2023-2024 Big Ten Men's Basketball Preview

It's that time of the year again, the college hoops season is upon us and the road to the tourney has begun.

Let's take a look at the upcoming 2023-24 season, highlighting some of the teams and storylines that will shape this year's journey toward March Madness.

Coming into this season the Big Ten Conference is one of the most competitive out of all the conferences in the country.

Last season the Big Ten had put eight of its 14 squads in the Big Dance when it came time for March Madness season.

The No. 1 overall seed Purdue's Boilermakers stunning first-round exit after losing to No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson underscored the conference's postseason success.

The Boilermakers had rattled off some huge victories in non-conference play with consecutive victories over Marquette, West Virginia, Gonzaga and Duke, all of whom finished inside the 2023-24 season inside the top-20 at KenPom.com.

Throughout the season the Boilermakers were very dominant in conference play and in non-conference play, but when it came time for march they were not prepared.

Coming off the tournament loss the Boilermakers look to come back strong and be one of the best teams in the Big Ten conference again this season.

The Boilermakers will be led by their star center Zach Edey again this season and brought a sigh of relief to Purdue fans when he announced his return for a fourth season with the Boilermakers.

Another Big Ten team that played very well in the regular season last year was the Illinois Fighting Illini.

Illinois picked up huge victories over top-five KenPom finishers UCLA and Texas.

The Illini also produced a big non-conference road victory over a Creighton team that came one possession away from reaching the Final Four.

The Illini also fell early on in the March Madness Tournament and were defeated by the Arkansas Razorbacks 73-63 in the first round.

The Illini will be led by their outstanding guard play and lean heavily on their Fifth-year guard Terrence Shannon Jr.

The Iowa Hawkeyes will be another very competitive team in the Big Ten to look out for again this season.

They were bounced early on and ended their season with a first-round exit from the NCAA Tournament as well at the hands of Bruce Pearl’s Auburn Tigers.

The Hawkeyes are going to be a team that pushes the pace on offense and is a team that can catch teams sleeping with their fast play in transition.

The Hawkeyes haven’t ranked outside the top five in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency stat since 2018-19, which shows this team can be very efficient on offense throughout the season.

Christian Holtzapple is a fourth-year majoring in Broadcast Journalism, To contact him, email cmh7064@psu.edu.