CBS: Conference Catchup: The Big Ten will be really strong again

per Gary Parrish:

FOUR OFFSEASON HEADLINES

2. Richard Pitino brought a player to Minnesota with him: The first-year coach of the Gophers has a rebuilding project in front of him, but it's one that became easier when Malik Smith decided to follow Pitino from Florida International to Minnesota. Smith averaged 14.1 points last season at FIU. He'll be eligible immediately and likely start alongside veteran guards Andre Hollins and Austin Hollins.

TEAM COMMENTARY IN 140 CHARACTERS OR LESS

Minnesota: Richard Pitino is just 30. Can you imagine being that age and banging heads with Thad Matta, John Beilein, Tom Crean, Bo Ryan and Tom Izzo?

EARLY GUESS AT THE TOP FIVE IN THE LEAGUE

1. Michigan State
2. Michigan
3. Ohio State
4. Wisconsin
5. Indiana

EARLY GUESS AT THE ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM

G: Aaron Craft (Ohio State)
G: Gary Harris (Michigan State)
F: Glenn Robinson III (Michigan)
F: Adreian Payne (Michigan State)
F: Mitch McGary (Michigan)

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...tchup-the-big-ten-will-be-really-strong-again

Go Gophers!!

I like the comments. The predictions are close. I would say Wisconsin will always get pencilled in at 4 until Bo finishes just once worse than 4th, this could be the year, but maybe not. #5 I could see Iowa, Purdue, MN, or even Illinois if the transfers and newcomers jell quickly. I think Indiana falls to #6-8 range.

Big Ten will be way down from last year. Top teams won't be as good.

Some of the bottom teams (i.e., Northwestern, Penn St.) should be better and Iowa could have a nice season.. but at the top last year there were four EXCELLENT teams.

Gotta put Dre Hollins on All Conference team!

Michigan St. will be as good or better than last year. But, yes Indiana takes a big hit as does Michigan. If Ross can continue his NCAA tourney rise and be the primary scorer, Ohio St. could be just as good. It was their defense that helped them with their run. Dre will have a hard time making first team as the gophers will finish in the middle of the standings, somewhere.

Seems to me the Gophers will almost literally have to steal games from the top 6 or 7 teams in the Big Ten due to the absence of bigs who match up. So to complete Coach P's 40 minutes of heck philosophy (see Nolan Richardson highlights), Gophers will have to frustrate our opponents, make steals, lead to easy buckets and a rain/snow mix of 2s/3s in transition. Could it happen? It will be interesting to see.

Gopher Warrior said:

Big Ten will be way down from last year. Top teams won't be as good.

Some of the bottom teams (i.e., Northwestern, Penn St.) should be better and Iowa could have a nice season.. but at the top last year there were four EXCELLENT teams.

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Way down? I doubt it. They didn't win the title last year, had only one F4 team and two E8 teams (worse than the Big East on both counts) - how great were the top teams last year, really? They had a very good year, but not quite the dominant league on the national level that they were portrayed as.

The Big Ten has had four Sweet 16 (or better) teams two years in a row, gunning for a third straight year and they have a good shot at it. MSU, OSU, Mich and UW are pretty much all perennial top-25 teams now and legitimate threats for S16 appearances every year.

IU has enough talent to be a top-25 team and make the S16 again, but I'm not sure they will considering they have to make wholesale replacements - they're the team that has the largest potential variance in quality this year. So IU will take a step back, how far is hard to say. But on the flipside Iowa is due for a strong (top-25) year which they didn't have last year. Illinois, Minnesota, Purdue and PSU all have multiple key players to replace, but all have added some quality players and got more experienced, so odds are one of them will make the tournament but only two of them made it last year. NW and Nebraska likely won't be very good, but they weren't very good last year, either. Overall, I'd say there are four tourney locks, two additional likely tourney teams, and the odds are there probably will be one more tourney team among the rest of the pack so a total of 7 bids is my guess (which is what they had last year).

I guess my objection is from the standpoint that I don't like seeing the term "down" associated with Big Ten basketball since it seemed like Gottlieb was trying to argue that the Big Ten was "down" every year for several years, and now with the Big Ten on the heels of a good year and likely to have their share of top-25 teams and NCAA tourney teams again, I would stay away from using the word "down" to describe the Big ten.

march madness said:

Michigan St. will be as good or better than last year. But, yes Indiana takes a big hit as does Michigan. If Ross can continue his NCAA tourney rise and be the primary scorer, Ohio St. could be just as good. It was their defense that helped them with their run. Dre will have a hard time making first team as the gophers will finish in the middle of the standings, somewhere.

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MSU will be similar. Indiana, if you look at them from the standpoint of all they did was make the Sweet 16, they might not be as far off of that as you would expect as there are a few good players coming back and a big recruiting class with a couple studs and an instant impact transfer from ASU, so I could see them making the S16 if things go their way. But I could also see IU missing the tourney altogether in the worst-case scenario. You can't expect Mich to repeat their tourney performance of course, but during the Big Ten season they were only 5th place and a #4 seed in the tournament, so certainly possible (perhaps probable) for them to achieve similar results this upcoming season and make the expected tourney run (S16) as opposed to a surprisingly deep run. Ross is definitely the guy who will benefit the most from Deshaun Thomas turning pro, as his role will get significantly bigger.

OSUfan said:

Way down? I doubt it. They didn't win the title last year, had only one F4 team and two E8 teams (worse than the Big East on both counts) - how great were the top teams last year, really? They had a very good year, but not quite the dominant league on the national level that they were portrayed as.

The Big Ten has had four Sweet 16 (or better) teams two years in a row, gunning for a third straight year and they have a good shot at it. MSU, OSU, Mich and UW are pretty much all perennial top-25 teams now and legitimate threats for S16 appearances every year.

I guess my objection is from the standpoint that I don't like seeing the term "down" associated with Big Ten basketball since it seemed like Gottlieb was trying to argue that the Big Ten was "down" every year for several years, and now with the Big Ten on the heels of a good year and likely to have their share of top-25 teams and NCAA tourney teams again, I would stay away from using the word "down" to describe the Big ten.

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I think where we may differ is what we place value in. Due to the nature of the NCAA tournament, I generally don't measure "how good a conference was" based on a couple of its teams making to round X.

IIRC the Big Ten's top 5 seeds were: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively. Four of those teams were good enough to be a tough game for any other team in the nation on a consistent basis. It was a great year at the top of conference. The 2011-12 season was also very good. The conference will not be nearly as strong in 2013-14.

As for those individual schools you mentioned, I'm not sure that Purdue and PSU have multiple key players to replace. Byrd and Marshall, respectively, are gone, but both teams project to be better (overall record).

Northwestern could have an interesting season.

Purdue seems a lot like Minnesota. Very strong at both guards, small foward, and center, but a big question mark at the 4 spot.

I have little doubt the Big Ten will be among the top 3 conferences in 2013-14, along with the ACC and probably the Big 12 (Pac 12 could surprise). Will be surprised if the conference is rated any lower than #3 after all is said and done.

That said, it's well past time for the B1G to capture another national championship. Until that happens, fair or not, the general feeling is gonna' be (and I think it's fair) that you can't be considered the best conference if you haven't won the big prize in the last 13 years. The conference has knocked on the door an ample amount of times with 5 Championship Monday appearances since 2001 by 5 different programs (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, MSU, OSU), but someone needs to take the final step.

SS, I think the lack of titles is due to two main things. First and foremost, the Big Ten doesn't get nearly as many top-20 prospects and NBA prospects as the other top conferences such as the ACC, SEC and Big 12 (and the old Big East). Being a second-class citizen when it comes to getting future pros (perhaps the unfortunate by-product of being among the cleanest of the power conferences?) has a serious impact when it comes to having viable title contenders. That leads to #2, the timing has to be right for a Big Ten team to win it all, because there aren't many Big Ten teams that feature multiple first round picks out there - they have to have a team with future NBA'ers on a stacked roster in a year when other top teams don't have as much. 2013 was a golden opportunity because it was a year when there were several very good B1G teams, IU and Mich were both viable title contenders, and Louisville was a very beatable champion, it just came down to the Big Ten teams not being quite talented enough in the supporting cast I think. Some of the teams that the Big Ten has put in the Final Four (Illinois 2005, OSU '07, MSU '09, and OSU '12) I think were good enough to win a title in a down year, but the timing just hasn't been right. Purdue losing Robbie Hummel in 2010 was also a big deal when it comes to this title drought, as I think with Hummel they could've won it all that year if they had stayed healthy as 2010 Duke was not an especially great champion.

Ultimately, it will take one of the teams being able to put together really talented depth, to go along with a couple NBA guys in the starting group, in a year when there isn't a dominant team out there to take them down. As much as I would like to see the drought end, it ain't gonna happen in 2014.

I'd like to see a L'il Pitino coached team on fire come B1G tournament time.

march madness said:

Purdue seems a lot like Minnesota. Very strong at both guards, small foward, and center, but a big question mark at the 4 spot.

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We will have a number of 6 foot 8 215 pound guys that could fill that position including Buckles hopefully. I think our biggest guestion mark is new coach, new system not proven in the Big Ten, and team chemistry. It will make it easier for Rick that he will have a guard and possibly a 4 following him to the Gophers. If they are not eligible for some reason it could be long year for us. Too many unknowns now to even guess where we will wind up.

Gopher Warrior said:

Big Ten will be way down from last year.

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Like to know your definition of way. Because that statement seems way wrong.