Mbakwe, Taylor make preseason All-Big Ten

• Big Ten

Big Ten

Talk about it

CHICAGO -- University of Minnesota power forward Trevor Mbakwe of St. Paul has been chosen as a preseason first-team all-Big Ten player. Mbakwe is joined on the preseason first-team by Wisconsin point guard Jordan Taylor of Bloomington, Minnesota.

The other three first-team members are Robbie Hummell of Purdue, Draymond Green of Michigan State, and the league's Preseason Player of the Year Jared Sullinger of Ohio State. Mbakwe led the conference in rebounding last season.

Minnesota has an exhibition game set for Tuesday night at Williams Arena against Bemidji State while Wisconsin has a closed scrimmage with DePaul this weekend.

_______________________________________________________________________

Penn State is both the coaches’ and the media’s favorite to win the Big Ten women’s basketball title next spring. That’s according to the pre-season polls released this morning. The Lady Lions return four starters from a team that finished second in the league last year, and made the finals of the conference tournament for the first time since 2004. Penn State junior guard Alex Bentley was named the co-pre-season player-of-the-year, along with senior guard Samantha Prahalis of Ohio State. Wisconsin did not get any pre-season honors, and was not picked to finish in the top-three by either the coaches or the media. In other words, first-year Badgers’ coach Bobbie Kelsey is starting her tenure in Madison with low-to-average expectations. Purdue is the consensus pick to finish second in the league. The coaches picked Iowa to take third, while the media chose Michigan State in that spot.

Tags: proam, basketball, badgers, gophers