Big Ten basketball placed six teams in this year's NCAA Basketball Tournament. And at closure of the first weekend, each was bounced from action.
For a reference point of just how disconcerting that is to one of the country's oldest conferences, consider that over the past ten years, at least one of the Big Ten's teams has advanced past the second round and into the Sweet 16 in the tournament.
The 2006 tournament marks the end of that run, all the more surprising after the league headed the country in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). By a standardized system that ranks teams on the basis of winning percentage, strength of schedule, and opponent strength of schedule it seemed that this was a battle-tested group heading into the field of 64 teams.
But in another indication that statistics are near-meaningless in the tournament's madness, the Big Ten, No. 1 RPI conference in the country, will be watching from the sidelines as two teams from the Missouri Valley Conference, which finished sixth in that same category, move on.
In the first two rounds, four Big Ten teams—Iowa, Ohio State, Michigan State and Illinois—lost to lower seeds. Wisconsin, meanwhile, was pasted 94-75, in the 8-9 seed matchup against Arizona. In all, the Big Ten went 3-6.
In the first round, both Iowa and Michigan State suffered losses to lesser teams. The third-seeded Hawkeyes, champions of the conference tournament, were stunned by 14-seed Northwestern State's rally from a 17-point deficit with under nine minutes remaining, climaxing with a fade-away 3-pointer just before time expired.
The Spartans and head coach Tom Izzo, a consensus top-five pick in preseason polls, were downed by George Mason, whose presence in the tournament was called into question after they were granted an at-large berth over teams from the heavyweight Big East and ACC.
With regard to the Badgers, few expected them to be run out of the gym, as happened Friday in Philadelphia. Arizona dominated from wire to wire with tough defense and a high shooting percentage, finishing at 59 percent for the game.
In the second round, the most striking result came out of Dayton, where two-seed Ohio State, with a home-court advantage of sorts, could not keep pace with seventh-seeded Georgetown. Big Ten Player of the Year senior Terence Dials proved no match for the Hoyas, who saw all their scoring from four players.
Illinois and Indiana also had season-ending losses in round two. The Illini fell victim to Washington, whom they led by eleven in the second half, and the Hoosiers, despite hitting 16 3-pointers, could not overcome Gonzaga.
With the disappointing results in mind, some coaches—like the Badgers' Bo Ryan—can only hope that teams take the experience into next year.
As I said, sometimes you've got to get banged and knocked to know how to get out of the way of a freight train,\ Ryan said. ""The only way players can get better is if they have things happen to them that aren't things they like. Then, as we get a little older and smarter, we try to not let those things happen again.""
\
