is writing as a contributor for Aaron Torres online with weekly articles and working as a producer for the BETQL Network. Zac graduated from SUNY Cortland in 2021 with a degree in Sports Studies.