IU basketball picked to finish 9th in the Big Ten by Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook

IU basketball forward Tucker DeVries shoots in Cook Hall.

The Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, an annual publication previewing the college basketball season since the early 1980s, was recently released in a digital format. Printed copies will be available in the coming weeks.

After being picked to win the Big Ten last fall, Blue Ribbon projects the Hoosiers to finish 9th in the Big Ten this season.

The Blue Ribbon preseason top 25 rankings include five Big Ten teams: Purdue (No. 2), Michigan (No. 9), UCLA (No. 12), Illinois (No. 20) and Wisconsin (No. 21).

Here are some notes on Indiana, the Big Ten at large and more from the Blue Ribbon Yearbook:

• Blue Ribbon predicts the order of finish in the Big Ten as follows: Purdue, Michigan, UCLA, Illinois, Wisconsin, Oregon, Iowa, Michigan State, Indiana, Washington, Ohio State, USC, Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern, Minnesota, Rutgers and Penn State.

• Purdue’s Braden Smith is the Blue Ribbon pick for Big Ten and national player of the year.

• The preseason Big Ten all-conference team selected by Blue Ribbon is Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn (Purdue), Donovan Dent (UCLA), Yaxel Lendeborg (Michigan) and Bennett Stirtz (Iowa).

• The top three Big Ten backcourts are Purdue, UCLA and Wisconsin.

• The top three Big Ten frontcourts are Michigan, Purdue and Oregon.

• The Blue Ribbon preseason All-American teams are as follows:

First team: Smith, Tahaad Pettiford (Auburn), Lendeborg, Alex Condon (Florida) and JT Toppin (Texas Tech).

Second team: Kaufman-Renn, Darryn Peterson (Kansas), AJ Dybantsa (BYU), Otega Oweh (Kentucky) and Cameron Boozer (Duke).

Third team: Graham Ike (Gonzaga), Zuby Ejiofor (St. John’s), Nate Ament (Tennessee), Joseph Tugler (Houston) and Dent.

Fourth team: Alex Karaban (UConn), Nate Bittle (Oregon), Stirtz, PJ Haggerty (Kansas State) and Emanuel Sharp (Houston).

The Blue Ribbon college basketball yearbook is available to purchase here.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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