So far in the NCAA tournament, Big Ten teams have managed to win seven games. I say managed to win seven because, if you read or listened to national prognosticators before the tourney opened up nearly a week ago, you would have been treated to some first-class Big Ten bashing.
Not that it was anything new. All season the league was disrespected in the national polls and in most national publications. Many said that the Big Ten was having a down year and that there weren’t any good teams. As the tournament approached we had to hear about how poor mid-majors would be denied spots so that mediocre teams like Michigan State or Purdue were given bids just because they played in the Big Ten.
Wisconsin went 23-7 and was given a five seed, Illinois was a strong 25-6 and was given the league’s best seed with a four seed. Disrespect.
After the seeding, countless pundits said that Wisconsin would be upset in the first round, but not only would Wisconsin fall, the entire Big Ten would seemingly be dispatched early.
A look at last week’s Sports Illustrated is an incredibly laughable example of this. The so-called SI experts broke down the tournament, and in their infinite wisdom or, in actuality, infinite lack thereof, predicted that the Big Ten would win zero games in the tournament. In other words, Purdue would lose to LSU, Michigan State would falter against Colorado, Indiana would lose to Alabama and Wisconsin surely didn’t have a chance against a hot Weber State team; but the real kicker was their Illinois prediction.
That’s right, not even the fourth seeded Illini, fresh off a conference tourney run, would be able to hold up against the fierce three-point attack of Western Kentucky. Are you kidding? Sports Illustrated also had Florida in the Final Four despite it finishing up with three consecutive losses.
ESPN didn’t do much better. I would be well on my way to paying the latest ticket that the Madison parking patrol has hit me with if I could just have a nickel for every time that Digger, Dick, Jay or one of the other talking heads told me that Wisconsin didn’t stand a chance. Even Wisconsin graduate Andy Katz said that the Badgers were in big trouble after being knocked out of their conference tourney.
Suddenly picking Weber State was as sure a thing as picking Chicago to win an Academy Award and those Weber State Wildcats were every bit as trendy as those Capri pants that we are all seeing or soon will be seeing on 75 percent of the girls around campus.
Sorry to disappoint Weber State, ESPN, Sports Illustrated and countless office pool gurus that had been watching the SEC play all year, but the Big Ten just handed you your lunch.
The Big Ten didn’t get these wins against the IUPUI’s of the world either; they have earned most of them against teams from other power conferences. The SEC was thought to be the second best conference in the country for most of the year. Yet the SEC is 0-3 in head-to-head competition with the Big Ten in the postseason thus far. The Big XII is 1-1 vs. the Big Ten, and the league’s loss came as Purdue was able to play a nip and tuck game against top seeded Texas. In fact, the only league that holds an edge on the Big Ten is the Big East. In the second round, Notre Dame upset Illinois and Indiana didn’t have the guns to hang with Pittsburgh.
Should any of the Big Ten’s success have come as a huge surprise to anyone? Not if you look at recent history.
The Big Ten has now sent at least two teams to the Sweet 16 for the sixth consecutive season and has had 16 teams reach the third round in the last six years, which is more than any other league. If history holds, the Big Ten has a good chance at putting a team in the Final four. The Big Ten has had at least one representative in the Final Four since 1999.
Wisconsin will play the underdog roll to the nation’s No. 1 team: Kentucky. Suddenly instead of being the best team to be upset, they are being looked upon as one of the teams that has the best chance of knocking Kentucky off of their championship march.
Michigan State, on the other hand, is playing its best basketball of the year and they will face a beatable Maryland team.
Maryland will still be the favorite, despite the fact that the Spartans handed Kentucky a loss this season and that head coach Tom Izzo owns the best NCAA tourney winning percentage of active coaches (.800).
People have been eager to bury the Big Ten all season, but Wisconsin and Michigan State are still alive in late March and the Final Four is just around the corner.
So much for a down year.
