I really enjoy the early December conference slate. Frankly, the worst part about it is when it is over and teams have to play buy games again, which is no fun to be completely honest. But, we take what we can get in December when it comes to stellar college basketball matchups.

We definitely got some with last week’s Big Ten slate. This week was nothing short of your classic week in the Big Ten, and some out west team(s) got in on the chaos as well.

Without further ado, let’s get into it!

Enter Area 50-1. Michigan beats Wisconsin in Madison, and Iowa in Ann Arbor.

I said last week that if Michigan’s most consistent part of its team is cohesiveness between Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin, watch out. Last week it proved that. Wolf and Goldin were amazing in both of Michigan’s games within the past seven days.

Last Tuesday, the two bigs combined for 44 points on 16 field goal makes, 12 rebounds and eight blocks. Nos. 50 and 1 were the only things consistent enough for Michigan to win this game offensively, because Tre Donaldson was held scoreless, it only had six bench points and nobody else scored in double figures.

Wolf continued to wow the college basketball world with his stellar shooting, playmaking and acrobatics, all at 7-feet tall.

It was a question all fans of the conference that followed Michigan activity in the transfer portal had: Can Michigan find a way to get these two to mesh together offensively?

With Wolf’s NBA-level assisting the answer was the high pick-and-roll, and it worked against Wisconsin.

Defensively, Michigan was great against Wisconsin. Even with John Tonje, who looks like a first team All-American right now, scoring 18 points, Michigan got it done and held the Badgers to their lowest scoring total all season.

On Saturday Michigan returned to Ann Arbor and won a scrappy track meet against Iowa. This happens to every Big Ten team as Fran McCaffrey coached Iowa teams always rekindle their constantly stellar shooting and keep games close. Michigan will be satisfied with any kind of “W” against any Iowa team.

A good sign for Michigan was Donaldson getting off the mat with 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

It seems that Michigan only has one weakness right now and that’s turnovers — 17-4 was the turnover ratio between the Wolverines and Hawkeyes on Saturday.

In the latest Associated Press poll, Michigan has earned its No. 14 ranking. Something to look out for schedule wise: the Wolverines will play a talented Arkansas team at Madison Square Garden this Tuesday, then now-No. 13 Oklahoma in the Jordan Classic on Dec. 18.

Northwestern bounces back from tough Iowa loss, beat rival Illini

In his first season without the legend of Boo Buie, Chris Collins will have to rely on some veterans stepping into bigger roles this season, mostly from Brooks Barnheizer and Nick Martinelli. So far, the two have been amazing.

Through 10 games, Barnheizer and Martinelli have combined for just under 40 points a game.

Against Illinois, the two had 44 points.

While I don’t think only the two of them playing consistently will be enough to power Northwestern into the NCAA Tournament, you have your key guys and it is still only December. There is still time for guys like Ty Berry and Jalen Leach to power this team into the field of 68.

For both squads, Illinois and Northwestern, it was a game that captured the wizardry of conference play as a whole. Illinois will bounce back and probably be in the mix for the Big Ten title, games like this are going to happen, for any good team, in any conference. Shots just fall better in the home team’s gym.

Games like this are why we can’t wait for conference play to fully kick off.

UCLA goes to Eugene and stuns a rolling Oregon team

Last week I shot Oregon to the top of my Big Ten power rankings and deservingly so. Oregon was 12th in the country and undefeated with a fantastic resumé through the first couple weeks. Then all the sudden a UCLA team that I really had no expectation for goes into Knight Arena and leave with a buzzer beating win.

I watched some bits and pieces of this game and what I came away with was that Oregon just was not ready for what UCLA brought to the table.

It seems like every week I am praising a couple Oregon players, which is true. In this matchup, the only one worth talking about is Nate Bittle. He finished with 22 points. Even if Oregon were to win this game, I would not have been moved by its performance.

For UCLA, Mick Cronin’s squad has been rather quiet. This team has no Lonzo Ball, it has no Jaylen Clark, it has no Adem Bona. It’s by committee as the Bruins have three scorers in double-figures but none averaging about 15 points.

From Sunday's matchup, UCLA was led by Eric Dailey Jr. who had 19 points.

QUICK HITTERS

Penn State meets Vegas’ expectation as a -1.5 favorite entering Purdue victory

In year two for Mike Rhodes, Penn State is off to a great start. While I think Michigan’s victory over Wisconsin is the best win in the conference this year so far, this one for Penn State has to be in the top three. The Nittany Lion fans, for what seems to be the first time ever, flocked to the Bryce Jordan Center to see their hungry team blowout the Boilers.

At Big Ten Media Day Penn State’s Ace Baldwin commented on Braden Smith supposedly being the player of the year in the Big Ten and how he wanted a chance to prove himself against Smith.

Here is a stat-free summary of how it went for Baldwin:

Baldwin’s final line featured 17 points and six assists.

A really nice piece that Penn State features who I think will be an X factor for them is Yannik Konan Niederhauser. He transferred in from Northern Illinois and is listed at 7-feet tall and has an NBA level skill set in terms of explosivity.

Is Michigan State finding its stride?

Sparty is 2-0 in conference play. I don’t care if their matchups were Minnesota and Nebraska, this team needed a spark after under performing in the Bahamas.

That spark has been Jase Richardson. Son of Michigan State legend Jason Richardson, Jase has been an instant playmaker for MSU as a true freshman. He is its second leading scorer with 10 points per game.

Richardson had 16 points against Nebraska and so far has been one of Michigan State’s best 3-point shooters, a facet of offense MSU really needs to get better at. He’s 50% from 3, granted he's only shot 18 shots, but this is very promising for MSU.

Games to watch Dec. 9-15

Tuesday, Dec. 10

Penn State @ Rutgers, 7 p.m., Peacock

No. 14 Michigan vs. Arkansas, 9 p.m., ESPN (Jimmy V Classic - Madison Square Garden)

No. 20 Wisconsin @ Illinois, 9.p.m., Peacock

Thursday, Dec. 12

No. 3 Iowa State @ Iowa, 7:30 p.m., FS1

Friday, Dec. 13

Indiana @ Nebraska 7 p.m., FOX

Saturday, Dec. 14

No. 17 Texas A&M @ No. 11 Purdue, Noon, CBS

Ohio State vs. No. 2 Auburn, 1:00 p.m., ESPN2 (Holiday Hoopsgiving, State Farm Arena)

No. 20 Wisconsin @ Butler 2:30 p.m., BTN (Indy Classic, Gainbridge Fieldhouse)

Seton Hall @ Rutgers, 3:00 p.m., FOX

No. 1 Tennessee @ Illinois, 5:30 p.m., FOX

Team of the Week

Danny Wolf (MICH

Vlad Goldin (MICH)

Nick Martinelli (NU)

Ace Baldwin (PSU)

Devin Royal (OSU)

HM: Dylan Andrews (UCLA)

Freshman of the Week

Jase Richardson (MSU)

Power Rankings

1. Michigan

2. Purdue

3. Oregon

4. Maryland

5. Wisconsin

6. Ohio State

7. Michigan State

8. Illinois

9. Indiana

10. Northwestern

11. UCLA

12. Rutgers

13. Iowa

14. Penn State

15. Nebraska

16. Washington

17. Minnesota

18. USC

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