Jan. 23, 2006

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Two Teams Share First Place in Conference Race: Just three weeks into the Big Ten campaign, Indiana and Wisconsin are tied atop the league standings at 4-1 while Ohio State is in third place with a 4-2 record. Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State and Iowa are all one game back in the victory column with matching 3-2 marks. It may be familiar territory for the Hoosiers and the Badgers as both have jumped out to a 4-1 start in league play for the third consecutive year.  Indiana tallied a 5-1 start during the 2003-04 season and then opened with a 4-1 record last season. Wisconsin boasted a 6-1 record during the 2003-04 season before posting a 4-1 opening mark last year.

Double Trouble: Michigan State's Paul Davis collected his league-leading 11th double-double of the season last week with 19 points and 12 rebounds against Iowa. Davis is the 11th player overall since 1997-98 to post 11 or more double-doubles, as Iowa senior Greg Brunner accomplished that feat most recently with 11 last season. Iowa's Reggie Evans leads all conference players over the last eight years with 22 double-dips during the 2000-01 campaign. The league's leaders in double-doubles since 1997-98 appears to the right.

Brunner's 23-Rebound Performance: In a triple-overtime victory over Minnesota, Iowa senior Greg Brunner posted a Carver-Hawkeye Arena record of 23 rebounds. Brunner's performance is the most since Penn State's Aaron Johnson notched 24 boards against Western Carolina on Nov. 15, 2004 and ranks as the second-best single game total since the 1997-98 season. Currently, Brunner leads the Big Ten with 10.5 rebounds per game.

Ranked No. 1 in RPI and Sagarin: In the latest RPI Report, the Big Ten leads the nation with six teams ranked in the top 15 in the school rankings. Michigan State is ranked fourth, followed by No. 5 Illinois, No. 8 Wisconsin, No. 11 Ohio State, No. 13 Indiana and No. 14 Iowa.  In the league rankings, the Big Ten remains No. 1 with a .5953 rating. The ACC (.5867), Big East (.5852), SEC (.5801) and Missouri Valley (.5623) round out the top five. The Big Ten also leads the nation in the Sagarin Ratings with a central mean of 83.56. For each Big Ten team's RPI and Sagarin ratings, go to page four of this release.

Illinois' Homecourt Record: Illinois' homecourt winning streak of 31 games will be on the line when the Fighting Illini host Minnesota on Wednesday. Currently, Gonzaga and Southern Illinois both lead the country with a 32-game home winning streak. Illinois has also equaled its longest homecourt winning streak ever at the Assembly Hall, tying the 31 consecutive wins at home from Jan. 15, 1984 through Jan. 4, 1986. The Illini were the only league team to go undefeated at home last season and their last defeat in Assembly Hall occurred on Jan. 10, 2004 against Purdue. Illinois still trails the Big Ten record of 53 straight home triumphs set by Michigan State from 1998 to 2002 -- a winning streak that was ended by Wisconsin.

Another Home Winning Streak: Illinois has won 16 straight at home during the conference slate, followed by Indiana, which has won 12 straight Big Ten games at home. The Fighting Illini were 8-0 at Assembly Hall last season and 7-1 at home in 2004, while their last lost in conference play on their homecourt occurred on Jan. 10, 2004 against Purdue. IU went a perfect 8-0 in 2005 and is currently 4-0 this season at Branch McCracken Court during the Big Ten slate. The Hoosiers' last Big Ten home loss occurred on March 6, 2004 against Wisconsin.

Big Ten's Grand Company: The Big Ten's group of 1,000-point scorers has nearly doubled from the start of the season, as 14 standouts are now above that scoring plateau, including three juniors and two teams with three players. Eight Big Ten seniors began the season on the 1,000 point list in Illinois' Dee Brown (1,630), Indiana's Marco Killingsworth (1,342), Iowa's Greg Brunner (1,295) and Jeff Horner (1,280), Michigan's Daniel Horton (1,293), Michigan State's Paul Davis (1,492), Northwestern's Vedran Vukusic (1,388) and Ohio State's Terence Dials (1,310). Six more players joined the list this season in Illinois' James Augustine (1,198), Iowa's Adam Haluska (1,035), Ohio State's Ron Lewis (1,082) and J.J. Sullinger (1,039) and Wisconsin's Alando Tucker (1,249). The list is expected to grow in the next week as Michigan's Dion Harris (960) is only 40 points away from reaching the 1,000-point mark as well as Michigan State's Shannon Brown, who has 937 career points.

Coaching Milestones: With an 85-55 triumph over Iowa on Saturday, Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo now only needs two more victories to claim his 250th career win in East Lansing. Izzo currently boasts a career mark of 248-101 in his 11th season at the Spartan helm. Izzo has also compiled a 120-49 record in conference action, tying him with Michigan's John Orr (1969-80) for 14th place on the Big Ten's all-time list for league victories.

Familar Territory for the Hoosiers: Last year, Indiana's Bracey Wright claimed the conference scoring title becoming the first Hoosier since Kirk Haston (2001, 20.3 ppg) to lead the Big Ten in scoring. This season, senior Marco Killingsworth is aiming to follow in Wright's footsteps as he currently leads the league with 21.8 points per game in Big Ten contests. If Killingsworth finishes out the 2006 conference season as the leader it would mark the fourth time in the last seven seasons that a Hoosier has claimed the Big Ten scoring title as A.J. Guyton finished first in 2000 (21.6 ppg), followed by Haston in 2001 and Wright in 2005.

The Big Ten's Big "D": The league has always been known for its strong defensive play and this season is no different. Currently, three teams are holding their opponents to 60 points or less per game this year. Illinois leads the league, holding its opponents to 56.5 points per game, while Northwestern follows in second (56.6 ppg). Iowa rounds out the top three with 58.9 points per game. All three teams were ranked among the top 10 in the country in scoring defense in the latest NCAA statistics.