Breaking the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Big Ten in the First Round | Bleachers report

After the first three days of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, a great lesson was learned: the most powerful conference of the university hoops was vulnerable all the time.

The Big Ten sent a record nine teams to the Big Dance, and after the round of 64, only six remain. The other three were eliminated dramatically, two by disjointed mid-majors and one by a team that barely made it into the tournament. We should have known that the Big Ten was not as big as it looked when Michigan State was relegated to a First Four game, but the Spartans were awarded a general offer after some good victories at the end of the season at the opponents conference.

The Big Ten hasn’t produced a champion in 21 years, the last time with Tom Izzo leading the Spartans over Florida in Indianapolis, the same city where the entire tournament is taking place this year. The league sent seven teams to the championship game in that period, but these programs did not come every time.

The conference may still produce the national champion, but there may be an argument to be made as to how deep conferences raze teams during regular season and league tournaments. Of course, it can also be argued that playing at these conferences makes teams better and better prepared for the postseason. Both of these things can be true and they probably are.

In addition, this was also a strange year due to the pandemic, and the playing field was anything but the same with programs forced to close and games postponed that could not be rescheduled.

We will divide the good, the bad and the ugly going to the round of 32.

The good: Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maryland, Rutgers

Illinois and Michigan were the best placed teams and played like them. Iowa No. 2, a team that may also have had a case for a No. 1 seed, did the same, rolling over the No. 15 Grand Canyon in the west.

Illini will have an intra-state clash with No. 8 Loyola Chicago next. With 98 wins since 2017-18, the Ramblers have the most of any of the 13 NCAA Division I teams in the state of Illinois, so there is a right to brag about the Midwest at stake, plus a trip to Sweet 16 .

The Wolverines easily dispatched No. 16 Texas Southern, one of the first four winners, with an 82-66 victory on Saturday. Michigan shot 48.1 percent of the field and 34.6 percent of three using a balanced attack. A stifling defense kept the Tigers in a single three-point shot in 12 attempts, and the bank held the fort with the starters in trouble.

Coach Roy Williams saw his 29-0 record in the first round come to an end when eighth-placed North Carolina Tar Heels was defeated by No. 9 Wisconsin. Carolina fought all season. Inexperienced guards could not feed experienced attackers, and it was no different on Friday. The program may be in need of some sort of jolt, but this is a different story for a different day.

Senior guards Brad Davison and D’Mitrik Trice dropped 29 and 21 points, respectively, in the Tar Heels to take Wisconsin into the next round.

No. 10 Maryland won a seventh place UConn team that has been inconsistent all year on Saturday afternoon. The Huskies spent significant energy trying to contain a team of sea turtles that shot 51.2% from the field and 50.0% beyond the bow. Eric Ayala scored 23 points, including 14 in the first half, while Aaron Wiggins and Donta Scott supported their efforts with performances of 14 and 12 points, respectively. UConn simply failed to match Maryland’s stifling defensive effort.

The most exciting victory for the Big Ten came on Friday night, when the No. 10 Rutgers won their first victory in an NCAA tournament in 38 years, eliminating No. 7 Clemson in the Midwest. The upstart Scarlet Knights were ready to race a year ago, but they didn’t get a chance to show what they could do.

Here’s what we know they can do now: they can break the glass and defend. They have an experienced team, with clear chemistry and a lot of determination.

They also act beyond the basketball court.

Senior guard Geo Baker spent the week trying to raise awareness for NCAA reform. On Wednesday, he started hashtag #NotNCAAProperty, and it spread like wildfire. Baker, as well as other Big Ten players like Michigan’s Isaiah Livers and Jordan Bohannon of Iowa, all advocated changes in the rules of name, image and likeness. This victory further amplifies Baker’s voice and platform. It also expands the Scarlet Knights program even further.

“We had to fight this year and prove it again. Our guys did,” said coach Steve Pikiell at his post-game Zoom press conference. “I know they were not happy and satisfied just because they were here. I know they want to continue playing. They kind of took that approach. Again, great practice week, great energy before the game. Even at halftime, when we were lost, they stayed the course, they were rewarded. I’m excited for them. And they are excited. It is a resilient group. “

But it can’t be less challenging for Rutgers or Maryland. The road to Final Four is not an easy one for either of these Big Ten teams, but these two teams now face the second teams in each of their regions.

The Terps may have eliminated an inconsistent team, but they have also been inconsistent throughout the season. They had their best game at the best time, but now they have to repeat those good things when they face Alabama, a big favorite for the Final Four.

The Bad: Purdue

Boilermakers had the advantage of operating in their home region. But on the biggest stage in the biggest state of basketball, No. 4 Purdue went into overtime against No. 13 North Texas and then fell. Mean Green moved forward with their first NCAA tournament win, and North Texas deserves credit, especially for almost eliminating the post for the Boilermakers. But a Big Ten team is expected to have the strength to be able to penetrate.

Coach Matt Painter said it was nothing the team had not seen before. They faced opponents who carried the ink and were able to adjust, but the Boilermakers made bad decisions and bad passes that turned out to be expensive in the end. They turned the ball 11 times and let North Texas shoot at them.

“I think they emphasized it a little more and hit us in that area, more on the perimeter than maybe other people do,” said Painter. “But I thought it was nothing much different than what anyone else did, like I said. I just thought they did a little more and just held on a little longer to make these guys more decision makers and passersby instead of bookmarks. “

The Ugly: Ohio State, Michigan State

The ugliest loss in the Big Ten was not Ohio State’s No. 2 going to Oral Roberts, a small school in Tulsa that hasn’t won an NCAA tournament since 1974. It was some fans who took L for cyberbullying.

The day after the Buckeyes were eliminated, striker EJ Liddell posted screenshots of some extremely disturbing messages (Warning: NSFW language) he received from fans from the state of Ohio. A fan said he wanted to kill Liddell. Another said that he was “ashamed” of losing one and one with the chance to win the game, and that the state of Ohio “hates” him.

Liddell expressed frustration with the messages, saying that he is only human, and received a supportive attack. At the end of the day, it’s just a game. Nobody deserves messages like that for any reason, least of all a basketball game.

As for Michigan State, the Spartans played badly all season. And UCLA, the team that eliminated them in a play-in game, may be better than we believed. But the ugliest part of that defeat was what happened at halftime.

Tom Izzo and striker Gabe Brown were caught in a heated argument as the Spartans headed for the locker room. Brown showed visible frustration with the bell, directing his ire to teammate Malik Hall after his inability to defend a pick-and-roll led to an open jump just before time expired. Izzo intervened and Brown directed his anger at his trainer.

At one point, the cameras captured Izzo grabbing Brown by the arm and talking angrily to him in the tunnel. It was a bad ending to a forgettable season.

Joshua Langford said the game was his last to the state of Michigan, with the fifth year of the last year choosing not to pursue a sixth year of eligibility for the Spartans. Striker Aaron Henry may also have played his last game in green. He checked his options in the NBA last year, so he has a big decision to make in the coming months.

This wasn’t exactly the dominant start to the tournament that many projected for the Big Ten, but part of the fun at March Madness is the surprises. The Cinderella have already been present, with four teams seeded in 13th or less advancing in the first phase.

The Big Ten may have been the deepest college basketball conference this season, but even the best conferences are not immune to the madness of one of the sport’s most unpredictable tournaments.