THE BIG TEN…not so big?
Jeez, it was a slam-dunk; everyone who knows college basketball knew that the Big Ten reps were going to advance a long way in this years chase to the final four in NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney. After all, last year the Big Ten sent two teams to the Final Four and I’ll bet there were not very many bracketologists out there that did not include more Big Ten wins in the earlier games. How do you explain the results?
THE STARS WEREN’T ALIGNED? MAYBE BIA-BALL?
Those of you who are astro-inclined might check your back records to see if somehow the star groupings weren’t favorably lined up during the period of those Big Ten losses. How else do you explain this? Maybe the Greek god of basketball “Bia-Ball, the son of Bia the Greek Goddess of strength somehow withdrew his favor and dumped his wrath on the Big Ten reps this year? All right, those are a stretch and we will probably never really know why the el-foldo.
Six teams from the Big Ten were chosen to compete. We are down to the Sweet Sixteen and not one of those teams is left. Three went out in the first round, Michigan State lost to George Mason 75/65. Then there were two real shockers, Wisconsin losing to Arizona by 19 points and powerhouse Northwestern State squeaking out a win over Iowa by a point 64/63 after overcoming a seventeen point deficit. By the way, Northwestern State is located in Natchitoches Louisiana and in their mission statement; they say that the University takes a grassroots approach to strategic planning. I’m not sure what the coach’s strategic plan was going into the Iowa game, but whatever it was it worked! The Northwestern State Demons didn’t advance any further but they made their mark in upset history.
No Big Ten team got passed the second round this year with Ohio State losing in a 18 point laugher and Illinois was fairly close with Cal, losing 67/64 and with Indiana bowing to the Zags that ended the Big Ten’s futile attempt to at least get a team into the Sixteens. It seems hard to believe, but check the brackets, NO Big Ten team to be found.
THE MID MAJORS ARE NOT SO MID NOW?
Maybe instead of trying to figure out what went wrong with the Big Ten teams, we should realize that something is going right with the other teams, the teams that advanced. It’s not that easy to define a mid-major and I’m not going to get into that process right now. However it appears that by most expert determinations, three mids are headed to this weekend’s games. George Mason, Wichita State and Bradley teams all proudly move forward to represent their schools in the Sweet Sixteen. There are those however that will argue that the Zags should also be considered a mid-major. I think they should be allowed in every year anyway, no matter how you grade them, just because of their nickname…now if we could only find a team nicknamed the Zigs.
Before the tournament started and after the announcement of the competing teams there were many blogs and articles written about the teams that shouldn’t have been considered, but maybe the quality of talent is tightening up between the supposed “haves” and “have nots” in College Basketball.
I hope there will be some more upsets this weekend…you gotta love the underdogs!
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