Big Ten. Big Stage. Big Disappointment.
How did the Big Ten go from the best conference this season to the biggest flop in years in one agonizing NCAA tournament weekend?
You’ve no doubt seen The Producers, where Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom do everything they can to ensure that their Broadway music becomes a flop. And yet, it somehow becomes a hit.
This is the opposite of that. Ayo Dosunmu and Luka Garza did everything they could to ensure a hit. And yet, it somehow became a flop.
How?
The short answer is. . . The Big Ten just wasn’t that good.
Just call them The Non-Producers.
Four teams in the top eight of the final AP poll? Which translated to four of the top eight seeds in the NCAA tournament? Of course, the Big Ten was over-rated.
I can just hear my friend Jim Delany, the very happily retired Big Ten commissioner, saying, ``We played our way in. We played our way out.’’
We spectators watch our favorite teams go belly-up, ruining our brackets and our fun. Our emotions, though, are nothing compared to what these players feel.
I have been in locker rooms where teams have had their high hopes dashed by the NCAA tournament's one-and-done finality. It's beyond grim.
I also have been in locker rooms where the dreams have been realized, where the relentless work and dedication of year, or years, has paid off. It's unbridled joy.
That's the wonder of the NCAA tournament. The highs. And the lows.
It isn’t entirely the Big Ten’s fault that it was over-rated. Give the pollsters and the NCAA selection committee some discredit, too.
Also, know that NCAA Tournament selection process is sort of like the Tax Code. It is made by and designed for the wealthy—power conferences like the Big Ten.
The power conferences start with a leg up because of pre-season poll rankings. Although it was less true this year because of The Pandemic, they make their bones by winning marquee games before Christmas. After that, they are kind of locked in to their lofty status.
If Illinois beats Michigan, it's because Michigan is good. Not because Michigan isn’t that good. If Iowa beats Ohio State, all credit to the Hawkeyes. And not very much discredit to the Buckeyes.
And then the younger generation has all kinds of crazy stats that dissect and justify everything. They are the accountants of the Tax Code.
So there are all of these numbers and rankings swirling around.
Give me the Eye Test.
I saw a Big Ten that had some teams that were really good when they were imposing their will and making shots.
Iowa was a really good shooting team, but it lacked athleticism. Ohio State was a tough and gritty surprise—until it wasn’t. Illinois wrestled most of the year with a lack of cohesiveness. It dodged a lot of bullets—and then it didn’t. Purdue was a young team that over-achieved—until it didn't.
The other big thing this year is that The Pandemic has thrown everything into a tizzy. We knew there would be craziness in the NCAA Tournament.
Four double-digit seeds (No. 15 Oral Roberts, No. 12 Oregon State and No. 11s UCLA and Syracuse) are in. Six top-three seeds (No. 1 Illinois, No. 2s Ohio State and Iowa, No. 3s Texas, Kansas and West Virginia) are out.
This year is so crazy that four Pac-12 teams (No. 6 USC, No. 7 Oregon, No. 11 UCLA and No. 12 Oregon State) are in the Sweet 16.
Damn. I wish my friend Chris Dufresne could see this. Except that I know that our TMG College Sports founder is looking down on it all, wearing a wry smile.
Throw in the tournament’s overall No. 1, Gonzaga, which is showing no signs it will be stopped—and this is quite a tournament for the West Coast, which had been sleeping for the longest time.
But back to Big Ten misery. . .
I can make more excuses for the Midwestern giants, but that’s what they would be. Excuses. Take them or leave them.
For one, the Big Ten burned itself out battling each other for a league championship that seemed so important. But that doesn’t work completely because Michigan, which won the league even though Illinois doesn’t buy it, is still alive.
Yes, the Wolverines, who were voted No. 1 seed most likely to get beat because they were missing the injured Isaiah Livers, are the only Big Ten team to reach the Sweet 16.
Aside from their obvious talent, the Wolverines have succeeded because they have really good leadership from been there/done coach Juwan Howard and Yoda-like assistant Phil Martelli. Michigan has a nice combination of controlled emotion with a good tactical scheme.
Nine Big Ten teams tried to reach the Sweet 16. Eight failed. Phew.
Another excuse. Lousy matchups. There may be a lot of muttering—especially in Central Illinois—about Loyola being an awfully good No. 8 seed. And Oral Roberts is looking like an awfully good No. 15 seed to people in the Buckeye State.
But that’s lame, too. The teams that win in the NCAA tournament beat the teams they play.
Another excuse. The underdogs play loose and play inspired. No one expects them to win, but they are excited to have their biggest opportunity of the season.
Also a lame excuse. Because the favorites that beat underdogs are up against the same problem. They have to play cold-blooded basketball against opponents who are sky-high.
An explanation that I do put stock in is that a college-basketball season is a progression. Some teams get better; some teams don’t. The Loyola that lost 77-63 at Wisconsin on Dec. 15 is not the same team that beat Illinois gavel-to-gavel on Sunday.
Seeds are partly based on what was accomplished a long time ago. Those accomplishment don't mean a lot in March.
The place I get back to is that, yeah, Big Ten basketball was over-rated. And it will be remembered for that in an NCAA tournament it would like to forget. But give the selection committee, the pollsters and the stat geeks a poke, too, for building the hype.
The bottom line is, for all the gushing about how good the Big Ten was, 1989’s position is secure. This was not the best Big Ten ever.
Awfully good at times. Awfully fun for the longest time.
But in the end, it was like my golf game. It was not that good.