It's beyond the midway point in the Big Ten basketball season, and some questions have been answered. Two teams have jumped out to the front of the pack and are controlling the league. After that, it's anyone's opportunity to make a run and qualify for the NCAA tournament. With so much parity in the conference, it might be difficult to separate the contenders from the pretenders.
Sittin' Pretty
Ohio State and Wisconsin are in.
The Buckeyes (20-3, 8-1 Big Ten) and Badgers (22-2, 8-1) have separated themselves from the rest of the Big Ten and have risen to the country's elite. Both rank in the top-five in the RPI and, along with North Carolina, UCLA and Florida, are playing at another level.
"I think there's a lot of parity after Ohio State and Wisconsin," Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson said in his weekly teleconference. "But, those two teams have separated themselves [from the rest of the conference]."
Penn State's opponents in four of the Nittany Lions' next five games, both Ohio State and Wisconsin, can rest easy on selection Sunday. The only suspense remaining is whether either or both teams will be able to step up and grab a No. 1 seed.
Feelin' Good
Outside of the top two, nothing else in the Big Ten is a certainty. But Indiana has to be fairly confident at this stage of the season.
The Hoosiers (16-6, 6-3) would seem to have the perfect résumé to earn a middle seed.
Good RPI: Indiana currently sits at No. 18 in the Ratings Percentage Index, which is used to help determine which teams earn tournament bids.
Difficult schedule: The Hoosiers have the 19th toughest schedule in the country with three of their six losses coming to top-25 teams.
Strong conference record: Sitting at third place in the conference, Indiana is 6-3. They only need three more wins to record a winning conference record and 11 Big Ten wins are a real possibility.
Signature win: This is Indiana's most noticeable accolade. Wisconsin has looked unbeatable at times this season, but the Hoosiers handed the Badgers their lone conference loss last week.
"You look at the scores and Indiana beat Wisconisn," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "The teams in that middle group [including Indiana] have all caught up [to Ohio State and Wisconsin] and made improvements."
Bubble Trouble
Just beyond the league's top three, sits a logjam that could flood the Mississippi.
Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, Michigan State and Purdue are all one game on either side of the .500 in the conference. All five have gotten hot and are capable of making a run toward the dance.
"This time of the season, guys start understanding their roles. Kids improve and I think all those teams [in the middle pack] have made some strides," Weber said. "Whoever gets above .500 has a good chance of getting in. It looks like it's going to be a big group of teams in the middle pack and it might be a win in the Big Ten tournament that gets you over the hump."
Weber's Illini (17-8, 5-5) are finally healthy and have the best chance of impressing the selection committee down the stretch. After a difficult non-conference schedule -- the 16th toughest in the nation -- Illinois is poised to secure at least a 9-7 league mark, which Weber called the "magical number" for a tournament berth.
Iowa, on the other hand, could be doomed by its poor out-of-conference showing. The Hawkeyes (13-10, 5-4) sport a less-than-stellar 8-6 record against non-conference opponents, which hurts their chances. However, Iowa is playing some of the best ball in the league at this point.
"As the season goes along, teams take form," Sampson said. "And [Iowa coach Steve Alford] has got them playing good right now and I really like their team."
Alford's club has the best opportunity to rack up nine or 10 league victories, which should be enough to squeak in the tournament.
Rounding out the mess at the middle of the conference, Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue need to pull off some upsets if they want to join the mayhem in March.
With relatively few easy wins remaining on their schedules -- they combine to play the Badgers, Hoosiers and Buckeyes eight times down the stretch -- these three need to pull off some shockers or else they are NIT bound.
But, as Penn State proved with last season's win at Illinois, no one in the Big Ten is unbeatable. Though many college basketball analysts have called the conference "down" this year, upsets could happen, and when they do, four or five teams could separate themselves from the pack and earn their ticket to the NCAA tournament.
"There are a lot of things that are going to be played out here in these next three weeks and whoever's got a chance or think they may have a chance, they're going to have a chance to prove it," Sampson said. "There are so many teams still in it . . . that are playing good and can do a lot of damage here in the next few weeks."
