White uniforms — wear ’em and win.
Big Ten teams have followed these guidelines to the letter all season. From top to bottom, home has been more than sweet for conference members.
The winners in nine of last week’s 10 games were playing in their own gyms, bringing the Big Ten’s home court record to 45-14.
“Home seems to help everybody,” NU coach Bill Carmody said. “No one loses at home.”
That’s been especially true for the league’s seven best squads, who have combined for a 37-2 mark at home.
Winning at home has been vital to a run at a Big Ten title. Since 1990, regular-season title winners have combined to go 147-13 at home.
“There’s so much parity in this league that coaches are just accepting you can’t win on the road,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.
Carmody said the lack of early-season home games for teams such as NU and Michigan State made them look worse than they really are. Conversely, Purdue coach Gene Keady said the opposite was probably true for his Boilermakers, who played five of their first eight at Mackey Arena.
Five teams are still perfect at home while none has a road mark better than 2-3. Three squads — NU, Indiana and Penn State — have yet to record a road victory.
The Big Ten’s home teams have passed last season’s 71.6 winning percentage at home — the highest of any conference in the nation– by nearly five percent.
“There are no easy places to play in the Big Ten,” Minnesota coach Dan Monson said. “You can’t say that for any other league in the country.”
Excluding basement buddies NU and Penn State, the rest of the league’s teams feature winning records at home.
LETHAL LaVELL: If Michigan’s season ended today, senior LaVell Blanchard would become the first player ever to lead a Big Ten team in both scoring and rebounding in four consecutive seasons.
Blanchard’s campaign probably won’t be hampered by his rebounding average — he leads the Wolverines comfortably in the category — but scoring could jeopardize his run.
Michigan freshman Daniel Horton is trailing Blanchard by just .2 points at 15.9 points per game. And Horton’s scoring average has steadily increased while Blanchard’s has declined.
The four-year sweep in both categories would be statistical proof of what Michigan coach Tommy Amaker has known all along.
“Blanchard has been the bricks of our program,” Amaker said. “The other guys are filling in as the mortar.”
Two other NCAA players have led teams in both categories in all four of their years — Utah’s Keith Van Horn and Army’s Gary Winton.
Blanchard started his career by tallying 14.4 points and 7.9 rebounds per game in 2000 to earn co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors, sharing the distinction with Illinois’ Brian Cook.
He earned second-team All Big Ten honors in his sophomore season and was a third-team member as a junior.
The forward has scored 1,720 points and pulled down 813 rebounds in his career. Blanchard joins NBA players Glen Rice, Rudy Tomjanovich and Bill Buntin as the only Wolverines to record more than 1,700 points and 800 rebounds.
A PRETTY PENNEY: Wisconsin senior Kirk Penney shared Big Ten Player of the Week honors with Indiana senior Jeff Newton after scoring 36 points in the Badgers’ two victories.
The award is Penney’s second of the season and fifth of his career. With five titles to his credit, the senior has set a Wisconsin school record and has earned the third most in Big Ten history.
The guard has reached 20 points in three of his last five outings and has averaged 16.7 points per game this season.
