A funny thing happened over the weekend.
Fresh off of North Carolina's drubbing of Michigan State and Duke's dismissal of Purdue in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, I was preparing to use this space to pronounce an early December demise for the Big Ten. These are dark days in the Midwest, as the conference's vaunted football programs have suffered the dreaded slide into mediocrity. The golden child, Ohio State, has been thoroughly bashed from coast-to-coast, and one-loss Penn State not only never figured into the national championship discussion, but it'll be considered a successful trip to Pasadena if they stay within two touchdowns of USC.
The same gloominess looked certain to carryover onto the hard courts. Once a March Madness mainstay, the Big Ten has held less than a dozen entries into the last two NCAA tournaments combined. For a conference that long boasted gritty, physical teams from one through 10 (err, 11), the recent fall-off in depth was staggering.
The first days of the 2008-09 season looked to be just a continuation of the backslide, as conference favorite and preseason top 10 elite Michigan State not only got embarrassed in Detroit by the Tar Heels, but also lost on a neutral site to an unproven Maryland squad. Combined with that, the Hoosier state, the traditional breadbasket of the conference's hoop dreams, offered consecutive losses by highly touted Purdue and a 4-4 start by Indiana, including a horrific two-point win over Chaminade in Maui.
So it only made sense as I watched the conference I knew best struggling to prepare a eulogy. I was willing to overlook an encouraging five-win showing by the Big Ten in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. And I was expecting, Duke and Notre Dame to pile on the last few shovelfuls of dirt against Michigan and Ohio State, respectively. But then that funny thing happened.
The Wolverines controlled the Blue Devils all afternoon in Ann Arbor. John Beilein's funky 1-3-1 zone and a poor shooting day for Coach K's crew led to the day's first upset of a top-10 team by an unranked Big Ten underdog. And then the Buckeyes, with sophomore Dallas Lauderdale holding Luke Harangody at bay for most of the day, sounded the second blast. Hmm, maybe the funeral was too early?
At that point, I looked back the ACC/Big Ten games I dismissed so readily and the evidence pointed to a different angle. Sure, the ACC's top two throttled the Big Ten's. But wouldn't that be the case with most conferences? Do you think Oklahoma and Texas would do much better against two of college basketball's blue bloods?
But beyond those two blowouts, the Big Ten handled itself fairly well. The aforementioned Buckeyes won at previously ranked Miami. Minnesota, the Midwest's best-kept secret, handled a wild card Virginia squad and has since moved to 8-0. Iowa, a team far more dangerous in their home whites, fell a few free throws away from pushing Boston College to overtime in Beantown. And the surprise of all surprises, doormats Northwestern and Penn State found their own wins in the Challenge.
While the Big Ten is at least taking steps toward being "back," let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Spartans, and to a lesser extend the Boilermakers, did plenty to undermine their credibility as national players in their losses to this point. And intra-conference attrition will certainly take its toll once league play starts.
But beyond those black eyes, the conference looks much deeper than it has in at least three years. There are at least seven teams that can cast credible glances toward the Big Dance at this moment, which is well ahead of where the league has found itself come the last couple of Selection Sundays. Big Ten fans, our national shame may be coming to an end.
Now, if only the guys in the league office in Chicago could figure out that whole football thing.
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