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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 62 petitive Big Ten season. There are known commodities: Michigan State, Purdue, Northwestern and Minnesota will be good, though the latter two will come into this season with the relative burden of ex- pectation. But there are lots of unknowns, too. The Big Ten will see some of its biggest brands starting over. Indiana and Ohio State move forward with new coaches in Archie Miller and Chris Holtmann, respectively, and rosters loaded with question marks. The same goes for Illinois, now led by Brad Underwood. Meanwhile, Big Ten constant Wisconsin retools after the loss of the veteran, Final Four-experienced core Greg Gard in- herited from Bo Ryan. And Michigan, coming off a Sweet 16 run, moves on without some critical players and leaders from recent seasons. Here's a team-by-team look at the Big Ten heading into the 2017-18 season. THE TOP OF THE HEAP The teams with the best chance, on paper, to vie for the league title and be nationally prominent (alphabetical order): Michigan State: Life must be pretty good in East Lansing, because Bridges by-passed mil- lions of dollars to return to the Spartans for his sophomore season, instantly making them the preseason favorite and a team generally viewed as one of the best in America. Michigan State opens the season No. 2 in the preseason coaches poll, behind only Duke. The obvious pick for preseason player-of-the-year in the Big Ten, Bridges figures to push for All-America honors this season for the Spartans, the centerpiece of an outstanding sophomore class that also includes one of the league's best big men in preseason All-Big Ten pick Ward and a budding standout at point guard in Winston. An excellent freshman class is led by McDonald's All-Amer- ica forward Jaren Jackson Jr. and Michigan State's prohibitive lack of depth in the post from last season in solved now by the returns of Gavin Schilling and Ben Carter from injury and an influx of youngsters. How loaded are the Spartans? They'll have two backups this season in Schilling and point guard Tum Tum Nairn who start- ed in the 2015 Final Four. The Spartans' best players are still young, but this is a team loaded with experience, on top of supreme talent and typical Michigan State toughness. Minnesota: Nothing was expected of Min- nesota last season. Now, expectations have changed completely. The Gophers rescued Richard Pitino from the hot seat last season by finishing 24-10, winning 11 Big Ten games and making the NCAA Tournament. Most impressive: Minnesota showed the fortitude to shake off a five-game losing streak mid-season to finish strong. Mason is a first-team All-Big Ten-type player and Coffey could develop quickly into one of the very best players in the league. But Minnesota is strong up front, too. Big men Reggie Lynch and Jordan Murphy are a tough, physical duo who'll make the Gophers a handful on the boards and particularly in the case of defensive stalwart Lynch, at the rim. The Gophers, though, will miss sophomore forward Eric Curry, lost for the season to a knee injury. Northwestern: After finally overcoming its long-time glass ceiling and reaching the first NCAA Tournament in program history, can Northwestern build on it? Senior guard Bryant McIntosh is one of the best in the country, and wings Scottie Lindsey and Vic Law are outstand- ing complements. Lindsey might be one of the conference's top scorers and big man Dererk Pardon gives the Wildcats the sort of interior toughness and physicality their program has Tom Campbell On paper, Tom Izzo has the Big Ten's best team with a deep and talented roster headlined by Preseason All-Big Ten selection Miles Bridges.