Indiana picked to finish 2nd in the Big Ten in “official unofficial” media poll

Big Ten media day for men’s basketball takes place Thursday in Chicago and the annual “official unofficial” Big Ten preseason media poll was released today.

The unofficial poll surveyed 33 writers from around the conference to get their predicted order of finish for the league, which is now 18 teams.

The panel is also asked to select a preseason player of the year, preseason all-league first and second teams, preseason freshman and preseason transfer of the year.

The poll is organized by Adam Jardy of The Columbus Dispatch and Zach Osterman of The Indianapolis Star. The Big Ten no longer conducts a full preseason media poll for men’s basketball.

Here are the full results:

Predicted order of finish for the Big Ten (first-place votes in parenthesis)

1. Purdue, 572 (20)
2. Indiana, 549 (7)
3. UCLA, 510 (2)
4. Illinois, 458 (2)
5. Michigan State, 448 (1)
6. Oregon, 412
7. Rutgers, 391
8. Ohio State, 369 (1)
9. Michigan, 342
10. Maryland, 263
11. Iowa, 249
T-12. Wisconsin, 212
T-12. Nebraska, 212
14. USC, 196
15. Washington, 158
16. Northwestern, 153
17. Penn State, 87
18. Minnesota, 62

(Out of a possible 594 points)

Full voting distribution for Indiana (a full list of the media panel that participated in the poll is available at the bottom of this post):

1st: Leistikow, Fuller, Washut, Hansen, Woods, Allen, Stewart
2nd: Gerbo, Quinn, Couch, James, Greenberg, Spungin, Helwagen, Fonseca, Huston, McCleary
3rd: Werner, Richey, Osterman, Stevens, Moore, Neubert, Carmin, Vrooman
4th: Bozich, Tachman, Burkhardt, Jardy, Crepea
5th: Sauber
6th: Carino
7th: Austin

Preseason Big Ten player, freshman and transfer of the year

Purdue’s Braden Smith was voted Big Ten preseason player of the year, receiving a total of 27 of the available 33 votes. Indiana’s Oumar Ballo and Ace Bailey of Rutgers also received two votes each. The other votes were for Kobe Johnson of UCLA and Iowa’s Payton Sandfort.

Dylan Harper of Rutgers was voted Big Ten preseason freshman of the year with 19.5 votes. Bailey received 12.5 votes and Kasparas Jakucionis received one vote.

Ballo was voted Big Ten preseason transfer of the year. Ballo received 17 votes. Indiana’s Myles Rice and Washington’s Great Osobor each received four votes. Michigan’s Vladislav Goldin received three votes, Kylan Boswell of Illinois received two votes and UCLA’s Tyler Bilodeau, Maryland’s Ja’Kobi Gillespie and USC’s Saint Thomas each received one vote.

Preseason All-Big Ten teams

Players received two points for a first-team vote and one point for a second-team vote.

First team

Braden Smith, Purdue (64)
Payton Sandfort, Iowa (48)
Oumar Ballo, Indiana (47)
Bruce Thornton, Ohio State (34)
Dylan Harper, Rutgers (32)

Second team

Jackson Shelstad, Oregon (30)
Ace Baldwin Jr., Penn State (26)
Great Osobor, Washington (26)
Ace Bailey, Rutgers (25)
Dawson Garcia, Minnesota (23)

Others receiving votes: Brooks Barnhizer, Northwestern, Malik Reneau, Indiana (19); Mackenzie Mgbako and Myles Rice, Indiana (13); Kasparas Jakucionis, Illinois (12); Vladislav Goldin, Michigan (11); Desmond Claude, USC, Julian Reese, Maryland (7); Dylan Andrews, UCLA (6); Brice Williams, Nebraska (5); Jaden Akins, Michigan State, Kylan Boswell, Illinois (4); Xavier Booker, Michigan State, Kobe Johnson, UCLA (3); Tyler Bilodeau, UCLA, Frankie Fidler, Michigan State, Owen Freeman, Iowa, Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Maryland, Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue, Saint Thomas, USC (2); Meechie Johnson, Ohio State, Fletcher Loyer, Purdue, Sebastian Mack, UCLA (1).

How Alex Bozich of Inside the Hall voted

1. Purdue
2. UCLA
3. Illinois
4. Indiana
5. Michigan State
6. Michigan
7. Oregon
8. Rutgers
9. Ohio State
10. Maryland
11. Iowa
12. Northwestern
13. Nebraska
14. Wisconsin
15. Penn State
16. USC
17. Washington
18. Minnesota

All Big Ten first team: Braden Smith, Purdue; Payton Sandfort, Iowa; Dylan Harper, Rutgers; Myles Rice, Indiana; Jackson Shelstad, Oregon

All Big Ten second team: Ace Baldwin Jr., Penn State; Ace Bailey, Rutgers; Oumar Ballo, Indiana; Brooks Barnhizer, Northwestern; Bruce Thornton, Ohio State

Player of the year: Braden Smith, Purdue
Freshman of the year: Dylan Harper, Rutgers
Transfer of the year: Myles Rice, Indiana

Complete list of voters

Category: Media

Filed to: 2024-25 Big Ten preview