OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
CNNSI.COM
Big disappointment
Aside from Illini, Big Ten doesn't have much to offer
Posted: Monday February 7, 2005 1:08PM; Updated: Monday February 7, 2005 1:08PM
Illinois may be the No. 1 team in the country, but even the Illini can't compensate for a troubling development in their conference over the past couple years. Quite frankly, the Big Ten stinks.
Back when I was in high school in Cincinnati, Big Ten basketball was unbelievable. You had those great Calbert Cheaney/Damon Bailey-Indiana teams staging epic battles with Jimmy Jackson and Ohio State. There was Glen Rice, Rumeal Robinson and later the Fab Five at Michigan. There was Steve Smith and Shawn Respert at Michigan State; Glenn Robinson at Purdue; Michael Finley at Wisconsin. Need I go on?
The conference went through a definite down cycle for a couple years when I was covering it at Northwestern. My junior year, the Big Ten MVP was Andre Woolridge. Enough said. All was good again by the late '90s. Michigan State began its run of three consecutive Final Fours, including the 2000 national title. The conference sent two teams to the Final Four in 1999 (MSU and Ohio State) and 2000 (MSU and Wisconsin) and had the national runner-up in '02 (Indiana). Illinois began returning to power under Bill Self.
Then came last year, when the Big Ten merited just three NCAA tournament berths. This year isn't much better. Even with the best story in college basketball going on in Champaign, the conference as a whole couldn't be any less inspiring. Aside from the Illini, there isn't a single team you can see making a deep tourney run. The league's star power is so low that the leading scorer is someone named Carl Landry. These days, Big Ten basketball checks in on the excitement meter somewhere between Paris Hilton hosting SNL (complete letdown) and the Battle of the Sexes reunion special (please make those people go away already). It's nothing that would even come close to, say, the upcoming Longest Yard remake, or new episodes of Family Guy.
How did this happen? Let's do a quick team-by-team examination, leaving out the two programs that appear to be on top of their game, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Michigan State: The heart of the problem lies here. It wasn't that long ago that Tom Izzo's program was being regularly mentioned in the same class as the Dukes and Kentuckys. The last two years, though, the Spartans have deteriorated into a good, but not great, team that's lost 12-straight games to ranked opponents. They barely put up a fight against the Illini on their home floor last week. By all accounts, Izzo has recruited well, but the Kelvin Torbert-Alan Anderson-Chris Hill class never lived up to expectations, and the last couple years the Spartans simply haven't had the kind of swagger those Mateen Cleaves/Morris Peterson/Jason Richardson teams did.
Michigan: Yes, Tommy Amaker inherited a probation-ravaged program, but things should be a lot better than they are by now. The Wolverines have been a walking nightmare since point guard Daniel Horton's suspension. They've lost six straight, including a pair of near 30-point losses to Purdue and Ohio State. Amaker has always had a darling reputation, but really, what has he done since that Sweet 16 season at Seton Hall six years ago? He's landed a couple big recruits (Horton, Dion Harris), but his in-game abilities still leave a lot to be desired.
Indiana: IU is one of the game's all-time marquee programs, so when the Hoosiers are down, so, is the Big Ten. Mike Davis' 2002 title-game run looks more like an aberration with each passing year. There's no question he's a good recruiter, and I do think the young Hoosiers could be very good by next year. Davis, unfortunately, probably won't be around.
Iowa: Iowa is another one of those programs that in the past you usually could count on to be decent, but it has reached the NCAAs just once in the past five years. This year's Hawkeyes showed such promise early on, beating Louisville and Texas and nearly knocking off Illinois. With Pierre Pierce's dismissal, things are imploding in a hurry, which could be a death sentence for Steve Alford.
Purdue: Again, traditionally one of the conference's lynchpin programs, the Boilers have hit rock bottom in Gene Keady's final season. Successor Matt Painter will have some serious rebuilding on his hands. The one bright spot is Landry, a transfer from Vincennes University, but he'll only be around one more year.
Minnesota: The Gophers have been the conference's biggest surprise this season, standing 16-6 and 6-3 in the conference following Saturday's upset of Wisconsin, despite a mostly unheralded roster. Juco transfer Vincent Grier scored 32 points against the Badgers. It's just the breakthrough sixth-year coach Dan Monson needed, but it remains to be seen whether he can keep it up beyond this season.
Ohio State: Thad Matta did wonders at both Butler and Xavier, and with the Buckeyes at 16-7 with their current roster, indicates he's capable of doing it again. Unfortunately, they're banned from the postseason this year and are likely to be hit with more sanctions down the road for transgressions involving former player Boban Savovic.
Northwestern: The Wildcats have come a long way since my undergrad days, when seven-win seasons and 40-point losses were regular occurrences. They still lack the overall talent to break into upper half of the conference. Bill Carmody's system keeps them competitive in every game, but talk of a first-ever NCAA berth will have to wait yet another year.
Penn State: The Nittany Lions have a ways to go, but I've been impressed with Ed DeChellis so far. Junior Aaron Johnson has blossomed into the best big man in the conference. No one knows, though, whether Penn State is even capable of being a consistent Big Ten basketball program.
So, what can we learn from this? 1. The conference badly needs its higher-profile programs (Michigan State, Ohio State, Indiana) to return to dominance. 2. There's likely to be a significant changeover in the coaching ranks this offseason. And 3. Big Ten followers should savor Illinois' current run, because there may not be another one like it for a while.
