Big Ten Country

Big Ten Country Goes National!

It’s time for another college football season, and Big Ten Country is moving to a new locale. I’ve decided to expand coverage and chronicle the entire nation this season. You can bookmark http://www.thecollegefootballnotebook.com, as one of your sources for college football commentary and insights (well, at least commentary, I don’t know how much insight will come out of it). The College Football Notebook is the first of the planned Sports Notebook series, which will eventually expand into college basketball, and also pick up pro sports as well, starting in 2010. I’ve done Big Ten Country for four years and it’s been a great run. This blog has taken me to the press box of The Capital One Bowl and represents the start of what I hope will be a lifetime in sports blogging. Like any college player though, after four years, its time to graduate and move on up. Big Ten Country offers its heartfelt thanks to those who’ve read and supported it over the past four seasons. It’s you who have made this next step possible, and I look forward to seeing you over at the Notebook!

Wrapping It Up

Another year is in the books and its time to close down for the summer. I was looking back at an August post, in which I outlined the key questions each school faced in football and/or basketball. We'll end the season with a look back at how the answers turned out: My original comment from August is in italics.

Wisconsin: UW hasn't competed on the biggest stage since the 1999 Rose Bowl. They've been successful and won a lot of big games, but can they reach the next level? We'll find out. Bret Bielama didn't like the answers after a 7-5 year and a horrid bowl outing.

Ohio State: They go to Southern Cal on September 13. Jim Tressel's team is the banner-carrier for this conference on the national stage and we'll see how they handle this test, and how the public reacts. They didn't handle the test well, and the public's response was equally harsh.

Michigan State: With the Final Four a virtual home game for them, can the Spartans end the year by cutting down the nets in their own backyard? Almost.

Indiana: Can (Tom) Crean get the foundation in place? The early answers suggest it's going to be longer than anyone previously thought.

Purdue: ...can Matt Painter take this program back to the Keady-era of Big Ten championships? The prognosis looks good, but he needs a regular-season title to seal the deal.

Michigan: How will the football team adjust to Rich Rodriguez's spread offense? No question in the entire conference was answered more definitively in the negative.

Minnesota: ...the more interesting question is whether the strong recruiting class of Rick Brewster can get the football team pointed back in the right direction after a disastrous 2007. Yes, they did.

Iowa: Ferentz is having a dry spell...Can...he get it turned back around? No question in the conference was answered more definitively in the positive.

Illinois: Bruce Weber has fallen from grace since the glory days of 2005. If he doesn't return his team to March this year, he might be running out of chances. Bruce got it done.

Northwestern: Can Pat Fitzgerald return them to the postseason this time around? If he can, NU is coming close to developing what can actually be a modest tradition of success on the gridiron. Pat got it done too.

Penn State: Is this the swan song for Joe Paterno? And are he and Penn State headed for a messy finish? At least for now, the answer is no. Joe Pa got a three-year contract extension after his Rose Bowl year.

And that August post ended on this note...

There are so many other questions that remain unanswered in America's greatest region. Will there be a Windy City Series? (Both made the playoffs, but won a combined one game. And the Cubs el foldo against the Dodgers was pathetic) Which NFC North team, if any, will Brett Favre suit up for? (None, but he got his revenge when the Jets gained a net +12 games on the Packers from the previous year).Will Big Ten Country produce its first president since Harding? (Yes, and he swept every state from Pennsylvania to Minnesota, though in the interests of full disclosure, I voted for the Pac-10 candidate).

On that note, it's time to sign off. It looks like another great baseball season to keep us occupied in the summer. The Cubs, White Sox, Twins and Tigers are all serious contenders, and the Brewers have an outside shot. Writing from my new home outside Baltimore, I'm hoping to spend some time out at Camden Yards, catch my beloved Red Sox (I've liked them since 1996, lest I be lumped in with the annoying bandwagon jumpers of Red Sox Nation) and enjoying our season ticket plan to local Ripken Stadium, home of the minor league Aberdeen Ironbirds. So everybody have a good summer and we'll see you back here in August!

A Disappointing Draft

The draft results have to be considered somewhat disappointing from a Big Ten perspective. It starts in Columbus, where Malcolm Jenkins fell out of the Top 10, going to the Saints with the fourteenth pick. Chris Wells nearly slid out of the first round altogether, going to the defending NFC champ Cardinals. And James Laurinatius did fall to the second round where he was picked by the hapless Rams. Other disappointments include Javon Ringer dropping to Round Five and the Titans. Ringer's fate was still better than his quarterback, Brian Hoyer, who went undrafted.

The highest player chosen was Penn State's enigmatic defensive end Aaron Maybin, who went #11 overall to Buffalo. Illinois' Vontae Davis was also a first-rounder, picked at #25 by the Dolphins. Overall, Ohio State easily led the way, as expected, with seven players picked. Wisconsin was kept busy in Round 3. Four Badgers had their ticket punched in this round, as Kraig Urbik went to the Steelers, Travis Beckum to the Giants, DeAndre Levy to the Lions and Matt Shaughnessy to the Raiders. Both Penn State receivers also went in this round, with Derrick Williams suffering the ignominy of becoming a Lion, and Deon Butler starting his pro career out in Seattle. All in all, nearly 20 percent of the third round came out of Madison or State College.

Other notes from New York include conference MVP Shonn Greene also being a third-rounder, on his way to the Jets to join Mark Sanchez. Curtis Painter will stay in-state with the Colts and try and jumpstart a career as Peyton Manning's backup.

Season Recaps: Penn State & Michigan State

The last of the season recaps are today, with the programs who enjoyed the best overall seasons of any conference schools and ended with championships.. Today, we look at Penn State and Michigan State .

Penn State

In Joe Paterno’s heyday as an Eastern independent, he worked on a consistent pattern. About every four years he made a big run at the national title, and mixed in some steady and consistent years in between. This past season showed that even as an octogenarian, Paterno still can work the pattern. Back in 2005, the team went 11-1 and won the Orange Bowl. After a couple respectable years following, they returned to the top in 2008. An explosive offensive scored over forty points three times in conference play alone. They combined for 94 points against Wisconsin and Michigan . And they closed the year with a 49-18 win over Michigan State that secured a co-championship and Rose Bowl bid. The year was marked by a huge win at Ohio State that set them on the path to Pasadena, and a subsequent devastating defeat at Iowa that took them out of the national title picture. A decisive loss to USC in the Rose Bowl is seen more as a continued indictment of the best of the Big Ten to play with either Southern Cal and the best of the SEC, but it can’t take away that Paterno’s still got the right touch.

The basketball team made a spirited run at the NCAA Tournament, but came up a bit short. They did win at Michigan State for the second consecutive year, and the crowning triumph came in the NIT. Ed DeChellis’ program won at Florida in the quarterfinals and they beat Notre Dame to win the title in New York City . It’s not often you hear that the Nittany Lion program is bringing back the most exciting player in the conference. But that’s what Talor Battle is as we look ahead to next year.

Michigan State

Not much doubt as to which program enjoyed the most balanced success this year. The football team set the tone by going to a New Year’s Day bowl game. And the basketball team finished the job by first winning the Big Ten crown and then making a run all to the way to the final game of the NCAA Tournament.

After a loss at Cal , there was no indication that this would be the Spartan football team that would breakthrough to January 1. And it’s only in retrospect that we see the significance of back-to-back October wins over Iowa and Northwestern. They won big at Michigan and also beat Notre Dame. While Mark Dantonio’s team didn’t win big games—they were beaten decisively by Penn State and Ohio State and fell to Georgia in the Capital One Bowl—they were consistent. We can see this program’s success in light of the larger events of what’s taking place in Wisconsin . Since the retirement of Barry Alvarez, there has been a vacuum in the area of a program that can be a consistent contender, just below the powers-that-be and occasionally stealing a conference title. Dantonio looks like he’s filling the vacuum..

Tom Izzo’s basketball success speaks for itself. There were really only two bad spots and they both involve North Carolina at Ford Field. One time in December, another time in April. But in between there, it’s quite a resume. They beat Texas in non-league play for the second straight year. They rolled to the Big Ten title despite Raymar Morgan being far less than full strength for the season. And the performance in the NCAA Tournament was spectacular. They took out defending champion Kansas with a rally in the final three minutes. Then they singlehandedly disarmed the Big East’s claim to historic dominance, when they outsed Louisville in a regional final and UConn in the national semifinals. There’s certainly nothing saying that the teams that win in March are by definition the best. But in looking at the overall record, it seems hard to argue against the notion that Michigan State was the second-best team in the nation.

Season Recaps: Michigan & Ohio State

Season recaps continue today with Michigan and Ohio State...

Michigan

Ann Arbor continues its experiment of importing coaches from West Virginia. They got a down payment on the results they were hoping for from the basketball program in Year 2 of John Beilen's reign. They can only hope similar improvement comes from Rich Rodriguez's football team.

The Michigan football season started off with a close loss at home to Utah and decisive road defeat at Notre Dame. In retrospect, that first loss looks almost pretty good, in light of the Utes going undefeated and then beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. But considering that hapless Syracuse was able to win in South Bend, losing there by 18 points looks even worse now than it did at the time.

Big Ten play was an unmitigated disaster whose only high point was playing a quarter-plus of outstanding football against Wisconsin. A rally from 19-0 down to win 27-25 was the greatest comeback in the history of Michigan Stadium. And fans had to make that memory last, because there would be only one more win the rest of the way. The year ended with a five-touchdown thumping in Columbus, marking the fifth straight year UM has lost to its archrival.

The basketball team played very well in December, beating UCLA and splitting two games with Duke (one in a preseason tournament, the other regularly scheduled). They also threw a near-miss in at Maryland. Later on in February, they played a respectable game at Connecticuit. They saved their best work for outside the family. Big Ten games were a so-so 9-9, with a win at Minnesota being the main highlight. But the non-conference effort was enough to get them back in the NCAA Tournament and they continued their success with a win over Clemson in the first round. Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims were exciting talents all year long in what was a fun year to be a Wolverine basketball fan.

Ohio State

Jim Tressel's football program entered the year the undisputed kings of the Big Ten, but a laughingstock nationally, because of the results from the previous two BCS National Championship games. A road trip to USC did not help the latter problem, as the Buckeyes took a 35-3 beating. They played pretty consistently in conference play and pounded an improving Michigan State team on the road. But a hard-fought home loss to Penn State in prime-time cost them their status in league play, though they did rebound to claim a share of the championship. The season ended with a heartbreaking Fiesta Bowl loss to Texas, 24-21, on a Longhorn touchdown with less than thirty seconds left. But in the spirited effort against a team many believed was the best in the country, Tressel started the difficult process of reclaiming national respect for his team--and by extension the rest of the Big Ten.

The basketball team made a return to the NCAA Tournament this year, and was highlighted by the outstanding play of forward Evan Turner. A consistent double-double threat who also had a respectable assist total for an inside player, Turner led the team to a 10-8 conference mark and to the finals of the league tournament. A loss to Siena in the NCAA was a bitter pill to swallow. The game was played in Dayton and some bad three-point defense down the stretch took away a win that seemed to be in hand. But Thad Matta showed his program had made it back from the rapid losses of Mike Conley and Greg Oden following the 2007 season.

NFL Draft Day Coming

The NFL draft commences on Saturday in New York City and runs through Sunday. Running back and defensive back offer the conference the best chance of making a splash. The Big Ten has three players ranked in the top ten amongst backs. Chris Wells trails only Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno. Not far behind is Shonn Greene, who won the Big Ten MVP award for Iowa. And Michigan State’s Javon Ringer is ranked seventh. All three will make productive pros, but I think Wells is on the path to being a player who will break some team’s heart. His extraordinary talent will tantalize, his fragile health always cutting him short. Greene and Ringer don’t have the same raw talent, but are more likely to settle into a consistent role somewhere. Also on the radar screen are Kory Sheets from Purdue, who can fit in somewhere as a third-down back. Marcus Thigpen from Indiana is a longer shot at a similar job. And it will be interesting to see if there’s any action on Wisconsin’s P.J. Hill. He ran well for Wisconsin, but that was in a system that always produces good backs, and Hill had problems with both injuries and fumbling. Quite frankly, I don’t think Hill has any shot at a good NFL career.

In the secondary, Malcolm Jenkins from Ohio State is the top-rated corner on the board. Sitting at #4 as Vontae Davis from Illinois. The latter has a temperament as explosive as his play, and could go either in the first round or fall hard. Also with good shots at getting their names called include Jenkins’ partner in crime at Columbus, Donald Washington, and Michigan’s Morgan Trent.

Linebacker is a weak field, but the story of James Laurinatius from Ohio State is going to join that of Wells as the most intriguing drama involving Big Ten players. Laurinatius has had an outstanding career in Columbus, but his workout at the pre-draft combine was a disaster. In the strange world of NFL scouts, a couple days of workouts trump 40+ games on a football field. We’ll see how far the linebacker falls. We can also wait to see on the fate of Buckeye outside man Marcus Freeman, as well as Wisconsin’s pair, DeAndre Levy and Jonathan Casillas.

The rest of the prospects are below, with their positional ranking on College Football News listed in parentheses

Quarterback
Curtis Painter (#7, Purdue)
Brian Hoyer (#16, Michigan State)

Receivers
Derrick Williams (#7, Penn State)
Brian Robiskie (#8, Ohio State)
Brian Hartline (#22, Ohio State)
Greg Matthews (#24, Michigan)
Deon Butler (#25, Penn State)

Tight Ends
Travis Beckum (#3, Wisconsin)
Tony Moeaki (#16, Iowa)
Jeff Cumberland (#17, Illinois)
Rory Nicol (#19, Ohio State)

Offensive Line

Tackles
Alex Boone (#4, Ohio State)
Sean Sester (#15, Purdue)
Xavier Fulton (#16, Illinois)
Eric VandenHeuvel (#22, Wisconsin)

Guards
Kraig Urbik (#3, Wisconsin)
Andy Kemp (#11, Wisconsin)
Steve Rehringer (#16, Ohio State)

Defensive Line

Ends
Aaron Maybin (#2, Penn State)
Matt Shaughnessy (#11, Wisconsin)
Mitch King (#14, Iowa)
Will Davis (#15, Illinois)
Derrick Walker (#17, Illinois)
Tim Jamison (#20, Michigan)
Maurice Evans (#25, Penn State)

Tackles
Terrance Taylor (#8, Michigan)
Alex Magee (#10, Purdue)
John Gill (#21, Northwestern)

Secondary
Corners listed above

Safeties
Otis Wiley (#5, Michigan State)
Bradley Fletcher (#19, Iowa)

Season Recaps: Indiana & Purdue

Season recaps today are for Indiana and Purdue. I've always believed this is the conference's best rivalry. Unlike Michigan-Ohio State the animosity extends into both sports. And unlike Michigan-Ohio State, the battle for the Old Oaken Bucket built itself upon a much purer form of hate. While the Wolverines-Buckeyes game became big because it was traditionally for the Big Ten football title, the Hoosiers-Boilers hated each other, more often than not, simply on principle. There was usually little at stake in the big picture, so the only motivating factor was utter vindictiveness towards your fellow man. And it's impossible to overstate how much Big Ten Country, admires and respects human beings capable of that kind of venom over a sporting event. Short of going to a soccer game in Europe or any game in Philadelphia, this is the closest the Midwest will see to perfect hatred.

I trust the good people of the state of Indiana know I'm speaking tounge-in-cheek on most of this. And unfortunately for them, the rivalry again lacked any broader context. Of the four seasons (two in each sport for both schools), three of them were rough. Life was particularly disastrous in Bloomington, which accomplished the unenviable feat of finishing dead last in both football and basketball.

Tom Crean took over a mess from Kelvin Sampson in IU's proud basketball program. D.J. White and Eric Gordon left early and the cupboard was bare. An 88-50 pounding at the hands of Notre Dame out in Maui was a clear signal of rougher sailing ahead. Indiana won just one Big Ten game and its best player, Devan Dumes, was suspended for two games in the middle of the conference schedule.

Bill Lynch's football program was in a rebuilding mode after going to their first bowl game in fourteen years the previous fall. Here too, it was a hard ride the whole way. IU won just three games total and one in the Big Ten. They gave up over 30 points eight times, over 40 points three times and opponents cleared the 50 mark twice.

If you were an Indiana fan, you witnessed exactly two triumphs over Big Ten opposition in the course of an entire academic year. Next season can't come too soon.

Purdue

It was the final season for Joe Tiller on the football field. The coach who rebuilt the Boilermakers from the ashes into a team that went to a Rose Bowl (2000) and several other postseason games, ended his career on an unfortunate and inappropriate note. Purdue sank back into no-bowl territory, going 4-8. They still beat Indiana in the Bucket game, 62-10 and also took advantage of the opportunity to win at Michigan, so at least the old coach got some final trophies to put on his mantle.

Basketball was a big year. The standard outlook on Purdue, one repeated both here and elsewhere, was that they started slow, both overall and in conference play. In reviewing the entire year, I was struck by how much "better" the early losses look in retrospect. The slow December start was noted primarily because of a loss to Oklahoma. The Sooners were seen as a borderline NCAA team at best. Instead they produced the Player of the Year in Blake Griffin and got a two-seed in the tournament. The Big Ten season started with an overtime loss to Illinois and a close road loss to Penn State. Both are teams that significantly exceeded expectations. Purdue started stringing together wins after that, but their starts were never as sluggish as they appeared to many of us at the time.

And the finish was unambigiously positive. They won their first-ever conference tournament and then took home two wins in March Madness. Matt Painter's program continues to improve each year. The next logical step is going to be a championship and he's got all the horses he needs to get it.

Season Recaps: Minnesota & Iowa

Season recaps continue today with Minnesota and Iowa....

Minnesota

The Golden Gophers saw both programs make strides in 2008-09, getting a bowl bid and an NCAA Tournament invitation. The football team had plummeted to 1-10 in '07 after the ill-advised firing of Glen Mason. They were able to bounce back this year. After a road win at Illinois, they were riding high at 7-1, and a New Year's bowl date looked like almost a lock. But the wheels came off down the stretch. Home losses came to Northwestern and Michigan, the former a heartbreaker. They let a two-touchdown lead at Wisconsin slip away. Then Iowa came to the Metrodome and delivered the crowning humiliation, a 55-0 shutout. A loss to Kansas in the Insight Bowl ended the year. Overall, it was a good year, but the ending is a bad taste to take into a year when they open up a new stadium.

Basketball's improvement wasn't as dramatic, but showed the steady progress that mark a Tubby Smith-coached team. In spite of schizophrenic play from star guard Lawrence Westbrook, the Gopher team as a whole was consistent. They got big road wins at rivals Iowa and Wisconsin. And after a near miss last year, they made the NCAAs this time around. A tough first-round draw against Texas hastened their exit, but it can't quell the optimisim. This is a program movin' on up.

Iowa

Kirk Ferentz needed this to be a turnaround year for him and he got his wish. It did not appear that way early on. The Hawkeye football team lost three straight close games to Pitt, Northwestern and Michigan State. But all of those teams turned out to be better than expected, and Iowa themselves got on a roll. They won five of their last six. It included a demolition of Wisconsin, and a 24-23 shocker over Penn State, a game that cost the Nittany Lions a spot in the national title game (from the way things turned out, you'd have to say Iowa saved the Big Ten from a third straight championship game shellacking). Ferentz's team was a bright spot in an otherwise dismal bowl season, as they hammered South Carolina 31-10 in the Outback Bowl.

The basketball team finished 15-17 and out of the money for a postseason invite. But they did have high points, notably the play of Jake Kelly, who was the conference's best player from mid-February forward. They ended the regular season by solidfying their role as Penn State's nemesis, with a double-overtime win likely knocking the Lions out of the NCAA Tournament.

Season Recaps: Illinois & Northwestern

Season recaps continue today with looks at Illinois and Northwestern...

Illinois
Illinois came into the season on a high in football and coming off a downer in basketball. They reversed that this year. The football team was not expected to repeat its Rose Bowl season of 2007, but nor were they expected to slide back below .500. Yet that's what happened. Sitting on 5-4, and still in contention for a good bowl bid amid a packed conference middle class, Ron Zook's team tanked. Three straight losses included one to Western Michigan (the same team who ruined Iowa's bowl hopes last year) and a 27-10 defeat to in-state rival Northwestern in the finale. Zook will ultimately be measured by the recruits he's brought in, who are just now starting to become the cornerstone of the program, but either way, '08 goes in the books as a disappointment.

Basketball brought better fortunes. With Mike Davis relentlessly hitting the boards, Bruce Weber's team nailed Missouri back in December, a clear signal that this was a program back on the upswing. The Illini opened the conference schedule by winning at Purdue in overtime and commenced to stay in the running for the league championship all year, before a home loss to Michigan State in early March ended their hopes. A first-round NCAA loss to Western Kentucky was a disappointing finish, but it should not overshadow the success the season was. Weber did a fine coaching job, the best in the Big Ten this year.

Northwestern
It was a good year for a school not renowned for its athletic prowess. Pat Fitzgerald's football team faced a key crossroads year, as they continued to try and rebuild in the aftermath of Randy Walker's death. The crossed the threshold in splendid fashion, racking up nine wins, including victories in Iowa City, Minneapolis and Ann Arbor. Then they gave highly touted Missouri a noble run for their money in the Alamo Bowl before losing 30-23.

The basketball team made it to the NIT behind Kevin Coble and Craig Moore. They beat Florida State early on, and mixed in a big road win at Michigan State (albeit a Raymar Morgnan-less Spartan squad). After an 0-4 conference start, they rallied to win eight of their last fourteen regular season games before bowing out in the conference tournament. One only wonders what might have happened if they had gotten more out of sophomore Michael Thompson.

Season Recaps: Wisconsin & ND football

Today starts our season recaps for each school, looking at both football and basketball. This post will look at Wisconsin, along with touching on Notre Dame football.

I grew up in Wisconsin, and I was thinking the other day that if, in the early 1980s, someone would have told me that not only would UW produce a bowl-bound football team and an NCAA Tournament basketball team, but that such a season would actually be viewed as kind of a bummer, I would not have believed it. But that's the progress that this program has made over the past two decades, that such is the case. The football team opened with high hopes, seen as a legitimate contender for the BCS bowl game and a Big Ten crown. Heartbreaking defeats to Michigan and Ohio State started the conference season, and were followed by blowouts at the hands of Penn State and Iowa. Then the Badgers should have lost their final home to Cal-Poly, but three missed extra points saved them and they won in overtime. A humilating loss to Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl concluded a season that was rightly seen as a disappointment. I don't know if Bret Bielama can really be called "on the hot seat" right now, but his chair is getting a little warm. The program has declined each year under his stewardship and a continuation of that trend would mean no bowl game in 2010. Bielama doesn't need to win big, but he needs to reverse the trend immediately.

The basketball team was kind of ho-hum. With the loss of Michael Flowers and Brian Butch, a reprise of their 2008 Big Ten championship wasn't going to happen. UW didn't really have any bad losses, nor did they have any dazzling wins. Beating Florida State in the NCAA Tournament put a nice gloss on what was mostly a re-tooling year for Bo Ryan.

One year ago, Wisconsin was the best program in the Big Ten, producing a conference champ in hoops and a New Year's Day bowl in football. They had a decent season this time around, but it was a definite drop-off.

                              *****************

On the surface, Notre Dame's 6-6 year and victory in the Hawaii Bowl doesn't seem so bad, considering they were 3-9 the year before. But the way the regular season ended left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. A humiliating home loss to Syracuse put Charlie Weis' job in serious jeopardy and being rendered offensively inept at Southern Cal in the finale didn't help. I think Notre Dame made the right move to bring Weis back for a fifth year. He has been to two major bowl games at South Bend and further improvement jumps the team back into the eight-win range, and probable New Year's invitations. But as one watches the decline of the Irish since he took over, it's hard to get the sense he's going to do it. Again, it was right to bring him back, because there was no point in the school repeating its mistake with Ty Willingham and pulling the trigger too soon. But I'm not betting on Weis being back for Year Six.

Draft Prospects

The Big Ten was in the spotlight last year at the NFL draft. Michigan's Jake Long went #1 and Ohio State's Vernone Ghoulston wasn't far behind. It looks like a little quieter this time around. No Big Ten player is in contention to be the top choice and it looks like a longshot getting anyone in the top five.

Aaron Maybin, the talented, albeit a little undisciplined, defensive end from Penn State, joins OSU corner Malcolm Jenkins as the top-rated prospects. Both have a good shot to go in the Top 10, although in neither case would it be a surprise if they fell further.

One place it's going to be more active for this year's draft is Columbus. Ohio State only had one more player picked last season, after Ghoulston. That won't be a problem this time around. After Jenkins, Chris Wells and James Laurinatius will be waiting as likely first-rounders. The fate of Wells is particularly interesting. His explosive speed and size could make him the top player to come out of the entire draft, especially given the weakness of this year's crop. But he's been injury prone in college and one wonders how much that will hurt him (no pun intended) at the draft. If a risk-taking GM who needs a running back is making the decisions high up on the board, Wells could be the pick that goes surprisingly quickly. If more conservative types make the decisions, he could fall.

Wells' position is analogous to that faced by defecting Soviet naval captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) in the movie The Hunt For Red October. In discussing his chances, Ramius says "We meet the right sort, this can work. But we meet some,..buckeroo?" Ramius' words might as well be those of Chris Wells' agent. Personally, I think it unlikely that Wells will stay healthy enough to be a force at the next level.

On that Hollywood note, maybe I'd better just watch the end of the Cubs-Brewers and go to bed. Everyone have a happy Easter tomorrow!

One Game Shy

It didn't end the way the Michigan State partisans that jammed into Ford Field were hoping, but it was a noble run nonetheless. Very few in the country (including me) thought MSU would survive Saturday's semi-final game with UConn. But survive they did, before it finally came crashing down around a ferocious North Carolina squad that looked like the team everyone expected back in November, as they rolled to an 89-72 win in the NCAA final.

On Saturday, we got a look at just how good Michigan State might have been all year long if Raymar Morgan had stayed healthy. The forward nailed 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds in leading his team to an 82-73 upset of UConn. This was a battle between two teams renowned for their board work, and it ended basically even (41-40 UConn) on the glass. MSU was a little better from three-point land, while the Huskies did more at the line. In a tightly fought game, the Spartans forced five more turnovers than their opponents did (16-11). Kalin Lucas ran the show and led all scorers with 21 points.

Turnovers were a factor again on Monday night, but this time not in a way that worked for the Big Ten team. North Carolina forced 21 miscues. Perhaps more amazingly, they only committed 7, in spite of the high-octane pace. More than any other, this told the story. Michigan State outrebounded the Tar Heels and were at least in the ballpark when it came to shooting from the floor and behind the arc. But that sort of turnover differential simply can't be overcome against anyone.

The victory was the last in a devastating tournament run for Carolina. They won all their games by double-digits and covered the spread all six times, even though Vegas tends to jack the numbers pretty high for popular teams like this. Ty Lawson scored 43 points and dished out 15 assists in the two games combined (an 83-69 win over Villanova on Saturday being the other). Tyler Hansborough combined for 36 points and 18 rebounds. Wayne Ellington was good for 39 points. With a Big Three like that leading the way both Saturday and Monday, UNC was a worthy champion. They got some breaks along the way in not having to face any #1 seeds. But they did have to beat a chalk bracket to win their regional (#4 Gonzaga and #2 Oklahoma) and playing a two-seed in MSU on their home floor isn't exactly a stroke of good luck. But nothing slowed them down.

Another season is in the books. Here at Big Ten Country, we'll still be open for business up through the NFL draft. In the coming 2 1/2 weeks, we'll wind down with a look back at each school's season in both football & basketball and see how the past year treated them. And there will be some draft previews mixed in, as the fate of the Big Ten's best is looked at.

So congrats to the Heels and also congratulations to Michigan State, and we'll see you back here the next couple weeks as we get ready for summer vacation.

Showdown In Motown

With a de facto homecourt advantage going for it at Detroit's Ford Field, Michigan State looks to become the first Big Ten team to win the national championship since they themselves got it done in Indianapolis in 2000. A conference team outside East Lansing hasn't cut down the nets since Michigan won it in 1989. With that track record, the Spartans, like all Big Ten teams, have had their share of doubters all season long about their worthiness on the national stage. Regardless of what happens over the course of these next three days, those doubts should have been put to bed by the wins over Kansas and Louisville.

Those wins also capped a season of vindication for the Big Ten, that went all the way back to December and getting signature wins like Minnesota over Louisville, Michigan over both UCLA & Duke, and Illinois hammering Missouri. After a March run in which the league met or exceeded expectations (based on seeding) in every single round, and produced the champion of the NIT, no one should question the ability of any conference team to compete at the highest level.

But can Michigan State beat UConn? That's a much tougher call. Favoring Michigan State is that UConn is not appreciably better than Louisville (while the Huskies beat the Cards decisively in the regular season, they also finished behind them in the Big East standings and there has to be a reason for that). The Spartans will have the aforementioned homecourt edge. And before anyone brings up North Carolina's December hammering of MSU in this very venue, let them be reminded that Goran Suton was out that game.

On the flip side though, we have to consider that from a matchup standpoint, beating Louisville was much different than beating UConn. The Cards were a perfect matchup for Tom Izzo's team, in that once the Spartans controlled the tempo, they could get Louisville out of their element. On Saturday, UConn will be far more suited to banging in the half-court offense, with Hasheem Thabeet's force in the low post, along with Jeff Adrien who can score inside and out. A.J. Price and Kemba Walker are an adroit duo at guard and capable of disrupting an opposing offense. It has to be a sobering thought to Tom Izzo that UConn lost the turnover battle 17-6 in the regional final against Missouri and still won the game.

From a question of style and strategy, I don't see a way out for Michigan State. What they do have going for them is that UConn showed inconsistency at a lot of points in the season. The fact they did lose twice to Pitt, a team that plays very physical in the half-court game, suggests that while the Huskies have the capability to play such a style, they don't always do so. Coaching should pretty well be a wash. Both Izzo and Jim Calhoun will have their teams well-prepared and both have excelled on this stage.

In the late game, Villanova meets North Carolina, and it's a game with a similar outlook. In this case, we can expect a high-octane game. The Tar Heels, a 7-point favorite, can be best beaten in the half-court game, thanks to a tendency to get sloppy with the ball and play questionable interior defense. But the 'Cats are not the team who can exploit that. They were able to beat Pittsburgh by getting them into a faster style of play, and that won't work here.

Thus, we have two games which have fundamentally similar storylines. UConn and North Carolina are the best teams playing, and they have opponents who realistcally won't get them out of their standard gameplan. But both teams have shown tendencies to disappear and be inconsistent this year. And in the case of Michigan State, the gap between them and UConn is not nearly as large as that Villanova faces against UNC.

My heart's with the underdogs in both these games, but my head is with the favorites. At the start of the tournament, I had Michigan State reaching the final game, but I underestimated how good UConn could still be without Jerome Dyson. I look for the Huskies to meet the Heels and for Calhoun to cut down the nets a third time on Monday night.

I'll be back on Tuesday to recap the Final Four. Good luck to Michigan State!

One Down; One To Go

Penn State brought home the NIT championship last night in Madison Square Garden, the second straight year the Big Ten has won this event, and one that hopefully is the prelude to the conference bringing home the biggest prize in a few days.

The Lions beat Notre Dame in Tuesday's semis and Baylor in last night's title game, despite being being decisively outscored from three-point range in both games. Penn State held modest, but key edges in rebounding and scoring from the line, both indicators of aggressiveness. And the defense against Notre Dame surely made Joe Paterno proud as he watched from the stands. The Bears shot only 33 percent from the floor.

Jamelle Cornley was named Outstanding Player and gave PSU consistent effort in both scoring and rebounding on both nights. He had 33 points and 15 rebounds in the two wins, and they were fairly equally distributed over both games. Similarly, Talor Battle had 29 and 13 respectively. And Andrew Jones was huge in the semis, when he hauled down 15 boards against the Irish.

Last year, it was Ohio State winning the NIT title and then boucing right back into the NCAAs the following year. Ed DeChellis hopes his team can follow the same path next year. But in the meantime, Penn State fans have plenty of reason to love New York.

All-Conference Team

As Penn State gets set to go for the NIT title tomorrow night in New York and Michigan State aims at the biggest prize of all this weekend, it's time to clean up a big loose end. In the rush of the postseason tournament coverage, Big Ten Country hasn't gotten around to naming its All-Conference team. Here's the picks for the 2009 season:

Guards: Kalin Lucas (Michigan State), Talor Battle (Penn State) & E'Twaun Moore (Purdue). This is a guard-oriented league, so I set up the all-conference team with three of them. Lucas was a model of consistency, hitting double-digits 17 times in 18 league games (regular season only) and ran the show for the conference champs. Battle had more off-days than Lucas did, but not by much and he made up for it with the ability to explode and also to hit the glass well for a backcourt player. Moore was one who played his best basketball down the stretch, coming out strong each game from February 11 forward.

Notably missing from the list is Manny Harris at Michigan and Jake Kelly from Iowa. Harris is surely the Big Ten's most enigmatic player. When we was on, no one in the conference was better. But there were way too many nights when he was persona non-grata. He was the polar opposite of in-state rival Lucas, and I'll use a self-serving way of illustrating it. At the end of each run of games (weekend or midweek), I'd name my Player of the Sequence. Lucas never won it, and rarely was high on my list. Harris won it three times. But on the flip side, I never remember going through box scores and thinking that such-and-such a team really shut down Lucas. There were several times I saw Harris MIA.

In the case of Jake Kelly, he just took a little too long to get going. From mid-February on, he was not only all-conference, he was the best player in the league. Kudos for a strong finish, but the all-conference team has to be about the entire body of work in Big Ten play.

Frontcourt: Evan Turner (Ohio State) & Jamelle Cornley (Penn State)
Turner was a no-brainer pick. He posted six double-doubles in Big Ten games and carried Ohio State into the tournament. Cornley was a tougher call. He had the Manny Harris Syndrome, with an uncomfortably large number of games where he pulled a disappearing act. But there wasn't as much competition for these spots as there were in the backcourt. Goran Suton had a good year for Michigan State, but lacked Cornley's explosiveness. Mike Anderson hit the boards hard at Illinois, but needs more offensive punch. JaJuan Johnson was another one who showed flashes of genuine stardom, but never got on the kind of sustained run you need to be 1st-team All-Conference. So Cornley held off the field and made Penn State the only team with two players named.

MVP: I go with Evan Turner. He gets the nod over Lucas, because Turner had less support around him and was singlehandedly responsible for getting the Buckeyes into the NCAA. And I go his way over Battle, because he was more consistent. Turner was also versatile, and routinely dished out 4-5 assists a game from his forward spot.

Coach Of The Year: A surprise call, but I like Bruce Weber. I didn't think Illinois had great talent, but they stayed in contention for the Big Ten championship all season. Honorable mention to Tom Izzo, who deserves credit for making sure a talented team met expectations, in spite of hitting adversity with the early-season injury to Suton and the season-long illness involving Raymar Morgan. Ed DeChellis at Penn State has gotten a lot of favorable ink for the award. I give the PSU coach a major nod for getting talent in there at a place where recruiting hoops stars hasn't been easy. But he did have two elite players in his starting five and came up short of the NCAA. He still gets his due for rebuilding the program, but that is more of a multi-season acknowledgement than anything that happened this year. Weber is the complete package--he overachieved and stayed in the championship hunt all season long.

Good luck to Penn State against Baylor on Thursday night! We'll be back here Friday to recap the NIT and of course look ahead to the Showdown In Motown on Saturday.