Todd’s Take: Malik Reneau Deserved Better From Preseason Voters, But It’s Part Of A Weird, Diluted Big Ten

It’s a strange new world for the Big Ten. Malik Reneau’s exclusion from the All-Big Ten preseason team was likely related to the seismic change.

Indiana Hoosiers forward Malik Reneau (5) holds the ball as Penn State Nittany Lions guard/forward Puff Johnson (4) defends during the second half at Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State defeated Indiana 83-74. / Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference does not release an official preseason men’s basketball team or conduct a preseason poll. I’ll admit that I have not been around the league long enough (I’m entering my third season of regular coverage) to know why.

The lack of an official preseason poll is a long-standing policy that predates much of the current league staff and brass, so I’m not sure they would specifically know why.

You’d think with league partners like the Big Ten Network craving content during football season weekdays that a league-sponsored preseason poll would be a no-brainer.

Women’s basketball does have a preseason poll, though in a very compromised way with the top five teams named and no one else. The not-so-hard-to-anticipate unintended consequence of the TV lucre the Big Ten rakes in with 18 high-profile schools means someone has to finish … 18th.  

Optics would strongly suggest the league doesn’t want their name on something official that has a member school with a number next to it that can be divided by six and still not reach one, but that’s just conjecture on my part.

The league’s media has filled the preseason poll gap with one of their own for both football and men’s basketball. It’s the “unofficial” poll that you see headlines for – though I’m sure many of you share with me a whimsical chuckle about how official or unofficial a preseason poll could ever be.

(For full disclosure, I did not vote in the men’s basketball poll, but have been a voter in the football preseason poll.)

We also know deep down that preseason polls are meaningless. That’s what our brain insists, and we should listen to it.

However, our brain also concedes that they do serve a purpose as a conversation starter. The cynical cortex in our gray matter also chimes in that, fair or unfair, they serve as an agenda-setter for the season.

Then our heart tells our brain to hit the bricks as we breathlessly look for huzzahs that justify our passions and snubs that don’t fit our preconceived biases once the teams and polls are released.

That’s true every year, but this year’s poll was always going to be a weird one. Four new schools entered the Big Ten – Oregon, UCLA, Washington and Southern California. (Yeah, I still call them that on first reference. It’s USC for the unaware.)

Though the new West Coast schools aren’t a majority in the 18-team pool of voters, it’s enough of a bloc to create an odd imbalance. For one thing? I can promise you that Pac-12 games Big Ten observers closely watched last season was minimal and vice versa.

Add in the shake-it-up effect of the transfer portal and even the most knowledgeable college basketball scribes would struggle to be definitive about anything preseason-related.

Am I saying guesses are made and fliers are taken? Perish the thought.

Still, even with the strange voting bloc, it was very odd to see what was and what wasn’t prioritized by voters.

First-Team Preseason All-Big Ten

Braden Smith, Purdue (64)

Payton Sandfort, Iowa (48)

Oumar Ballo, Indiana (47)

Bruce Thornton, Ohio State (34)

Dylan Harper, Rutgers (32)

Second-Team Preseason All-Big Ten

Jackson Shelstad, Oregon (30)

Ace Baldwin Jr., Penn State (26)

Great Osobor, Washington (26)

Ace Bailey, Rutgers (25)

Dawson Garcia, Minnesota (23).

Also receiving votes:  Malik Reneau, Indiana (19); Mackenzie Mgbako, Indiana (13); Myles Rice, Indiana (13); Kasparas Jakucionis, Illinois (12); Vlad Goldin, Michigan (11); Julian Reese, Maryland (7); Dylan Andrews, UCLA (6); Brice Williams, Nebraska (5); Kylan Boswell, Illinois (4); Kobe Johnson, UCLA (3); Saint Thomas, USC (2); Sebastian Mack, UCLA (1); Jaden Akins, Michigan State; Brooks Barnhizer, Northwestern; Xavier Booker, Michigan State; Desmond Claude, USC; Frankie Fidler, Michigan State; Owen Freeman, Iowa; Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Maryland; Meechie Johnson, Ohio State; Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue; Fletcher Loyer, Purdue.

If you’re a five-star recruit with loads of potential? Step right up! Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, two anticipated freshmen superstars that will suit up for Rutgers, got a VIP pass directly into two of the 10 available spots on the All-Big Ten preseason teams.

If you’re a mid-major transfer like Washington’s Great Osobor? Benefit of the doubt is given despite the Utah State transfer having played seven career games against Power Five competition. (Osobor is a good player, I don’t mean to pick on him, but this does strike me as too much, too soon.)

Some sophomores are lauded – Oregon point guard Jackson Shelstad made the All-Big Ten Preseason team – while others aren’t similarly anointed.

Iowa’s Owen Freeman, the co-Big Ten Freshman Of The Year, came nowhere near the preseason team – and he wasn’t that much less productive than Shelstad was, if he was at all. In advanced stats, Freeman out-paced Shelstad in win shares, among other things.

Indiana’s Mackenzie Mgbako, the other co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year, came closer to making the team (he finished tied with Myles Rice at 12th in voting), likely based on his strong finish to the season,, though his overall numbers fall short of Shelstad’s.

Indiana’s only member of the preseason team is Arizona transfer Oumar Ballo. His production – 13.5 points, 9.4 rebounds in the last two years – gave him a track record that is understandably attractive to voters.

Ballo may very well be that productive again, but those closer to Indiana know that scoring will be spread out and that Ballo also typically doesn’t take on a heavy load of minutes. Mackenzie Mgbako, Myles Rice, Kanaan Carlyle and many others will score for the Hoosiers.

Indiana Hoosiers forward Malik Reneau (5) dribbles the ball while Purdue Boilermakers guard Lance Jones (55) and guard Braden Smith (3) defend in the first half at Mackey Arena. / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

But perhaps no Hoosier has the potential to hit the scoring column more so than Malik Reneau. We know that because he’s proven it.

The junior did not receive preseason All-Big Ten honors even though he’s done enough to earn it, especially in comparison to some of the players who were on the team.

It’s not as if Reneau was forgotten – he finished 11th in the voting – but his exclusion from the top 10 is odd considering his track record and that he’s expected to be a primary contributor on a Big Ten-contending team.

Reneau (15.4 ppg, 6 rpg) is the fourth-leading scorer returning to the league from the 2024 Big Ten season and no one returning from the added Pac-12 schools tops his scoring average either.

Reneau was consistent in the scoring department from start to finish. In 22 games against Big Ten teams, Reneau only failed to reach double-figure scoring five times. One of those times was when he got hurt against Iowa and played just two minutes. The only opponent who held Reneau below 10 points twice was Purdue. So there were few peaks and valleys that might have influenced voters.

An initial thought was that Reneau’s exclusion is a reflection that league observers don’t trust Indiana to reach its potential. However, the Hoosiers are picked second (with seven first-place votes), so that doesn’t fly.

Another thought is that the talent Indiana has amassed effectively split the ballot. That’s probably closer to the truth. After all, Reneau (11th), Mgbako (12th, tie) and Myles Rice (12th, tie) just missed making the preseason team.

The sharper truth is that Reneau’s snub, if you want to go that far in using that word to explain it, is just a symptom of what’s going to be a very weird Big Ten season.

Diluted is one word that jumps to mind when looking at the conference with a bird’s-eye view. The Big Ten in the last two seasons had one elite team in Purdue. In 2023 and 2024, a total of 20 (!) other teams finished with a league winning percentage between .600 and .450.

This year, the mediocre parity might be even worse. There’s no dominant team and few outright bad teams. This could be a year where 14 league wins might be enough to take or share the title which has only happened once (2020) since the Big Ten implemented a 20-game schedule. 

It also might be a year where seven league wins aren’t enough to make the 15-team Big Ten Tournament field if the tiebreaker cuts unkindly.

So maybe Reneau’s exclusion from the preseason team isn’t a snub so much as a reflection of the fact that no one – the coaches, players, media or fans – have much of a grip on how this new-look Big Ten is going to shake out.

Thank goodness we have the games to sort these things out.

Related stories on Indiana basketball

• INDIANA TEAMMATES PRAISE RENEAU APPROACH: Malik Reneau's Indiana teammates have praised his approach to the offseason. CLICK HERE.

• INDIANA TABBED SECOND: In the unofficial media poll, Indiana's men's basketball team was picked to finish second in the Big Ten. CLICK HERE.

• PAC-12 PLAYERS, COACHES WEIGH IN ON INDIANA'S WEST COAST TRANSFERS: Pac-12 coaches and former teammates have seen Indiana's Oumar Ballo, Kanaan Carlyle and Myles Rice up close and personal. What do they think? CLICK HERE.

• GALLOWAY CLOSE TO FULL CONTACT RETURN: Trey Galloway gave another update to his health status at Big Ten Basketball Media Days. CLICK HERE.

• IS INDIANA BETTER THAN USC? A look at how the Hoosiers measure up to new Big Ten member USC. CLICK HERE.

• IS INDIANA BETTER THAN MARYLAND? How do the Hoosiers match up with the Terrapins? CLICK HERE.

• IS INDIANA BETTER THAN RUTGERS? See how the Hoosiers size up against the Scarlet Knights. CLICK HERE.

• IS INDIANA BETTER THAN OREGON? In the first part of the Is Indiana Better Than series, we compare the Hoosiers to new Big Ten member Oregon. CLICK HERE.

• RICE OVERCOMES CANCER TO CONTINUE HOOPS DREAM: Myles Rice has had a lot to fight through to get his chance to play basketball at Indiana. CLICK HERE.

• MGBAKO IS READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP: Mackenzie Mgbako is committed to improvement in his sophomore season. CLICK HERE.