Zach Osterman

Hey folks, Happy holidays to all of your out there. Stuffed with good food and tired from a long day of feasting and festing, I thought I'd throw down a quick post, as a quick read of ESPN.com brought to my attention the latest AP and ESPN/USA Today polls. There were no surprises at the top, as Connecticut was No. 1 in both polls. It's been awhile since the Huskies were tops in the country, but they've never been far from the top. Stanford, Tennessee, North Carolina and Maryland rounded out the top 5 respectively in both polls. A few points of interest for Hoosier fans. The only two teams in the top 25 the Hoosiers played this year are still West Virginia (#18 AP/#17 ESPN after their loss to IU last weekend) and Texas A&M (#14 AP/#12 ESPN). But here's the interesting thing if you take a second glance at these two polls: Unanimous preseason conference favorite Ohio State (#17/18) is the only Big Ten team in the Top 25. Michigan State is the fifth-leading vote getter of all unranked teams in both polls, and Penn State got two votes in the AP poll and three in the ESPN/USA Today poll. That's it. That's all. No Purdue, no Wisconsin, nobody but those three. So what does this mean? Well, it could be a topsy-turvy year in the Big Ten because of it. Wisconsin has the conference's leading returning scorer and preseason conference player of the year Jolene Anderson, but they've had an interesting season so far, complete with a 7-3 record and a last-minute cancellation at a tournament out in California due to the wildfires that ravaged the area earlier this year. Purdue, as mentioned in a previous post, has been bitten by the injury bug a bit in the offseason, losing senior forward Lindsay Wisdom-Hilton and junior guard Jodi Howell to knee and shoulder injuries respectively. Now, this is not to say the Hoosiers are guaranteed anything, but it seems like the perfect year for a less-established team to make a run at conference success from obscurity, whether that team is IU or not. So what do you think? Do you think the Hoosiers strong non-conference schedule has them prepared to make a run at consistent success in conference in 2008? Or do you think the Big Ten is too weak for a team to rise this year? Is it too early to tell? Let us know what you think. One more time, happy holidays, and for those of you still in Bloomington, I'll see you in the New Year. Stay tuned to the blog for an interview with Coach Jack and some Northwestern preview in the coming days. I'll be in and out, but if you have any questions, just leave them in the comments section, and I'll answer them as best I can. One last shameless plug: Make sure you stay with Under the Rock and the main Web site, www.idsnews.com, around New Year's, as the football guys Lee, Tom and Matt will have plenty of on-site coverage of the Sugar Bowl out in Tempe. Lucky them, New Year's in a college town can't be bad, and I've been to and enjoyed the sights of Tempe more than once. That's it folks, until next time...

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