What Happened To The Big Ten At The Big Dance?


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And then there was one. 

Perhaps top-seeded Michigan, which had to mount a second-half rally to subdue eighth-seeded LSU on Monday night, will go on to win the men’s basketball national championship.

However, anything short of that accomplishment — and with a hobbled Isaiah Livers still sidelined, it seems like a long shot — will still leave the Big Ten Conference smarting from a torrent of social-media scorn. 

That’s what happens when a record nine NCAA Tournament entrants, two more than any other league, stage one rapid exit after another from the Indiana Bubble. So much for the geographic advantage of the entire tournament being played in the heart of Big Ten Country.   

Granted, three of those came via overtime losses, starting with 11th-seeded Michigan State’s late collapse against UCLA in the First Four. 

Friday brought more pain with back-to-back overtime defeats in the South Region for No. 2 seed Ohio State (to 15th-seeded Oral Roberts) and No. 4 seed Purdue (to No. 13 North Texas). 

Oral Roberts hadn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 1974. For North Texas, making its first NCAA appearance in 11 years, the win was a program first.  

Sunday, it was Sister Jean and No. 8 seed Loyola Chicago cuffing around top-seeded Illinois by 13 points. That was the prelude to Wisconsin’s second-round loss to No. 1 seed Baylor and a late collapse by No. 10 seed Rutgers when it had second-seeded Houston on the ropes. 

Monday it was Iowa’s turn, the Big Ten’s other No. 2 seed falling by 15 points to a seventh-seeded Oregon club that enjoyed a first-round bye after Virginia Commonwealth had a COVID-19 flare-up. 

And, of course, the evening ended with 10th-seeded Maryland going meekly against No. 2 seed Alabama. 

Add it all up, and the Big Ten placed just one team in the Sweet 16 while going a combined 7-8. Five of its losses came against foes seeded seventh or lower, and the average margin of defeat overall was 10 points.

Sending them home were teams from the Pac-12 (twice), Big 12, SEC, American Athletic, Conference USA, Missouri Valley and Summit. 

And while Big Ten defenders — what few remain — might point out the Big 12 and the ACC had just three teams left out of a combined 14 bids, there’s no denying the embarrassing nature of the Big Ten’s opening weekend at this year’s Big Dance. 

Coming into the tournament, the talk wasn’t so much about if the Big Ten could live up to the outsized faith the selection committee had shown in its membership, but whether it might be able to match the 1985 Big East by placing three teams in the Final Four. 

Not since Wisconsin in 2015 had a Big Ten team garnered a No. 1 seed. This year it had two such teams. 

“The toughest conference in all of college basketball,” CBS analyst Grant Hill intoned on-air during the Big Ten Tournament. “I think it’s safe to say at least one will be here (at the Final Four).” 

 That merely amplified the endorsement ESPN’s Jay Bilas, Hill’s fellow ex-Dukie, had given the Big Ten since the early days of the regular season. 

When Ayo Dosunmu (Illinois) and Luka Garza (Iowa) were named first-team All-Americans last week, with Hunter Dickinson (Michigan) and Kofi Cockburn (Illinois) making the second team, the hype machine only whirred faster. 

Then they started to play the games, and that’s when it all fell apart for the Big Ten. 

Since 1976, when Indiana beat Michigan in the NCAA title game, the Big Ten has sent multiple teams to the Final Four on eight different occasions. It also happened in 1980, 1989, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2005 and 2015. 

This year, it couldn’t even sneak that many teams into the tournament’s second weekend.

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