Ten for Ten, Week 1: First impressions

Ten for Ten is a weekly Big Ten basketball column. Every week, Adam and Donovan will tackle 10 of the biggest questions buzzing around the league and keep tabs on the conference’s best players, coaches and teams.

And we’re off.

College basketball tipped off in Rome — the Eternal City — at 8:30 a.m. CST on Sunday, and since then it hasn’t stopped rolling. There were 182 Division I games on Monday, featuring overtime classics like Saint Mary’s 90-85 win over Illinois State and utter domination like No. 7 Texas’ 109-59 thumping of Chicago State.

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The Big Ten saw its fair share of drama, too, with 17 teams kicking off their seasons this week (Per usual, what are you doing, Rutgers?). No. 22 UCLA pulled off the biggest win of the week, upsetting No. 5 Arizona 84-75 in Las Vegas, while Ohio State and Purdue suffered the conference’s first losses, falling to No. 25 BYU and No. 15 Gonzaga, respectively.

After three days of basketball around the conference, here are Donovan and Adam’s first impressions.

Weekly ballot

1. Who was your team of the week?

Adam: Illinois

In last week’s preseason edition of Ten for Ten, I made it a point to emphasize just how incredible Brad Underwood’s team will be this year. On Monday, my national championship prediction for this team was reaffirmed. Illinois pounded Fairleigh Dickinson for 120 points, claiming a 120-45 victory, its biggest win in program history. And sure, it was FDU, which is not good by any means, but the Illini’s 75-point margin of victory was the largest in Division I since 2020 — that means something about how good this team is. Oh, and by the way, the Illini did this without sophomore David Mirkovic, their National Player of the Year candidate. I felt this way before the season even started, but Illinois should be the favorite to cut down the nets at Ford Field in April.

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Donovan: UCLA

Based on the AP Poll rankings, UCLA had the best win of any team in the country. The Bruins knocked off No. 5 Arizona 84-75…

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Publish date : 2026-11-05 16:35:00

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