BleedGopher
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per Richey:
Picture me in a single chair sitting behind a small card table in a tree-shaded courtyard. The sign in front of the table reads “The Big Ten is the best conference in college basketball.”
Change. My. Mind.
Can’t do it. At least not based on the 2019-20 season.
The argument was made with five Big Ten teams in the final Associated Press Top 25. Double that might have wound up in the NCAA tournament. Not to mention one more for 11 in the top 30 of the Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings. (That’s KenPom’s full official name no one ever actually uses).
Iowa’s Luka Garza was in the running for every national player of the year honor. Garza, Michigan State’s Cassius Winston and Maryland’s Jalen Smith were all AP All-Americans — one on each respective team.
The Big Ten was, in fact, the best conference in college basketball. Maybe not entirely top to bottom given the real struggles in Evanston and Lincoln, Neb., but no conference is perfect. The challengers for the Big Ten’s title as top conference had their warts, too, with Iowa State and Kansas State dragging down the Big 12 and DePaul, even with an improved overall record, still tanking in Big East action.
The Big Ten’s depth last season, at least for its top 12 teams, was evident. Just six games separated the Michigan State-Maryland-Wisconsin trio at the top and Minnesota in the No. 12 spot last season. That was a result of growth from the programs that had occupied the bottom for several years. The old cliché of any team on any night able to win actually carried a little more validity.
Illinois made the biggest leap — going from 21 losses to 21 wins — on the strength of Ayo Dosunmu game-winner after Ayo Dosunmu game-winner and the addition of freshman big man Kofi Cockburn.
Penn State climbed the standings. Rutgers, who was nearly unbeatable at home in the “Trapezoid of Doom,” did the same.
That progress should bring some stability to the Big Ten in coming seasons, too. Penn State’s Pat Chambers would have reached his first NCAA tournament in nine seasons in Happy Valley if it would have happened. Steve Pikiell followed up a 20-win season by landing the Scarlet Knights’ highest-ranked recruit in more than a decade.
Illinois still has some question marks heading into 2020-21 centered around Dosunmu and Cockburn and their testing of the NBA draft waters, but landing the guard duo of Adam Miller and Andre Curbelo extended Brad Underwood’s streak of stacking high-level recruits.
Illinois basketball might not be play-for-a-national-championship level back just yet, but the Illini are certainly operating at a different level than in most of the previous decade after just three seasons with Underwood at the helm.
The rest of the Big Ten is just as stable. Mostly.
Northwestern’s Chris Collins and Minnesota’s Richard Pitino might be feeling a little heat — and Indiana’s Archie Miller always will because it’s Indiana — but Michigan State’s Tom Izzo and Purdue’s Matt Painter aren’t going anywhere. Michigan’s Juwan Howard and Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg were just hired. Even Iowa’s Fran McCaffery keeps angrily winning.
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Go Gophers!!
Picture me in a single chair sitting behind a small card table in a tree-shaded courtyard. The sign in front of the table reads “The Big Ten is the best conference in college basketball.”
Change. My. Mind.
Can’t do it. At least not based on the 2019-20 season.
The argument was made with five Big Ten teams in the final Associated Press Top 25. Double that might have wound up in the NCAA tournament. Not to mention one more for 11 in the top 30 of the Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings. (That’s KenPom’s full official name no one ever actually uses).
Iowa’s Luka Garza was in the running for every national player of the year honor. Garza, Michigan State’s Cassius Winston and Maryland’s Jalen Smith were all AP All-Americans — one on each respective team.
The Big Ten was, in fact, the best conference in college basketball. Maybe not entirely top to bottom given the real struggles in Evanston and Lincoln, Neb., but no conference is perfect. The challengers for the Big Ten’s title as top conference had their warts, too, with Iowa State and Kansas State dragging down the Big 12 and DePaul, even with an improved overall record, still tanking in Big East action.
The Big Ten’s depth last season, at least for its top 12 teams, was evident. Just six games separated the Michigan State-Maryland-Wisconsin trio at the top and Minnesota in the No. 12 spot last season. That was a result of growth from the programs that had occupied the bottom for several years. The old cliché of any team on any night able to win actually carried a little more validity.
Illinois made the biggest leap — going from 21 losses to 21 wins — on the strength of Ayo Dosunmu game-winner after Ayo Dosunmu game-winner and the addition of freshman big man Kofi Cockburn.
Penn State climbed the standings. Rutgers, who was nearly unbeatable at home in the “Trapezoid of Doom,” did the same.
That progress should bring some stability to the Big Ten in coming seasons, too. Penn State’s Pat Chambers would have reached his first NCAA tournament in nine seasons in Happy Valley if it would have happened. Steve Pikiell followed up a 20-win season by landing the Scarlet Knights’ highest-ranked recruit in more than a decade.
Illinois still has some question marks heading into 2020-21 centered around Dosunmu and Cockburn and their testing of the NBA draft waters, but landing the guard duo of Adam Miller and Andre Curbelo extended Brad Underwood’s streak of stacking high-level recruits.
Illinois basketball might not be play-for-a-national-championship level back just yet, but the Illini are certainly operating at a different level than in most of the previous decade after just three seasons with Underwood at the helm.
The rest of the Big Ten is just as stable. Mostly.
Northwestern’s Chris Collins and Minnesota’s Richard Pitino might be feeling a little heat — and Indiana’s Archie Miller always will because it’s Indiana — but Michigan State’s Tom Izzo and Purdue’s Matt Painter aren’t going anywhere. Michigan’s Juwan Howard and Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg were just hired. Even Iowa’s Fran McCaffery keeps angrily winning.
Richey | Can Big Ten dominance continue?
Arguably the top conference in the country has roots to stay that way
Go Gophers!!
