March Madness Didn’t Fare Well For This Big Conference
The first weekend of March Madness is in the books, and it had a lot of ups and downs, but for this conference it was a disaster they might not be able to get past.
The Big Ten brought eight teams into the big dance Purdue, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State, Penn State, Maryland, Northwestern, and Indiana, but only Michigan State will play in the sweet sixteen.
The Big Ten Didn’t Play Big This Past Weekend
Purdue has been the story of the tournament being the second team in tournament history to be upset by a sixteen seed. Fairleigh Dickinson took down Purdue, and the entire country was laughing.
Purdue's locker room whiteboard did not survive 😬#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/8GbbbrQ72z — NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 18, 2023
Illinois and Iowa also fell in the Round of 64, and losing three of the eight teams in the first round is not bad, but one being the number one seed was not ideal.
Northwestern, Indiana, Michigan State, Maryland, and Penn State would advance to the second round, but only Michigan State would advance to the next week.
The Big Ten Has Been Disappointing For A While
The Big Ten has not had a National Champion since the 2000 Michigan State team, but they have had a handful of appearances in the championship game over the past 23 years.
Seven teams have played in the title games since 2001 Indiana, Illinois, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Michigan twice but nobody could get it done.
The Big Ten conference has the second-longest championship drought out of the Power six basketball conferences with the PAC 12 last title coming back in 1997.
The Big Ten didn’t have a great regular season, and it showed through the first two rounds of the tournament. The Big Ten of course is huge in the fall with this little game called football, but so is the SEC, and they also sent eight teams to March Madness, and three of them made it to the sweet sixteen.
It seems like the Big Ten’s streak of not winning a title will continue unless Michigan State pulls off some miracle.
Final Thoughts
The conference has the players and the coaches to make it all the way to the title game but something is just not clicking when they reach March.
A few years ago, the Big Ten was the best conference in college basketball, but the teams got to March, and all the teams were beat up from beating up on each other all season.
Maybe the Big Ten winning a college basketball title is just not meant to be, and they should focus everything on the football field.
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