To say the 2014-15 Wisconsin Badgers were a once-in-a-decade group is not an exaggeration. The Badgers were just that good.
Think about it: After a dominant three-loss regular season and a conference championship sweep, national player of the year Frank Kaminsky & Co. averaged 1.28 points per possession. They scored 85 points in 64 possessions against Arizona. They torched previously untouchable Kentucky for 71 points in 58 possessions. They finished the season with the highest adjusted offensive efficiency rating in the 14-year history of the kenpom.com database. They were the logical, systemic peak of Bo Ryan's uber-consistent tenure. They were funny, they were a joy to watch and they appeared unstoppable -- right up until the moment Duke stopped them and broke every Badgers fan's heart.
The folks at Big Ten headquarters may have been only slightly less upset: The final buzzer of Duke 68, Wisconsin 63 officially marked the league's 15th straight season without a national title.
It's unclear whether the conference has a team of Wisconsin's rarefied caliber among its ranks this year, or if 2015 was its once-in-a-decade chance to end its ignominious streak. But it does have the likely preseason No. 1 team in Maryland, and that's an awfully good place to start.
Favorite
The summer of 2014 did not portend well for Maryland basketball. The Terrapins had yet to make the NCAA tournament under coach Mark Turgeon; their latest season was a 17-15 slog; and significant contributors from an already-not-very-good team -- five of them, to be exact -- were transferring out of College Park at an alarming rate. Fair or not, Turgeon's fourth season, and Maryland's first in the Big Ten, was billed as a now-or-never stress test of the program's progress.
The Terps passed the test. More accurately, they aced it.
After a 12-1 nonconference run (with the only loss coming to Virginia) a more cohesive and more talented Maryland went 14-4 in Big Ten play, knocked off Wisconsin, unveiled one of the nation's best and most underrated freshmen in point guard Melo Trimble, gutted out every close game it played and earned a No. 4 NCAA tournament seed. They exceeded expectations at every turn.
Now, the expectations are vastly different. Trimble and forward Jake Layman eschewed the NBA. Lottery-pick prospect Diamond Stone signed on. Graduate transfers Rasheed Sulaimon and Robert Carter arrived. The Terps' talent and top-to-bottom roster balance is as good or better as any team in the country's. Suddenly, Maryland is a -- maybe the -- favorite to win the national title. Their status as the Big Ten's clear favorite feels mundane by comparison.
Sleeper
Purdue is a (currently) fringe top-25 team with bona fide conference title potential. Rapheal Davis, the reigning defensive player of the year, is back, alongside almost all of a team that turned an ugly 8-5 nonconference start into a 12-6 Big Ten run and an NCAA tournament berth a season ago. A.J. Hammons (7-foot-0) and Isaac Haas (7-foot-2) already made Purdue the biggest team in the Big Ten. Now that Caleb Swanigan (6-foot-9), the program's first McDonald's All-American since 1996 (and first Indiana Mr. Basketball since Glenn Robinson) has arrived, the Boilermakers are a matchup mess for every Big Ten contender.
Team that could fall on its face
The Indiana optimists believe, through collective development and the addition of blue-chip freshman center Thomas Bryant, the Big Ten's deepest platoon of rangy offensive talent can make a major year-over-year leap on the defensive end. Previous Tom Crean teams with minimal roster turnover (see 2012-13) have added competent defense to an already elite offense machine. It's a totally plausible theory.
But what if it doesn't happen? What if IU is merely a slightly better version of its 2014-15 self -- a brilliant scoring bunch that can't check a cardboard box on the secondary break? Given fans' expectations (high) and patience (low), another aesthetically entertaining 14-loss season won't do.
Top pro prospect
Diamond Stone, Maryland
Maryland's freshman star is the Big Ten's only current projected lottery pick in the 2016 NBA draft, and that's not (just) because "Diamond Stone" is a fantastic name. Stone is also a 7-foot, 250-pound dude with good hands, nimble footwork and a promising face-up game. It will be fascinating to see how his first (and maybe only) season in College Park plays out -- how he defends, whether he has a conventional low-post game and, most of all, how often and how well he operates as a screener for Trimble and Suliamon. The NBA is watching.
Projected all-conference team
G: Trimble, Maryland
G: Yogi Ferrell, Indiana
G: Denzel Valentine, Michigan State Spartans
G: Eron Harris, Michigan State
F: Nigel Hayes, Wisconsin