A couple of weeks ago, Illinois off guard Dee Brown said something fairly amusing.
During a post-game interview session loaded with national pundits of the Doug Gottlieb stripe, Brown and his backcourt compatriots Deron Williams and Luther Head fell under a barrage of annoying questions. The theme of the day: why weren’t the Illini blasting to the hoop like they did against non-conference foes earlier in the season?
After about the 10th inquisition, the Windy City phenom lost his patience.
“It’s Big Ten basketball,” Brown let out in frustration. “We’re not playing against Pac-10 teams that don’t play defense. In the Big Ten, teams rely on their defense.”
Amen. Why should any Big Ten star care if he only tallies 18 points on a particular night instead of 30? After all, NBA scouts account for environment when determining draft status. Outside of a national title, what else matters?
Still, basketball experts foreign to our little fundamental haven here in the Midwest don’t seem to get the point: The Mean Orange Machine didn’t rise to glory in spite of its Big Ten membership. If anything, the college hoops version of the “black ‘n blue” played a critical role in producing perhaps the first squad in a quarter of a century reliable enough to completely run the table. But the Big Ten still gets no regard and there’s little reason to believe it will when the time comes to dole out tournament berths.
Actually, it’s funny, because folks on the opposite extreme often express a similar complaint. In the “explode to the rim and lull” world of Pac-10 basketball, players and fans frequently gripe about the NCAA selection committee’s lack of love for the West Side. Skeptical of their chances of seeing more than three squads heading for March Madness, and citing the league’s cumulative second-place ranking in the Ratings Percentage Index, enthusiasts coast-side are basking in preemptive indignation.
Well, they should be skeptical — only a pair of Pac-10 teams actually deserve a berth. Outside of the ridiculously talented yet perpetually underachieving Arizona Wildcats and the close-trailing Washington Huskies, every other Pac-10 squad either dwells on the bubble or is out of the picture completely. So what’s the deal with the conference’s hot RPI status?
Here’s the rub: RPI only takes into account a team’s success against three classes of opponents (those ranked 1-25, 26-50, 51-100). Therefore, if UCONN knocks off Boston College on the Eagles’ home floor, it means no more to the RPI than if they beat Villanova in their own barn. Sound ludicrous? It should.
For example: Despite a rash of embarrassing losses over the past week, Kansas still sits above Illinois according to the RPI. At the same time, a team like Pittsburgh — which displays a track record of falling by microscopic margins to very tough teams — receives no credence for its valiant efforts. Finally, Arizona and Washington, the twin beacons of light in a league otherwise clouded in mediocrity, get massive credit for bullying the rest of the conference.
Don’t get me wrong, all but a handful of programs in America would kill for an active cast as stacked as Washington and ‘Zona. Then again, all but a few coaches in America would surely put that talent to better use. Not Mike Davis, but definitely every other Big Ten helmsman.
One of the more-amusing spectacles in Pac-10 basketball occurs when a high-powered offense clashes with the stifling defense of Washington State, led by none other than Wisconsin’s own Dick Bennett. When Bennett arrived at the program last year, the former Badger defensive specialist inherited a shallow talent pool floating with dead squirrels. In his first season, Bennett revived the WSU program to a level of respectability, capped by a 63-61 near-defeat of top-ranked Stanford last March.
Even though WSU lies just outside of the conference cellar this season, Bennett and the Cougar defense still cause fits in the Pac-10 by not following the league’s unofficial shoot-n-trot rule. Washington State even managed to post a desert upset over Arizona Jan. 29.
How exactly the Wildcats expect to beat strong defensive teams with actual scoring talent, I’m not quite sure.
Regardless, Washington and Arizona clearly deserve the nod with Stanford primed to walk in on the three spot. However, after that, an underrepresented Pac-10 hardly constitutes a grave injustice when the vast majority of the conference displays a defensive illiteracy rivaling that of inter-war France.
And although many consider defense a supplementary art in this age of college basketball, hopefully a resurging Big Ten will one day return it to fashion.
Granted, the hard-fought battles that embody Big Ten basketball rarely pack the cable highlight reels, but it’s just the way they roll. Even after basking in the national limelight for several months now, ask any member of the undefeated Illini if he rues the drop in easy transition opportunities. The question will likely be met with a smile, as it was Feb. 12 when an analyst posed it to Brown.
“We’re winning, man,” the junior curtly responded.
