INDIANAPOLIS — The Big Ten entered the men's NCAA tournament having two more bids (nine total) than any other league, the best conference KenPom rating in the country, two No. 1 seeds and two more No. 2 seeds. In all, the league had five of the top-16 seeds in the tournament.
For all its bungled COVID-19-related football troubles of the fall, the conference seemed to be destined for a big showing on the hardwood this spring. This was the year, it felt like, to snap that 21-year national title drought in men's hoops.
Maybe not.
On Monday morning, with the first three days of the Big Dance behind us, the conference is down to three teams. Its conference tournament champion (Illinois) is gone, losers to No. 8 seed Loyola Chicago on Sunday. No. 2 seed Ohio State didn’t last past the first day. Neither did No. 4 seed Purdue, the closest in proximity to Indianapolis than any other of the 68 tournament qualifiers. Michigan State lost in the First Four, and Wisconsin went down on Sunday, as well as Rutgers, which blew a nine-point lead in the final five minutes to Houston.
The three remaining Big Ten squads try Monday to secure a trip to the Sweet 16: No. 10 seed Maryland (against No. 2 Alabama), No. 2 seed Iowa (against No. 7 Oregon) and No. 1 seed Michigan (against No. 8 LSU). None of them feel like guaranteed wins. In fact, the Wolverines, the league’s regular-season champ, are without injured starter Isaiah Livers.
Couple the Big Ten’s tournament record so far (6–6) with the Pac-12’s record (6–0) and you’ve really got some serious madness here in March. Those two leagues’ regular seasons were somewhat opposites. So were we all fooled by the Big Ten’s regular-season slate? Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the league didn’t test itself much out of conference. They mostly played nonconference games against the ACC, which, it turns out, isn’t that strong this year.
Not everyone agrees. That includes Purdue coach Matt Painter, whose Boilermakers joined the Buckeyes as the two Big Ten teams whose losses came in overtime.
“We had a great year this year as a conference,” he said. “From 1 to 14, it was obviously the best conference. Obviously, when you do that and get the most teams in, and then you have some really close losses, people want to push back and say, ‘Well, you didn’t maybe have quite the year that you thought.’ No, we had as great a year as a conference. You’re one point away in three different games from winning, and you don’t win.”
Some of the opponents that took down Big Ten squads include Loyola Chicago (they were probably under-seeded), Oral Roberts (only the ninth 15 seed to beat a No. 2 seed), North Texas (finished third in C-USA), UCLA (the Pac-12!) and Baylor (this one is understandable).
What we’ve really learned here is that A) COVID-19 has somewhat leveled the playing field this year and B) the tournament, as it always has been, is a single-elimination, crapshoot event that you shouldn't read much into.
Still, here the Big Ten sits with its title hopes down to three teams on the final day of the first weekend.
