College basketball rankings: The Badgers' dominance continues

If it weren't for Wisconsin, we'd have a very exciting race shaping up for the Big Ten championship. As it is, the battle for seeding in the conference tournament is going to be intense. Can you feel the excitement?

The Friday Facts:

Here is how dominant the Badgers' offense has been: despite scoring 1.30 points-per-possession at Iowa and 1.42 points-per-possession against Indiana, the Badgers' adjusted offensive efficiency in conference play stayed virtually unchanged -- moving from 136.5 to 136.6. In other words, these explosions are getting rather routine.

On the flip side, the Badgers' adjusted defensive numbers did improve slightly (going from 100.6 to 99.6) despite being scorched for 1.11 ppp by Iowa and 1.20 ppp by Indiana. The reason for this counter-intuitive result is that Iowa and Indiana are both elite offenses (second and third in conference play, respectively), and would be expected to scorch an average team even more than they scorched the Badgers. So we've got that going for us.

Arguably the most important game of the week was Iowa's beat-down of Michigan in Ann Arbor last night. This more or less puts to bed Michigan's hopes of getting into the NCAA tournament as an at-large. At the same time, it solidifies Iowa's spot on the right side of the bubble and puts them in serious contention for second place in the Big Ten.

As you can see above, Iowa has played the hardest in-conference schedule so far, and they've gotten their fair share of wins against it. Down the stretch, they have the easiest schedule by a significant margin, which is why T-Rank still puts them right in the thick of the wide-open race for second place. They'll likely be favored in all of their remaining games except their game at Indiana. This week they have two big home games, against Maryland and Minnesota. I expect them to win both.

Purdue continues to impress. This week they handled a scrappy Northwestern team in Evanston, and then took care of business against Ohio State (playing without Marc Loving) at home. This week Purdue goes on the road, to Minnesota and Rutgers. The game against the Gophers figures to be a tossup. Given the disaster that was Purdue's non-conference performance, it's the kind of game they really need to win to stay in the conversation for an at-large.

This week's Big Ten games

Purdue's big game at Minnesota highlights the week, followed by Iowa's home game at Maryland. Ohio State has a couple should-be gimmes: at Rutgers and home against Penn State. Look for the Buckeyes to rack up some efficiency margins in these game and solidify their position at the second-place favorite.

Some notes on Wisconsin's historically great offense

Wisconsin is leading both the T-Rank and the Kenpom ratings in adjusted offensive efficiency. Indeed, the Badgers' current Kenpom adjusted OE is the best of all-time.

I already detailed a couple of weeks ago some of the mind-boggling stats the Badgers have been putting up. For instance, at that point the Badgers had put up the four best offensive performances in Big Ten play. Indiana butted into that group with its three-point barrage against Maryland, but the Badgers still have six of the top 10 offensive performances so far in Big Ten play:

Notably, no other team appears in the top 10 more than once.

Looking beyond the Big Ten reinforces how remarkable the Badgers' best games have been. Here is the complete set of games in conference play where a team has scored at least 1.4 points-per-possession against a top-100 team:

That's right: Wisconsin has done it three times, and the rest of D1 has just done it just once: Richmond put up 1.42 against Davidson. That's it.

Finally, the Badgers are on pace to have the best offensive efficiency in Big Ten play in the tempo-free era (since 2002). This record is currently held by the 2005 Illini, who scored 120.7 per 100 possession in Big Ten play. According to kenpom.com, the Badgers are currently at 128.5 in that metric. Amazingly, the Badgers are so far beating the Illini's record mark even if you include only their road games:

Badgers averaging an incredible 1.22 points-per-possession in Big Ten *road* games. Overall average under Bo (in Big Ten road games) is 1.05.

— Bart Torvik (@totally_t_bomb) January 31, 2015

At home, the Badgers' are averaging a crisp 134.1 per 100 possessions. For the sake of completeness, here is the year-by-year break down of the Badgers' offensive efficiency in Big Ten play, with home and away splits:

Unsurprisingly, this year's team is the best in every category. It's worth pointing out, though, that last year's team actually set an incredible road efficiency mark at 117.4. With road games against OSU and Maryland still looming, it will be interesting to see if the Badgers can beat that in the end.