A Down Year. Entering the season, the prevailing wisdom held that Iowa was a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten basketball team, with six of the usual contenders -- Michigan State, Purdue, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maryland -- clearly ahead of them, and the likes of Illinois and Ohio State in the NCAA-bubble portion of the standings.
We're now one month into the campaign, and it looks like (1) Iowa is better than expected, and (2) this is the worst Big Ten in almost a decade. Indiana is playing at breakneck pace and has posted the nation's highest effective field goal rate, but has already lost to two ACC teams (Duke is OK; Wake Forest not so much) and UNLV.