Big Ten's Big Plans for the Big Dance Go Awry Again.

Despite nine bids, only two Big Ten teams reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament

There is nothing like the first four days of the NCAA tournament—especially Thursday and Friday. And no, the First Four doesn’t count.

It’s sort of like opening day and Election Day all rolled into one, with scores rolling in from all over the country, mixed with a blend of glee and shock and disappointment.

But this year was an especially intense and disappointing roller-coaster ride in Big Ten Country.

My bracket was in tatters from the get-go, which was no big deal. It usually is.

When I was still ``a working stiff,’’ as classic Chicago scribe Bob (Lefty) Logan used to call us sportswriters, I had to pick an ``expert’’ bracket in the Sun-Times. If I didn’t pick a plethora of upsets, my editor kicked it back, saying, ``Too much chalk.’’

Back in the day, when I actually paid attention to an insane amount of college basketball, I could kind of pull that off. But now? When I watch about eight minutes and 47 seconds of basketball that doesn’t involve the Big Ten? 

And yet, I can’t break the habit.

Phooey!

Which brings us to the Big Ten, which has done another March Madness belly flop.

Of the nine Big Ten teams that went dancing, only two are still standing. Purdue, which held off a feisty Texas team. And Michigan, which sneaked in as an 11 seed but surprised No. 6 Colorado State and No. 3 Tennessee.

How Iowa, which had looked like a good Final Four bet, stumbled in its first game is. . . a textbook example of why they call it March Madness. The Hawkeyes had been on a remarkable roll of consistency in since January. They seemingly had too many shooters for all of them to go cold at once. And then Iowa stumbled when it mattered most.

I thought Purdue was the best team in the league even though it finished third, so no surprise there. But Michigan seemed to be headed for disaster when coach Juwan Howard was suspended for the final five regular-season games after throwing an open-handed punch/slap at Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft.

How strange to see Howard celebrating with his Wolverines in the locker room after reaching the Sweet 16.

How, you may ask, does a league that has a nation's-best nine NCAA tournament bids come up so ridiculously short when the tournament, um, actually begins?

The shortest answer is. . . The Big Ten was not very good.

Over-rated? Yes. Although that assessment doesn’t mean a whole lot to me. That's about the raters and numbers as well as the bumblers.

I could give you a laundry list of excuses. Cold shooting. Bad matchups. The pressure on the favorite to win. Injuries. Yada, yada.

The thing is, this has become a chronic situation for the Big Ten, which hasn’t won a national championship since 2000.

I don’t understand that.

Rip the league if you want. It certainly deserves it. Although I don’t really see how that helps anyone understand it. Yeah, they have every reason in the world to do better. Facilities. Money. Tradition. Money. Fans. Money. Television exposure for recruiting. Money.

Ordinarily, I would add, ``Good coaching,’’ to the list.

But at this moment, as much as I generally tend to think the Big Ten has a fine set of coaches, that’s a big question.

The poster-guys for that are the coaches of the league’s two co-champions, Illinois and Wisconsin.

For all the good things the Illini did during the regular season, they weren’t ready for the NCAA tournament. They were fortunate to scrape past Chattanooga in their opening game before being vanquished by Houston.

It’s also easy to forget how many close games they pulled out of the fire during regular season. . . games where even the most loyal of Illini fans were left saying, ``They won’t get away with that in March.’’

And why Andre Curbelo, who was a key player during the regular season, wound up sitting out the second half against Houston, we can only guess. ``Coaches decision,’’ Brad Underwood said tersely afterward. I would like to think that I wouldn’t let it go at that if I had been involved in the post-game press conference.

Wisconsin coach Greg Gard can cop an injury excuse. Losing point guard Chucky Hepburn to a nasty ankle sprain before halftime was a crushing blow. And yes, as The Athletic’s Jesse Temple noted, ``Wisconsin already didn’t have backup point guard Lorne Bowman III, who hadn’t played in a game since Feb. 15 and was back home in Detroit taking virtual classes while out with what school officials have called a non-COVID-19 illness.’’

But not coming with a Plan B at halftime made for a wrenching, frustrating finish to the season. Seems like Gard could have come up with something better. The Badgers looked lost long before the game was over. Then again, Wisconsin, which lost its last two games before the NCAA tournament, was already trending down.

The Badgers—and many other teams that exit the NCAA tournament—can shrug about shooting poorly. Bad shooting, I believe, tends to be a product, not a cause, of how everything else is going. The ball doesn’t tend to go in for teams that are getting outplayed.

Sometimes I think that Big Ten teams get so wrapped up in the regular season—which seems like a big deal at the time—that they aren’t at their best in March. But that’s an excuse that doesn’t hold up.

Worn out. . . Over-rated. . . Injured. . . Not coping with the pressure to defeat a scrappy and loose underdog.

Whatever the cause, the bottom line is, the Big Ten had another brutal NCAA tournament. The reasons? As the great philosopher Ron Zook once told me, ``Nobody cares.’’