Big Ten reeks of mediocrity

By Conor O’Brien

cmo5041@gmail.com

When the season started the national consensus was the Big Ten would send at least seven capable teams to the NCAA tournament and be one of the best conferences in America.

It is looking more and more like a five or six bid conference, but only three have a prayer to survive the first round. Ohio State is still the best team in the nation and is destined for a trip to Houston in the final four. Purdue and Wisconsin are not extraordinarily talented, but are powered by dynamic point guards, highly skilled big men and brilliant coaching. They maximize their assets and have the intangibles to reach the second week of the dance.

But after the big three, things get a lot hazier. It is still unclear who is the fourth best team in the conference. Or the fifth, or the sixth or the seventh best. Illinois is currently in fourth position with a 6-6 conference record, but Bruce Weber’s squad has been plagued by wildly inconsistent play all season. Then Minnesota, Michigan State, Michigan and Penn State are deadlocked at 6-7.

Parity, maybe. Mediocrity, clearly. Each team has a number of glaring weaknesses that will prevent them from being serious players in late March. Two of these teams are tournament locks, Illinois and Minnesota, but the rest are searching for answers to questions they can’t solve.

The injury to senior guard Al Nolen has seemingly derailed Minnesota’s sweet 16 aspirations, but Illinois has inexplicably been out-coached, out-hustled, and outplayed throughout much of the conference schedule. They may rank second in talent, but their heart and basketball intelligence leaves a lot to be desired. Their matinee clash against Purdue exposed them for the team they really are. They were the bigger team, the team with more athletic ability. But they’re soft. JaJuan Johnson imposed his will down low, blocking shots, slamming home dunks, and grabbing rebounds in traffic. And Demetri McCamey reverted back to his old ways.

I suppose the biggest disappointment has been Michigan State, but there demise was largely dissected in “Spartans NCAA reign is over.” They quit in consecutive games against Iowa and Wisconsin, but it is becoming clearer that this team just isn’t that good. Kalin Lucas is a shell of his former self and ultra talented guard Durrell Summers has been an enigma in critical games. He had zero point against Ohio State last night. He couldn’t muster one basket in a game the Spartans had to have!

Penn State and Michigan have a real chance to take advantage of this alarmingly disappointing play, but the fact that they’re even in the discussion of finishing as high as fourth is a mockery to this conference. These teams, picked to finish in the bottom of the conference should not be in this position.