The heavy hitters of the Big Ten schools have held the vast majority of spots in our Top 25 Players countdown, including Jordan Hall of Ohio State coming in at No. 18 when we last left you in our countdown. However, today we give you an up and coming team and a player that has already arrived, you just don't know it yet. 

Before we get into only the 2nd non OSU, MSU, or Wisconsin player, let us remind you of what criteria we used to make our Top 25 list. We used things like importance to your team, overall skill at your position, records set, past performance, conference honors (coaches, media, our list too), and the good old-fashioned eye test.

If you don't know the name of our No. 17 player by now, you sure will by the time 2013 is over and so will the NFL, that's how talented he is. 

If there was any doubt that the Hoosier state was basketball mad, this should just about do it: Marion High School is six months away from the start of the basketball season and they are selling season tickets. 

Yes, you just read that correctly. A HIGH SCHOOL is selling season tickets to it's basketball games. Now, according to the article only 50 vouchers have been sold, but the school fully expects that number to jump quickly. After all, it is just $45 dollars for the season ticket.

True these guys are seven time Indiana basketball champions and such, but good lord... talk about jumping the shark much? Especially for a team that was below .500 a season ago and haven't won anything in four years.

Why all the hoopla then? Well, according to the article it's all about the fact that Marion has hired James Blackmon Sr. as their head coach. O.k., that's not really the reason, it all has to do with his two sons, James Blackmon, Jr. and Vijay, who just so happen to have offers from the Hoosiers. 

The Hoosier state loves them some basketball, we all know that. However, this is 'nother level type stuff as the football team went all dunk contest on us all. Seriously, this video might represent better dunking than we've seen in the NBA Dunk Contest in the past few years. 

Hell, we saw everything from offensive lineman dunking, to little QB Tre Roberson, oh and even 1st person viewpoint dunking courtesy of Cody Latimer. This ain't your father's Hoosiers anymore, that's for sure. 

(h/t to our friends over at Crystal Ball Run for the tip-off to this video): 

When times were hard and things were down at Assembly Hall there was hope in the form of Maurice Creek. He was a member of the same class as Christian Watford, Jordan Hulls, and Derek Elison and arguably was the first of all of those players to help Hoosiers basketball begin it's upward climb. Unlike the others he won't finish out his eligibility at IU, instead opting to graduate and transfer for his final year in search of better playing time. 

Life can be brutal at times and no one on the Hoosiers exemplifies this more than Creek, who started as a freshman and averaged 16.4 points per game. No one could forget his 31 points against rival Kentucky that season either. However, it would be all downhill following that as he failed to finish out a season until this past year. 

In that freshman campaign he played just 14 games before suffering a stress fracture to his left knee, shutting his season down. Fast forward to the next year and it's 18 games played before a stress fracture to his right knee, shutting his season down once again. Finally, in 2011, just as he was coming back healthy for his junior season Creek suffers a ruptured Achilles tendon in a preseason workout in October and is shut down for a full season. 

A lot of teams can be left wondering what might have been, especially those 67 teams that made the NCAA tournament and weren't named Louisville. One of those teams that has a lot of soul searching to do is the Indiana Hoosiers - a team with all the potential and yet not the desired outcome. 

That may seem harsh, after all, we are talking about the Big Ten regular season champions and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and all. However, that serves to prove my point. 

For many Hoosiers fans and surely the players and staff that will be the question they'll work through this offseason before focusing in the summer to next year. It's also the question we'll attempt to answer as we take a look back at the 2012-13 season compared to how we thought it would play out (hint: we pretty much nailed this one).

How We Predicted Things:

Regular Season Record: 27-4
B1G Record/Finish: 15-3 (1st place)

How it Actually Went Down:

Regular Season Record: 26-5
B1G Record/Finish: 14-4 (1st place)
Postseason: NCAA Sweet 16, L to Syracuse

- Well that's what we call getting it as close as humanly possible. One game off the actual record for the Big Ten and full regular season records, all while nailing their outright 1st place finish in conference play - um ya... Sorry, I'm going to pat myself on the back a little for that one. 

What Went Right?

What didn't go right... just about everything went the way the Hoosiers wanted in the regular season, they won the Big Ten regular season crown and won 26 games in the regular season. Just about everything went right for them as they played the best statistical defense in quite some time too. 

They led the conference in points scored, scoring margin, free throw shooting, and 3 point shooting and ranked in the top half of the conference in about every statistical category you could dream up. I'd say a ton went right for this team.

Hell, they had our Big Ten Player of the Year in Victor Oladipo (who also won Defensive Player of the Year), along with our 1st team All-Big Ten forward Cody Zeller and All-Freshman team member Yogi Ferrell. Things were about as good as you could get for a team in the Big Ten. They survived the hellacious conference gauntlet and came away as sole survivors at the top.

What Went Wrong?

If there was one thing that went wrong it was a head scratching ability to drop games to Wisconsin - it's the one team they seem to not be able to beat - having never beat them in the Tom Crean era and all. 

Additionally that meant Indiana didn't win the Big Ten double of the regular season and tournament championships. 

One of the biggest things that went wrong inside the team was that it seemed as if Cody Zeller hadn't really progressed from his freshman to sophomore seasons - his stats were pretty similar across the board - and he seemed to come up small in the biggest games and at the biggest times. If you need reference try the 2nd half of the Wisconsin game in the regular season or the entire game against Syracuse in the Sweet 16.

Biggest Surprise:

Victor Oladipo was my biggest surprise. We all knew coming in that he'd be their defensive stopper, but he was vastly improved offensively as well - averaging 3 points per game more than last season, shooting 59.9% from the field (nearly 212% better than last year), and a ridiculous improvement of 24% better from beyond the arc. All of that combined with his stellar defensive effort (improving his rebounding, steals, and blocks from a season ago). 

Biggest Disappointment:

We've already hit on it, but for me this team had national champions written all over them and not making a run to the Final Four at the least has to be considered a big time disappointment. 

Quick Look Forward:

This will be a vastly different (not worse) team heading into next season as both Zeller and Oladipo are off early to the NBA and gone are Christian Watford and Jordan Hulls as graduating seniors. That's a lot of the heart and soul of this team. However Tom Crean has brought in six highly touted recruits for this class and things may not even miss a beat if the youngsters can become major contributors along with the rest of the class that included Yogi Ferrell. 

Previous Reviews:

Illinois Fighting Illini

Late Friday it was announced that sophomore guard Remy Abell is transferring from the University of Indiana. Normally a player that saw less than double digit minutes transferring isn't all that big of news, however in light of the major roster turnover that's about to happen this is a transfer that is a bit more news worthy. 

Abell transferring out means he will become the fifth player to leave IU as both Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller declared early for the NBA draft and Jordan Hulls and Christian Watford graduate this May. That means just two players in the rotation from last year will be back. 

Those two are starting point guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell and the reigning Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, Will Sheehy. But that's not the real story here...

Abell saw diminishing playing time from the non-conference season to the Big Ten portion of the schedule, recording double digit minutes in 10 games during the final 15 of the regular season.  He averaged 4.0 points per game last season and is a clear victim of oversigning with a class of six players coming to Bloomington for 5 spots.

Indiana forward Cody Zeller is declaring for the NBA Draft according to a report out of the Indianapolis Star, a move that isn't too surprising - yet one that's debatable. The move is expected to be made official at a press conference set for 4:10pm Eastern. 

Zeller joins teammate Victor Oladipo, who made his announcement less than 24 hours ago, in declaring for the draft before their eligibility is up. However Oladipo will graduate in May from Indiana, while Zeller leaves after just his sophomore season in Bloomington. 

In his two seasons in Bloomington the Hoosiers revived themselves back into the blue-blood they once were, going 56-16 as a team and making back-to-back Sweet 16 apperances in the NCAA Tournament.

He was named a second team All-American this season and averaged 16.1 points per game for his career - scoring 1,157 points in total - puting him just 35th on the all-time Hoosiers scoring list. Zeller also leaves averaging 7.3 rebounds per game over his career. 

And then there were three... Thanks a lot Indiana. No seriously, we need to have a talk! What the hell was that on Thursday night against Syracuse? Really, you lose 61-50 and in reality the score is no indication of how badly you actually got beat? That was pathetic for the champion of the best conference in the country and you should all hang your heads in shame.

Way to ruin the chances for an all Big Ten Final Four. Hey, I guess that's what we all get for counting on a Weasley coach that can't coach his way out of a paper bag when it counts more often than not. Outside of the Kentucky win last season name one game where Tom Crean has got his team over the hump because of his coaching adjustments? I'll wait for you..... Yep, that's what I thought, 'cause I couldn't come up with one credible source of that. 

Oh and while we're at it, can we all stop with the Cody Zeller love fest? Sure the guy has had some amazing moments, but when it's counted most, when his team has needed him to be "the man" inside and take a game over...  You wouldn't have known it on Thursday night as Syracuse worked him over inside. The silver lining came from the fact that he stopped turning the ball over as much as he had been the rest of the NCAA tournament. 

It's Sweet 16 time and that means it's time for the Big Ten to continue to flex it's muscle and keep making Charles Barkley's mouth look worse than his golf swing (seriously, if you haven't seen that thing it's hide your women and children worthy). The B1G will feature four of the Sweet 16, more than any other conference in the country and it's schools are also part of three of the biggest and most anticipated matchups of the 2nd weekend of the tournament. 

Up first is perhaps the most strikingly opposed teams in the tournament in fourth-seeded Syracuse taking on top seeded Indiana in the East regional nightcap from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. Tip is scheduled for 9:45pm Eastern for this one. 

All coaches put on a brave face publicly, it's part of the PR game and it's part of making sure recruits think your university is the place for them. No doubt about it, that's the name of the game. However, there's building up your program, using buzz words like "family," "winning tradition," and "doing things the right way," and then there's the preaching of Tom Crean at Indiana:

Your affliction doesn't establish your identity, but your identity can get you through your affliction, if your identity is in Christ.

— Mark Driscoll (@PastorMark) March 8, 2013

There are many, MANY other examples of his preaching the word of the gospel via his Twitter feed. Now, to be clear, I have zero problem with that - I'm a Christian and whether or not you are, one man's beliefs and how he chooses to express them is up to him and not for us to judge. That's not the point here.

However, the issue is the preaching this man does has never really matched up to who he is on the court as a coach or off the court as a representative of his team. On Sunday that was brought to the forefront once again as he confronted Michigan assistant coach Jeff Meyer, who was an IU assistant under Kelvin Sampson.