The Big Ten finished as the nation’s top-ranked conference each of the last two seasons per KenPom and will begin this campaign as the top league in America once again. It garnered a league-record nine NCAA tournament bids and had half of the No. 1 seeds with Michigan and Illinois and half of the No. 2 seeds with Iowa and Ohio State. The Big Ten also had two first-team All-Americans in Luka Garza of Iowa and Ayo Dosunmu of Illinois and two second-team All-Americans in Kofi Cockburn of Illinois and Hunter Dickinson of Michigan. The latter two are back.

But Michigan State in 2000 was the last school to win the national championship as a member of the Big Ten. While the league is the toughest in college basketball, it will continue to be judged harshly until it shows more March success. Michigan made it the furthest last year, going to the Elite Eight, and lost a great deal of experience but has much talent, including three McDonald’s All-Americans as part of the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class. Purdue might be slightly less talented than Michigan but is the most experienced team in the conference with all five starters returning. Cockburn, part of a great crop of big men in the conference, surprisingly returned to Illinois. Ohio State also returns four starters and adds two graduate transfers to a 22-win squad. Maryland, Rutgers, Wisconsin and Iowa as well as Illinois made the second round last year.

Michigan State made the NCAA Tournament as part of the First Four but comes off its worst regular-season finish since 1992-93. After a little over two decades, Indiana hired an “Indiana guy” as coach, with former Hoosiers player Mike Woodson returning to Bloomington after spending nearly a quarter-century coaching in the NBA. Rutgers is looking to make consecutive NCAA tournaments for the first time since 1976. Wisconsin has gone from one of the oldest teams in college basketball to one of the youngest, with 10 of its 14 scholarship players having freshman eligibility.

Iowa will have to begin life without Garza, last season’s national player of the year. Northwestern lost 14 of its last 17 games but returns six of its top seven scorers. Nebraska was the worst team in the conference last season but adds the first five-star recruit in program history as Bryce McGowens comes to Lincoln to join older brother Trey. Micah Shrewsberry has a solid coaching pedigree, having spent the last decade as an assistant under Brad Stevens and Matt Painter, but takes over arguably the hardest job in the conference at Penn State. Minnesota lost eight of its last nine games and brings in former assistant Ben Johnson to conduct a major rebuild.

Conference champion: Purdue — The Boilermakers return all five starters and 91.3 percent of their minutes played, second most in the nation. Painter’s club is just one of four high-major schools in the country that did not take in a transfer. Purdue ranked 34th nationally in defensive efficiency and with so much experience should improve and live up to the “Defense Lives Here” mantra in West Lafayette. The Boilermakers are a bona fide Final Four contender, but the biggest improvement that must be made is taking better care of the basketball. Purdue ranked 13th of 14 teams in the Big Ten with a 1.14 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Predicted order of finish: 2. Michigan; 3. Illinois; 4. Ohio State; 5. Maryland; 6. Michigan State; 7. Indiana; 8. Rutgers; 9. Wisconsin; 10. Iowa; 11. Northwestern; 12. Nebraska; 13. Penn State; 14. Minnesota.