The Hoosiers were riding high, then lost three in a row. The Badgers struggled, but have won their past three games. It's very confusing -- but lively.

By Amelia Rayno

January 21, 2012 at 5:07AM

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, who talked with guard Travis Trice during Tuesday’s 60-59 loss to Michigan, is as perplexed as anyone about which team will emerge in the Big Ten (Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

In this space one week ago, the Indiana Hoosiers were touted as the darlings of the Big Ten, maybe even the darlings of college basketball.

What a difference a week makes. After taking the country by a storm -- beating Kentucky and Ohio State when those teams were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 -- the Hoosiers have quickly lost three consecutive games and have people questioning exactly where they stand among the conference's best. But the Hoosiers aren't unique, and that's the beauty of Big Ten basketball this season. Call it crazy. Debate whether the league is strong, weak or predictably balanced. The one sure thing is that the league's flurry of upsets has made every game interesting.

In the past week, Iowa beat Michigan, Northwestern beat Michigan State and Wisconsin beat Nebraska. Then Michigan beat Michigan State, Purdue beat Iowa and Nebraska continued Indiana's slide.

"It's just crazy, it's just so hard to predict," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said, sounding prescient earlier this week before his squad was upset 54-52 Thursday at Penn State. "I said to somebody last week, 'It's not who you're playing, it's when you're playing them.' ... That's such a fine line, and whoever's got that extra little mental edge, that seems to be the team to jump up and make some shots and get the victory."

So far, nothing has seemed far-fetched. Winless teams win. Fifteen-game winning streaks and national top-10 rankings evaporate. Upsets are happening, and not just on an underdog's home court, where they could be more explainable.

"Home court seems to not be as strong a factor as it has been in past years," Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said. "Usually by now we know who the best team is. But maybe it will just take a little longer to find out, maybe we'll have to go through five or six more games."

From one perspective, teams are simply looking inconsistent. Purdue coach Matt Painter has said if you pop in one tape, the Boilermakers look like a good team; on another tape, they're a bad one. Iowa -- predicted by the conference media to finish 10th in the league -- has gone 3-3 in a tough early schedule. Three early front-runners -- Ohio State, Michigan State and Indiana -- have eight conference losses between them already, begging the question of just how many defeats the conference champion will eventually have.

"I'll be shocked if it doesn't take at least four losses to win it, and it could be more," MSU coach Tom Izzo said.

But the constant jockeying for position, he argues, is exactly what people should have expected this season rather than a year when a few are dominant over many.

"I find it amusing, when things are going really well, we have a tendency to say it's unpredictable, where it makes it not as good," Izzo said. "The problem is, the league has been the best it has been in years and years and years if you ask me -- especially top to bottom. ... What is predictable is that everybody can beat anybody at any place at a certain time."