Some Big Ten teams getting unexpected boost

Examine your favorite college basketball team for a moment.

If it doesn't have a Keaton Grant or a Jamarcus Ellis or a Blake Hoffarber, then there's a good chance it's not meeting or exceeding expectations this season.

We're devoting this space today to the Big Ten players whose surprising outputs are helping their teams overachieve.

• As the league's reigning player of the week for his back-to-back 22-point efforts in wins over Iowa and Illinois, Purdue sophomore guard Keaton Grant gets top billing.

After shooting 27 percent on his 3-pointers and 61 percent at the free-throw line last year -- Illinois' Chester Frazier was 32 percent and 59 percent, respectively -- who expected Grant to go wild this year?

But the Florida native worked overtime on his shot during the off-season and transformed himself into one of the league's leading deadeyes.

He ranks second in free-throw shooting (.867) and third in 3-point shooting (.486) while maintaining his reputation as a defensive stopper.

"I think Grant's got to be one of the most improved players in the country," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said Saturday after watching Grant hit multiple crucial shots. "For sure in the Big Ten, and maybe in the country.

"Last year, I'm not sure we even would have considered him a threat from 3. Makes the free throws. Runs the show. He's long (on defense)."

Grant leads the Boilermakers with 12.1 points per game, a far cry from last year's 4.4 average.

• Indiana junior swingman Jamarcus Ellis serves as a different type of surprise than Grant.

After winning national junior college player of the year honors at Chipola (Fla.) JC, Ellis could have shown up at Bloomington, Ind., expecting to be the main man.

Instead, the Chicago native has left the scoring to Eric Gordon, D.J. White and others.

Though he's the team's fifth-leading scorer (7.9 ppg), he's doing everything else necessary to help lift the Hoosiers to No. 7 in the latest Associated Press poll.

The 6-foot-5 Ellis owns twice as many assists as anyone else on the team (80), leads the Hoosiers in steals (25), ranks sixth in the league in rebounds (7.4 per game), and still finds time to block 1 shot per game.

• With so many freshmen playing full time in the Big Ten, there's little chance Minnesota's Blake Hoffarber has a chance to make the all-rookie team.

The left-hander will have to settle for being known as the league's sweetest shooter.

Hoffarber plays just 18 minutes per game off the bench for the surprising Gophers, but he's the team's No. 4 scorer at 10.1 points per game.

To put these numbers into perspective, only four Big Ten regulars average more points per minute than Hoffarber: Indiana's Eric Gordon and D.J. White, Michigan State's Raymar Morgan and Penn State's Geary Claxton.

What do those guys have in common? Each one is an all-Big Ten performer.

Hoffarber spends most of his time waiting outside the 3-point arc for one of his teammates to drive and kick him the ball.

Hoffarber then catches and shoots with remarkable efficiency. He's 43 of 86 on 3-pointers this year.

Only seven other players nationally, led by Illinois-Chicago's Josh Mayo, have made at least as many 3-pointers and shot at least 50 percent.

But Hoffarber is the only one who plays in a "power" conference.