So big ten goes 7-1 in the first round…any hope for the low seeds going to the second weekend? Like Minnesota moving on would be wild.
It’s interesting, I think we all watch so much basketball in this conference that the parity can limit our perspectives of these teams. We are also probably jaded by our first hand inspections, where the UM defense makes some of the other B1G teams look suspect.
With that being said, I’m not sure if we have many sweet 16 teams… But I do think we can throw out the narrative that was tossed around in the past couple weeks questioning certain teams (Minny, Purdue, Iowa, etc.). This league really was strong this year. OSU is the only win that surprised me in first round
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I personally would be pretty bummed to play a Big Ten team as a big favorite at this point in the tournament. Even though MSU should win, Minnesota should have the scout down and know everything they need to do to make it a game.
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Go figure that the B10 has a great first round and one of the teams in which I had the most confidence (Wisconsin) super-lost to of all things a PAC 10 team.
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Yes, Oregon was pedestrian for much of the regular season and the Pac-12 as a whole was total crap, but starting with their win over Arizona State on Feb 28th through yesterday, the Ducks are the #2 team on Torvik in that span (Michigan is #1).
Oddly enough this isn’t the first time that the Oregon had a meh regular season in a down Pac-12, won the conference tournament, and received a 12-seed (much to the chagrin of their first round opponent). Same thing happened in 2013 and the Ducks went to the Sweet Sixteen before losing a close one to Ricky P’s Hooker Brigade.
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I figured Wisconsin & OSU were the two weakest B1G teams in this tournament. The scrappy gritty style always seems to work well in the B1G conference, but then it tends to fall on its face in a tournament that better appreciates scorers and athletes. Other than Bo Ryan’s teams of a few years ago that had some real talent, Wisconsin always looks like a fish out of water once the dancing begins.
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People thought Iowa and Minneosta were better than Wisky coming into the tournament? To me that sounds like a hindsight thing. Iowa has been beyond awful, and Minnesota is the worst power conference 3pt shooting team. I would still contend Wisconsin is better than both the teams and would perform better than them in a 68 team tournament 75% of the time.
Also, Wisconsin has only lost in the first round of the tournament twice in their previous 16 trips to the tournament. So I don’t think saying they look like a fish out of water in the tournament is fair or stands up to analysis.
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Yeah, I think Iowa got a lucky matchup against one of the worst tournament coaches ever, and Wisconsin got unlucky playing against a surging team. Minnesota is playing a little bit better recently, but they’re still worse than Wisconsin.
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Yeah, let’s not forget that Wisconsin went to back to back Final Fours not that long ago (2014 and '15).
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Iowa is also one of those teams that can play with anyone because of the amount of scorers they have. It’s been that way since McCaffery has been there.
Wisconsin is really hard to predict for me in the tournament. Iowa almost always takes a game.
Every single one of Iowa’s 4 tournament wins this century are from the 7-10 game. 4-1 in those, 0-7 in any other game.
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I agree, which is partly why I was so impressed with OSU’s win last night. The Buckeyes are basically Kaleb Wesson and not much else. Throughout their game, I kept thinking there was no way they were going to win. That was especially true when Wesson didn’t even touch the ball on their final possession.
Has it really been that few? I know it’s been less in recent years, but seem to recall it used to be clockwork that Iowa goes out in the second. Old assumption, I guess.
Holtmann has been terribly impressive thus far. In these two years at OSU he’s been squeezing quite a bit of juice from his roster of dried fruits. It frightens me to think of what he’s capable of doing with the ripened rosters he’s lined up for the near future.
I’ve not seen OSU enough to really know what to think about that. They’ve come out the gate strong both years and then faded a bit, but I think overall you’re right that he’s an impressive coach who is going to field some contenders soon.
Surprised? 
I think all B1G watchers were a little surprised at the OSU, MINNY, and IOWA first round wins.
Pretty much doomed my prop bet on the under 10.5 wins for the conference in the NCAA tournament.
Was really pulling for Maryland, because B1G, but also partly because all of these LSU wins will eventually be vacated anyway, won’t they?
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Did the announcers even mention the shadow surrounding LSU?