With the Big Ten men's basketball season now two weeks old, there are numerous stories going on around the conference.

The unusual suspects

While preseason favorites Michigan State and Illinois are struggling at 1-3 and 2-2 respectively, some unexpected teams find themselves on top of the Big Ten.

Michigan, after starting its season the same way Penn State did, at 0-6, is now on an 11-game winning streak, including four conference wins to top the Big Ten.

Iowa surprised everyone, starting the conference season 3-0 by winning a tough game at Northwestern, and then upsetting Michigan State and Illinois at home.

Purdue is also 3-0, having beaten Northwestern, Michigan State and Penn State to open the Big Ten season. Strangely enough, Purdue already played Indiana earlier this season, losing a close battle at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

The game was scheduled as a non-conference game after the Big Ten's rotating schedule pitted the two rivals together only once this season.

Some things haven't changed much: Indiana is a strong 3-1, while Northwestern and the Nittany Lions sit at the bottom of the conference.

Road-weary

How's this for home-court advantage? Big Ten teams are now 14-6 (.700) on their home courts after building a .716 winning percentage at home last season, which was the highest home-court winning percentage of any conference in the country.

Purdue coach Gene Keady knows that winning on the road in the Big Ten is a challenge for even the best teams.

"We're very aware of the fact that any Big Ten team can beat anybody in the country on their home court," he said.

Touchy subject

If you've watched much Big Ten basketball this season, you'll have noticed that it's been hard to go 30 seconds without hearing the shrill sound of an official's whistle.

It seems like there's been more traveling violations, player-control fouls, hand-check fouls and three-second violations called than ever before.

Illinois men's basketball coach Bill Self thinks that the increased whistles are attributed to calls that shouldn't have been made in the first place.

"I do think the Big Ten of late is making more calls that I would consider touch fouls," he said.

Minnesota coach Dan Monson agrees, but realizes the officials don't have an easy job.

"I'm as critical of officials as anyone in this league, but you have to realize that no one wants that job," Monson said. "I didn't feel that the flow of the game went very well because they're trying to clean [minor] stuff up."

Northwestern coach Bill Camody feels that compared to previous seasons, the play has been a lot more physical, which results in more whistles being blown.

"It's tough to tell on tape," he said. "But it just seems like its rougher, and I never thought that."

Two for Tuesday

Michigan's Daniel Horton and Purdue's Willie Deane were named the Big Ten Co-Players of the Week.

Horton averaged 19.5 points and five assists while leading the Spartans to a 4-0 Big Ten record and their 11th win in a row. Deane became the first Purdue player to win the honor in three years, recording big games against Michigan State and Penn State to keep the Boilermakers undefeated in the conference.

Missing in action

Penn State freshman Robert Summers is currently not with the team, dealing with the death of his grandmother.

Summers has been starting at power forward lately, but will be unable to practice this week. Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn expects that Summers will join the team for the game at Michigan State tomorrow night, but will most likely not be in the starting lineup.

Kevin Fellows or freshman Aaron Johnson could take his place.