Numbers don’t just lie, they are also great assets when you need to prove a point.
Last week, the Big Ten was on a roll as we waited for March Madness to begin. The annually over-hyped “ basketball conference ” felt like itself as some Big Ten fans and media members felt like it was a punch in the face that Michigan State played in the First Four, a souped-up play-in-game.
The No. 11 Spartans lost in overtime from No. 11 UCLA 86-80. It would be a precursor to what was to come. Because in just five short days, the conference responsible for half (4) of the best eight seeds in the tournament had only one left in the whole damn thing.
With No. 1 Michigan’s 86-78 win over No. 8 LSU on Monday night, this means they are the last team to stand after No. 2 Alabama No. 10 Maryland, 96-77, routed in their second round matchup.
The conference with the number 10 in its name had nine teams in the tournament and is already number one. In addition to the losses to Michigan State and Maryland, here’s how the rest of the conference fared:
- No. 2 Ohio State lost to No. 15 Oral Roberts 75-72 in overtime of the first round
- No. 4 Purdue fell to No. 13 North Texas 78-69 in the first round
- No. 1 Illinois was throttled by No. 8 Loyola 71-58 in the second round
- No. 9 Wisconsin was in the second round by No. 1 Baylor 76-63 sent home
- No 10 Rutgers lost Sunday to No. 2 Houston 63-60
- No. 2 Iowa was decommissioned Monday by No. 7 Oregon 95-80
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Bilas is wrong. The word to describe this is ‘pathetic’. A week ago, we wondered if this was going to be the year the Big Ten finally broke, given that it was 21 years since a team from the conference won the NCAA tournament when the Spartans did it in 2000. Since then, the Big Ten has made 16 Final Four appearances. The Wolverines are the conference’s only hope of making it to 17.
Since 2011, the culmination of the start of the college basketball season has been the Championship Classic, an annual series featuring four of the best programs in the country in Duke (ACC), Kentucky, (SEC), Kansas, (Big 12), and Michigan State (Big Ten) play against each other in three-year rotations.
Well, since it should be a “champions” event, I think it’s time to get rid of the Big Ten.