Michigan picked 2nd in “official unofficial” Big Ten poll (and a breakdown of my ballot)

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The official unofficial Big Ten poll of conference media members was released today, and Michigan was picked to finish 2nd in the conference.

Purdue was picked to win the league with 25 of 28 first-place votes and 501 points overall. Michigan received the other three first-place votes and finished with 472 voting points.

A full writer-by-writer breakdown of the polling results can be found here.

The “official unofficial” poll exists because the conference’s official media poll doesn’t release a complete ranking of teams. Adam Jardy of the Columbus Dispatch and Zach Osterman of the Indy Star conducted the poll this year, which features 28 Big Ten beat writers.

Michigan was ranked as high as 1st (3 times) and as low as 4th (once) by the panel. Here’s a rundown of where each poll participant voted for Michigan:

• 1st: Osterman, Quinn, Sauber
• 2nd: Werner, Bozich, Tachman, Stevens, Gerbo, Burkhardt, Couch, James, Washut, Moore, Jardy, Hansen, Neubert, Carino, Fonseca, Woods, Allen, McCleary, Steppe
• 3rd: Richey, Solari, Greder, Helwagen, Baird
• 4th: Leistikow

The panel named Purdue’s Braden Smith as Preseason Player of the Year, and he received 23 votes. Trey Kaufman-Renn was the only player to draw multiple votes for Player of the Year (3), while Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg also received a vote.

The All-Big Ten First Team features Smith, Kaufman-Renn, Lendeborg, Donovan Dent, and Bennett Stirtz.  Bruce Thornton, Nick Martinelli, Nate Bittle, John Blackwell, and Jackson Shelstad were named to the second team.

Lendeborg was selected as Transfer of the Year, receiving 11 of 28 votes.

Kayden Mingo (6 votes) narrowly beat out Trey McKenney and Hannes Steinbach (5 votes) for Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors.

The complete predicted order of finish is as follows

Standings (first-place votes in parentheses)
1. Purdue, 501 (25)
2. Michigan, 472 (3)
3. UCLA, 417
4. Illinois, 411
5. Oregon, 338
6. Michigan State, 360
7. Wisconsin, 328
8. Iowa, 278
9. Ohio State, 272
10. Indiana, 245
11. Washington, 239
12. USC, 227
13. Maryland, 210
14. Nebraska, 149
15. Northwestern, 119
16. Minnesota, 95
17. Rutgers, 54
18. Penn State, 43

One helpful way to analyze the preseason poll is to plot the voting points and look for tiers.

By my eyes, those tiers fall something like this:

• Tier 1 (450+): Purdue, Michigan
• Tier 2 (400+): UCLA, Illinois
• Tier 3 (300+): Michigan State, Oregon, Wisconsin
• Tier 4 (200+): Iowa, Ohio State, Indiana, Washington, USC, Maryland
• Tier 5 (75+): Nebraska, Northwestern, Minnesota
• Tier 6: Rutgers, Penn State

Player of the year

Braden Smith, Purdue (23)

Also receiving votes: Trey Kaufman-Renn (3), Yaxel Lendeborg (1), Donovan Dent (1)

Freshman of the year

Kayden Mingo, Penn State (6)

Also receiving votes: Trey McKenney and Hannes Steinbach (5); Darius Adams, Omer Mayer, Cam Ward (3); Alijah Arenas, Amare Bynum, Mihailo Petrovic (1)

 Transfer of the year

Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan (11)

Also receiving votes: Bennett Stirtz (9); Donovan Dent (8)

First team 

• BRADEN SMITH (consensus)
• Trey Kaufman-Renn (55)
• Yaxel Lendeborg (51)
• Donovan Dent (43)
• Bennett Stirtz (42)

Second team 

• Bruce Thornton (38)
• Nick Martinelli (32)
• Nate Bittle (24)
• John Blackwell (24)
• Jackson Shelstad (14)

Also receiving votes 

Tomislav Ivisic (8); Andrej Stojakovic (7); Tyler Bilodeau, Tucker DeVries (6); Coen Carr, Oscar Cluff, Rienk Mast, Quimari Peterson (2); Desmond Claude, Morez Johnson, Jaxon Kohler, Fletcher Loyer, Pharrel Payne, Devin Royal, Lamar Wilkerson, Wesley Yates III (1)

Note: Players received two points for a first-team vote and one for a second-team vote.

My Ballot

1. Purdue

I don’t think there’s much debate here; Purdue is the logical pick to win the league this season. The Boilermakers return two of the league’s best players, including the preseason Player of the Year, and have the most returning talent. It’s not just that, though; they also improved their roster at key spots with the return of Daniel Jacobsen and the additions of Oscar Cluff and Omer Mayer.

Guard depth, interior defense, and defensive rebounding were all issues for this team last year, and all should be improved.