Will the Big Ten's dominant NCAA Tournament spell the end of its title drought?
· Yahoo Sports
CHICAGO — It’s fitting we’re here at the United Center, because the last time Yaxel Lendeborg played on this court, he was pretty exhausted.
He felt beat up. The physicality of the many months of Big Ten men’s basketball had gotten to him; he relied on the adrenaline that kicked in to power him through the conference tournament. Michigan ran out of steam at the end, and Purdue won the Big Ten tournament title, and then everybody in the league got a break from playing other Big Ten teams — for a little while, at least.
That’s when the Big Ten decided to take over the men’s NCAA Tournament. The conference began The Big Dance with nine teams before advancing a record six to the Sweet 16. Now, four teams have reached the Elite Eight, and it’s impossible to ignore the elephant in the room.
The Big Ten Conference has not won a men’s basketball national championship in more than a quarter-century now. Its most recent title belongs to Michigan State (in 2000, in Indianapolis), a drought that is oft-referenced this time of year. Sometimes, the league doesn’t have true title contenders. Other times, there are face-plants and historic upsets. A single-elimination tournament is almost certainly not the best way to judge the relative strength of conferences … but it’s what we’ve got, and it’s what we do. Year after year, we compare based on leagues’ postseason success (and lack thereof) — and we count championships.
You only need one team good enough to cut down the nets, but here the Big Ten sits with half of the Elite Eight field. If not now, when? You’ve got No. 1 seed Michigan, one of the nation’s elite teams all season long. You’ve got the preseason No. 1 in Purdue, a team that sputtered down the stretch in the regular season but is playing its best basketball of the year now. And you’ve got tournament darling Iowa taking on red-hot Illinois in Houston, a matchup that guarantees the Big Ten at least one Final Four participant.
“I think we're the best conference in the country,” Lendeborg said after Michigan beat Alabama, 90-77, to become the fourth Big Ten team to eliminate an SEC opponent. “Playing in that conference, it was pretty much a dog fight almost every night. It definitely helped us out. I feel like when the Big Ten teams are playing (non-Big Ten) teams, it feels like we're a lot more physical than most conferences. Being able to muck the game up, it definitely helps us out.”
Lendeborg said NCAA Tournament games have felt more free flowing because other teams aren’t as physical. The game slowed down for him, which allowed him to dominate Alabama to the tune of 23 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
But it’s not just the style of play that has allowed Big Ten teams to find unprecedented levels of success this March. Michigan head coach Dusty May said it’s the confluence of a few different factors across the sport.
“College basketball has been cyclical forever,” May said. “Hopefully this is a long cycle for us in the conference, now that the playing field has been leveled out as far as finances and things like that. The environments in the Big Ten are second to none, the brands, and now I think we're developing a different type of basketball identity with the West Coast schools joining us. I do think some of the newer coaches have brought a different flavor. …
“I know our league is incredibly tough. The coaches are off the charts, but I want to give the administrations a lot of credit. There's a bunch of well-run athletic departments in the Big Ten.”
It’s not just basketball, of course. Three different Big Ten teams have won the last three football national championships. Clearly, the NIL era agrees with the Big Ten, as May alluded to with the financial playing field. Several Big Ten football coaches have made similar points now that everyone can pay players — and it’s all above board.
But money doesn’t guarantee championships. That’s up to the teams remaining, and they’ll be the ones to script the final chapters of this season’s story. They’ll be the ones to determine if that drought finally ends — in the same city Michigan State last cut down those nets.
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