NCAA Tournament: Everything We Have Learned from the Big Ten

As the conference tournaments are winding down and some have even concluded, some teams on the bubble have potentially etched themselves in the NCAA tournament while others have written themselves out.

A lot has changed since the college basketball season began and where it is at now. The best teams in the nation have shown glimpses of greatness and temporary moments of fragility, further imploring how unpredictable the big tournament will conclude.

And as the Minnesota Golden Gophers—who have beaten Michigan State and Purdue in consecutive days—are set to face off against consensus conference Player of the Year Evan Turner and his Ohio State Buckeyes in the Big Ten finale, it just goes to show the season has taken many twists and turns.

But before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s take a trip down memory lane and find out what we have already learned.

For starters, the conference as a whole has not been elite.

Purdue was ranked in the top three at one point, but that was brief and obviously didn’t live up to its billing. There have been some pretty good teams—Michigan State, Purdue, Ohio State—but nobody who could be penciled in as a front runner in the Final Four.

There has also been the whole Jekyll-Hyde, Superman-Clark Kent syndrome.

The amount of occurrences in which teams played down to their opponents is staggering. Michigan State has needed 39 minutes and change just to defeat a Penn State which had absolutely nothing to play for. Northwestern defeated Purdue when Robbie Hummel was healthy and playing well. The killer mentality seems to be absent in the conference, but inconsistency has not.

But the most glaring area of concern has been injuries. Star players have gotten hurt and their respective teams have suffered without them in the lineup, albeit some more than others.

Ohio State’s Evan Turner broke his back early in the season, but he has fortunately gotten healthy and is among the top three players in the entire country. Michigan State’s Kalin Lucas sprained his ankle against Wisconsin and his team missed his leadership and clutch play, and he still has not played up to his Big Ten Player of the Year status from a season ago.

However, the biggest injury suffered in the Big Ten—and one of the most influential in all of America—has been that of Purdue’s Hummel. The team was ranked inside the top five when he was healthy, but now they have lost two out of five games since he has been declared out for the season, including an embarrassing loss to bubble team Minnesota.

We now know where we’ve been, but where we are about to go (as a conference) is as uncertain as how many sticks of gum Thad Matta will spit out before March concludes.

Maybe the Spartans will make a wild run like last season, or maybe they will suffer an early tournament loss as has happened in years past. Perhaps Purdue may already be finished without Hummel and E’Twaun Moore playing on a bum ankle. And the Buckeyes may essentially last longer than any team with the way they have played the last month and change.

And we don’t really know what to expect out of teams like Wisconsin, and whether Minnesota and Illinois even make the field of 65 is a huge question mark. My money says Minnesota is in, Illinois is out and Wisconsin won’t win three games.

With the official bracket being announced at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, all we can do is take what we’ve learned and make our best predictions. But hey, unless this is your first waltz, you realize the dance is as unpredictable as who gets to take part in it.