Gene Keady wasn't happy, and he wasn't shy about telling everyone about it. \nHis scowl was worse. His Purdue squad wasn't playing up to his standards and was off to an 0-2 start in Big Ten play. \nBut Wednesday's 84-75 upset of No. 9 Illinois in West Lafayette kept the Boilermakers from their first 0-3 league start in 38 years and might have cheered up Keady. \nBefore that loss, he didn't have much to cheer about. The Boilermakers (9-8, 1-2 Big Ten) are allowing a league-high 73.7 points per game, are letting foes shoot a league-high 46.8 percent from the floor and are last in the league in rebounding margin. \nThe result?\n"All you have to do is look at the league stats and see what our problems are," Keady said Monday. "We can't stop anybody, and it's really frustrating. We thought we had a tough enough non-conference schedule to prepare us for that, but we were wrong, because we still can't guard anybody. Radford should have beat us."\nPurdue struggled in its non-conference schedule, losing to Butler, Dayton and Texas A&M and eeking out victories over Radford, Southwest Missouri State and Illinois-Chicago. But the Boilers also played decent games against Arizona and Stanford. \nKeady said missing guard Kenny Lowe has hurt the Boiler defense, but he also put some of the blame on his senior class. One of those seniors, Rodney Smith, scored 17 in the victory against Illinois. \nNow, Purdue has a chance to bounce back and even its league record Saturday against Minnesota (9-5, 2-1) in Mackey Arena. \n"We're off to a horrible start, but I've seen teams in this league come back," Keady said. "Right now, we have some real defensive problems I'm not sure we can get corrected."
Buckeyes the team to beat\nThe talk of Monday's teleconference centered around the surprising start from Ohio State, which won at Purdue and upset Iowa in Columbus before getting past Massachusetts Wednesday. \nThe Buckeyes (11-2, 2-0) travel to Northwestern (8-5, 0-2) Saturday, and should be able to move to 3-0 in the league. IU (10-5, 3-0) and OSU are the only undefeated teams left in the league. \n"Ohio State has been playing well all season," said coach Steve Alford, of Iowa (13-4, 2-1). "I don't know of anybody that would be more pleased with the start of the season (than OSU). In one week, they're already getting road wins."\nBuckeye guard Boban Savovic was named Co-Big Ten Player of the Week with Michigan guard Bernard Robinson, Jr. Savovic scored 14 points and had nine assists in Ohio State's victory over Iowa.
Upsets and parity \nSince the Big Ten moved to a 16-game schedule in 1997-1998, the league champion has not lost more than three games. Already, defending regular season champ Illinois (12-4, 1-2) has two losses and Michigan State (9-6, 0-2), which won four consecutive titles before Illinois' reign, also has a pair of defeats. \n"It's still too early to make bold predictions," Illinois coach Bill Self said. "It's going to be a wild and crazy year. Anybody can beat anybody."\nThe Illini battle Michigan (6-6, 2-1) in Champaign Saturday, while Michigan State welcomes Wisconsin to the Breslin Center, where the Spartans have won 53 consecutive games.
Wildcats No. 1? \nSince Florida State upended No. 1 Duke Sunday, and Northwestern beat the Seminoles in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, doesn't that make the Wildcats the No. 1 team in the nation? \nCoach Bill Carmody isn't making his case. \n"It means we beat Florida State, and Florida State beat Duke," Carmody said he told his son when asked if the Cats were No. 1.
