While everyone's attention is deservedly focused on the football team's surprise invite to the Outback Bowl, basketball season keeps rolling on. Northwestern is off until Sunday for exams, but there have been plenty of developments around the Big Ten this week, so let's get to the rankings, with last week's rankings in parentheses. 

1 (1). Purdue: As the conference's only undefeated team, they're still the easy choice for the top spot. Purdue is the best defensive team in the Big Ten and maybe in the country, with Chris Kramer locking people down on the perimeter and JaJuan Johnson blocking shots in the middle. Until they hung 101 points on Buffalo Saturday, they shot just 38% from the field in their first 6 games and still won them all, showing just how dominant they are on D. I still have questions about their offense, namely who's getting the ball down the stretch. Robbie Hummel was supposed to be the man, as last season he was the preseason player of the year in the Big Ten, and while he's a good scorer he's not close to player of the year levels. If and when the Boilers start clicking on offense, they will be scary good and a strong contender for a #1 seed. They get a tough road test Saturday at Alabama.

2 (2). Michigan State: They fell in today's polls thanks to a loss at North Carolina, but I won't penalize them as I watched that game and UNC played as close to a perfect first half as you'll ever see, the Spartans just didn't have a chance. They still have the best point guard in the conference in Kalin Lucas and the best coach in the conference in Tom Izzo, so expect them to hit their stride soon.

3 (5). Wisconsin: I watched all of their home win over Duke and was very impressed. Trevon Hughes has really stepped up his game and Jon Leuer is becoming a force in the paint. Depth is a concern here, but Bo Ryan will have this team ready to play every night, he's done a fantastic job as usual.

4 (4) Minnesota: I might have the Gophers a bit too high, but I still think this is a very dangerous team. They've got a ton of depth and an excellent coach in Tubby Smith. This is a typical Tubby Smith team in that they will play excellent defense every night but are offensively challenged. Right now I think Tubby is playing a few too many guys and thus they're unable to get in a rhythm on offense. Another problem is all the legal violations by various players, but that seems to be sorting itself out. It may take a while, but with their incredibly soft non-conference schedule the rest of the month, they've got time.

5 (8) Illinois: The Illini vault three spots thanks to their miraculous second half comeback at Clemson. I must admit I didn't see most of it as I flipped away from that game in the first half when Illinois was getting run out of the gym, but erasing a 23 point lead on the road against a ranked team shows a lot about the heart of this team. Freshmen guards Brandon Paul and D.J. Richardson are both solid contributors already, adding to a strong frontcourt in Mike Davis and Mike Tisdale. When you're relying on a freshman backcourt, there will be growing pains and inconsistent play especially during Big Ten season, but there's a lot of talent here and this team is much better than the one that lost to Bradley.

6 (3) Ohio State: They fall 3 spots because their star Evan Turner is out for 2 months with 2 broken vertebrae, which sounds like a season ending and possibly career threatening injury to me, but I guess it's not that serious. Still, this is a gigantic loss for Ohio State, as Turner was leading the Buckeyes in scoring, rebounding and assists. It's unclear how good they'll be without him, but dreams of contending for the Big Ten title are almost certainly out the window now. Jon Diebler is averaging 17 points a game, but he's mainly a spot up 3-point shooter and won't get nearly as many easy looks without Turner in the lineup (but he does look like Bubbles' friend Johnny from the Wire, so he's got that going for him). We'll find out how good they are without Turner on Saturday when the Buckeyes visit Butler.

7 (7) Northwestern: The 'Cats are exceeding everyone's expectations so far this season without Coble, and shouldn't have much trouble with their remaining non-conference schedule. It was nice to see Juice Thompson get some love from Andy Katz this week.

Catching up on my Northwestern blog reading, I recently found this post on Welsh-Ryan Ramblings and thought I'd weigh in. While Ryan could certainly contribute next season, I think it would be a big mistake to take him over a potential recruit who could add just as much next year and obviously a lot more in the future. But my question is can NU take away a scholarship from someone on the roster who is adding very little and likely will never contribute, namely Mike Capocci and Nick Fruendt. I'd like to see Ryan get another year, so let's replace someone who's doing nothing. if possible.

8 (6) Michigan: A couple weeks ago this team was #15 in the country, but right now they're no more #15 in the country than a team of me, Rodger, pfoley, Krissy Cox and McNulty the night after a bender (and yes, I know that's my second Wire reference of this post). John Beilein is running his trademark perimeter oriented offense, which is working terribly as Michigan is shooting a putrid 29% from 3-point range. It's a case of square peg into round hole if there ever was one (and we here at Northwestern know all about a team running an offense that doesn't fit its personnel). But unlike past NU teams that had so little talent they couldn't run any offense effectively, Michigan has a potential star in Manny Harris. Unfortunately for Wolverine fans, his strength is slashing to the basket, not 3-point shooting, so it's up to Beilein to do some coaching and change his offense to fit his personnel, namely more Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims and less 3-point shooting from bad 3-point shooters.

9 (9) Penn State: Aside from Talor Battle, this is a bad team. Even with Battle scoring 28 points in the second half, Penn State still only won by 3 against a mediocre Virginia team. When he struggles like he did Saturday, you get stuff like a 45-42 loss to Temple. This team really misses an inside presence like that provided in recent years by Jamelle Cornley and Geary Claxton.

10 (10) Indiana: It looks like another rebuilding year for the Hoosiers, as Tom Crean's highly touted freshman class isn't ready to make the leap to contender quite yet.  And their schedule is getting tougher, with games against Pittsburgh and Kentucky this week.

11 (11) Iowa: They were at least competitive against Virginia Tech in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, but the cupboard is bare talent wise for the Hawkeyes. Look for their struggles to continue this week as they have tough road games against Valley favorite Northern Iowa and Iowa State

That's the rankings for this week, and remember that criticizing the power rankings tends to lead to Northwestern success, so rip me early and often.