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CHICAGO — As the men’s basketball season begins this Saturday against Augustana, the Badgers are going to be looking to their senior leaders Marcus Landry and Joe Krabbenhoft.

The Badgers have 11 underclassmen, and Landry and Krabbenhoft are the only two remaining senior starters from the 2008 Big Ten Championship team. Landry was elected to the preseason all-Big Ten team and is one of the seniors Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan is looking to help develop the freshman class.

Landry has experience learning from great leaders during his career. As an underclassman, former Wisconsin standout Alando Tucker took Landry under his wing to help him improve both on the court and off.

“The one thing [Tucker] told me that was really hard for me was the things Coach [Ryan] is impressed by,” Landry said Sunday at Big Ten Media Day in Chicago. “He is impressed by your defense. He’s impressed by you doing what he asks you to do. It was very different coming out of high school where the only thing coaches are impressed by is your scoring. … He knows you can score.”

Ryan may have seen a few different things in practice, but he knows the upperclassmen of the team are having a positive influence on the freshman class by getting them ready to play Division I basketball.

“[Marcus] must have had a good effect on the freshmen because they shot the ball every time they got their hands on it,” Ryan said Sunday. “What he meant was I care if people score. But if you are going to be on the floor, you are going to have to do a lot more than just score. The other thing I know the upperclassmen have advised the underclassmen in is when he is talking to one person, make sure you all listen because you are going to do the same thing.”

Purdue tops Big Ten preseason rankings

After surprising the nation last year while finishing second in the Big Ten behind Wisconsin, the Purdue Boilermakers are poised to make a run at the Big Ten title this season, and perhaps make some noise in the tournament as well.

Media and coaches both picked the Boilermakers to finish first in the Big Ten and also chose Purdue guard Robbie Hummel as the preseason Big Ten Player of the Year.

After leading the Boilermakers to last year’s surprising outcome, Purdue head coach Matt Painter is excited for his team and the improvements they have made over the past few seasons.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Painter said. “But it is a nice feeling that people think enough of us to put us at the top.

“Robbie [Hummel] is a great player,” he continued. “From a coaching standpoint, we love that he was picked as Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year, and sometimes at practice he’s not even our best player.”

The Boilermakers return Hummel, Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Chris Kramer and E’Twaun Moore to the starting lineup of an already talented Purdue team.

“With everything we accomplished last season, we still have those guys coming back,” Kramer said. “We have a lot of firepower in our arsenal, but I think we have to stay healthy and keep being hungry. … But last year, sure we exceeded some expectations, but we didn’t accomplish anything; we didn’t win anything great, so that should keep us hungry.

Indiana starts rebuilding

After last year’s debacle when former head coach Kelvin Sampson violated NCAA recruiting policies, former Marquette head coach Tom Crean is looking to rebuild the program and integrity of Indiana basketball.

Crean, who was an assistant under Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, has put the problems behind him and is concentrating on bringing the program back to its former prestige.

“We still have to live with the results of some of the things that have happened, but other than that it has nothing to do with us,” Crean said Sunday.

Izzo believes his former assistant will have the same success he had at Marquette and will be able to bring the program back despite losing three scholarships due to NCAA sanctions and many players who left the program after Sampson was fired.

“He’s got a great opportunity,” Izzo said. “You know why he’s got a great opportunity? Because they’ve cleaned house. They have evaluated what is right or wrong and got rid of what was wrong. What’s right is it’s Indiana University, one of the best tradition schools in the country, much less the Big Ten.”

Crean’s new position brings a lot of pressure as he tries to bring the program back to where it was under former head coach Bob Knight, who won three NCAA Championships with the Hoosiers.

“There is not any part of Indiana University, Bloomington or Assembly Hall you don’t feel respect for,” Crean said. “That’s because it’s the way they do basketball, and Bob Knight, as well as [Hall of Fame coach] Branch McCracken, had a lot to do with it.”