Ha, well, we didn't even have the same top-3 after Ohio State. I just assumed Michigan State was included in that; they have the second most talent in the league. If they figure out the point guard spot -- which is very important in Izzo's system -- they figure to be quite good. As for your preferred three: -Purdue? Hummel is great (when healthy). Their backcourt is good and deep. The rest of the frontcourt . . . uh, well, did I mention Hummel is really good? -Michigan? They strike me as the prototypical overrated-because-of-a-good-tournament-game team. They lost fourteen games last year and went .500 in the league. They also lost their best player (Darius Morris). Yet, they're ranked highly because they gave Duke a great run the tournament -- but did Duke not get throat-stomped the next game? I like Beilein and think Tim Hardaway, Jr. is a breakout candidate. But I'm not sure they're clearly better than everyone below. -Wisconsin? Probably, bar Ohio State, the most likely to finish near the top of the conference. However, I think there are far more questions here than normal. They've usually had their fair share of 4-, or even 5-, star players; this year they have only one (Jared Berggren -- so, ostensibly, two with Jordan Taylor). I know I'm more lukewarm here than most, though. Those three teams may end up finishing 2-3-4, but I don't think there is that much separating them. For one, Illinois has more talent than all three of them (as mentioned, so does Michigan State). MSU- Yeah and as far as PG I think Green is almost the default guy. I'm probably skewing too negative based on how they've looked against two top 6 teams. I'm just not sure I see a big improvement from next year. Nix and Payne don't impress me. It will come down to how well Wood fits in, how good Dawsen is and Appling taking a jump. Michigan- They lost Morris and you never know with freshman PG's but Burke is supposed to be really good. I'm looking more at natural progression with Hardaway, Morgan, Smotrycz and returning all of those annoying shooters. Wisconsin- They shouldn't be that good but I'm not going to analyze it much deeper than Bo Ryan and Jordan Taylor. Most of the replacements have been in the program for a few years and will probably turn into studs out of nowhere.