Big Ten Country

Conference Race Overview

Ohio State has secured the Big Ten crown, but there are other conference races still in doubt as we wrap up the regular season this week. The race for league hardware is too often ignored, as commentators obsess over what sort of seeds teams will get in the tournament--seeds that are made irrelevant quickly, once the first upset happens.

You play the game to win championships. While the ultimate one in Atlanta is still in play for everyone, the teams that fail to win their leagues put all their eggs in the March basket in terms of getting any jewelry. Here's a quick snapshot of how things stand in the BCS conferences--

ACC
Commonwealth rivals Virginia Tech & Virginia have each worked their way into a tie with North Carolina at 10-4. Boston College is a half-game back at 10-5, but it seems unlikely that none of the three leaders would win out. The Hokies & Cavs tip it off tomorrow in the key game. North Carolina has its traditional season-ender with Duke at home, so the safe bet is for the Heels to share the title with tomorrow's winner.

Big East
Georgetown and Pitt are tied at 12-3. Georgetown closes at home against UConn, while the Panthers have a very tough road game at Marquette on Saturday night. If both stumbled, Louisville is waiting in the wings at 11-4, and only a home game with Seton Hall in the way of conference win #12.

SEC
Florida has long since put this one to bed, their current three-game losing streak notwithstanding. The Western Division has no one over .500 in league play, and the Gators still lead the East by two games. One has to think the lack of a serious conference challenge has contributed to the team's recent slide.

Big 12
Kansas is sitting on 13-2, but Texas A&M controls its destiny for a piece of the title at 12-2. Texas is also in the mix at 11-3. And the Longhorns host the Aggies tonight, then go to Lawrence on Saturday afternoon. Win out, and there could be a three-way tie. A Texas win tonight would guarantee this conference the best game of the weekend.

Pac-10
UCLA (14-2) has clinched a tie with Washington State (12-4). The Cougars host the Bruins tomorrow, so they can keep their own hopes alive. If the Bruins can't clinch in Pullman, they travel to Washington on Saturday, while WSU would have a home game against USC.

Elsewhere...
Memphis has run away with Conference USA, holding a five-game lead. Gonzaga is up top in the West Coast, while BYU holds a one-game lead over UNLV in the Mountain West.

No Doubt Who The King Is

No doubt is left anymore as to the Big Ten champ. Ohio State's 49-48 win over Wisconsin yesterday ensured they will have the conference title entirely to themselves, as the win moved them two games up on the Badgers. Each team is off in the middle of the week, so there is only one more regular season game left for each.

The win was the latest in what has become Buckeye dominance of Big Ten Country. Thad Matta now has two straight outright conference crowns to his credit. Jim Tressel has won or shared the football title the past two seasons. Two straight academic years have seen the Bucks treat the student body to a championship season in both football and basketball. Take your jabs at them for how they've done against Florida in both sports, but there's no doubt as to who the king of our little hill is.

Outside observers were no doubt cringing at yesterday's game. The final score is not that much different then the results of the other big game Ohio State played this year. I mean the football team. The 42-39 final of the Michigan game is alarmingly similar to yesterday's basketball brawl. Whether it's great defense or bad offense, we will find out in a couple weeks when it's time to go national. For now though, the only thing Matta  and his players need to do is bask in the congratulations that they've earned from all of us.

Whether a three-peat is in the cards next year in Columbus depends in large part on whether Greg Oden will be back. Fans chanted "one more year" in the aftermath of the big win.

Wisconsin took the loss hard. But Michael Hunt of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes that it's more important to take the game's lessons to heart.

Indiana & Michigan State staged a prime-time battle on Saturday night, and the Spartans turned a ten-point halftime deficit into an eight-point win. MSU is looking very good for a tourney bid now. Drew Neitzel played sick in the victory, and will do so again against Michigan on Tuesday.

The Wolverines came up with a road win they had to have at Minnesota. They return home for the final week, but the competition ratchets up considerably. The Spartans on Tuesday, then Ohio State in the finale. At 7-7 in the conference there's no room for error. They'll need Crisler Arena to be home sweet home, writes Mark Snyder of The Detroit Free Press.

Illinois continues their surge, winning at Penn State. The Illini are 9-6 and now in sole possession of third place (though three other teams are tied with them in the loss column at 8-6). Bruce Weber's team got it's 21st win and join MSU and Indiana as teams feeling good about their at-large prospects for the NCAA. Illinois could have packed it in after midseason struggles and the accident involving Jamar Smith & Bryan Carlwell. But they didn't. And for that, Herb Gould of The Chicago Sun-Times writes, they deserve a 21-won salute.

Purdue also kept its NCAA push alive, joining Illinois and Michigan as teams that won road games against the conference bottom-feeders. The Boilers beat Northwestern, and are tied with the Wolverines at 7-7. Matt Painter has to like the looks of the schedule, with home games against Minnesota and Northwestern on the docket. On Saturday they put the first one down, writes Jeff Washburn at Boiler Station. Now there's just two more to go.

Hard Blow To Wisconsin

Wisconsin's rise to the top of the AP poll didn't last long. The Badgers faltered at Michigan State, in the face of a 28-point performance by Drew Neitzel. The game all but eliminates any hope UW has of an outright conference title---even if they win at Columbus on Sunday. As for the Spartans, it was their second straight key win and the kind of clutch W they need to impress the selection committee. Michael Rosenberg of The Detroit Free Press says luck had nothing to do with this one--Michigan State was just the better team.

Ohio State got another tough game from Penn State, and even trailed the Nittany Lions at halftime. But in the end, the Buckeyes survived as they always seem to find a way to do. Greg Oden delivered fourteen boards, Mike Conley dished ten assists and Jamar Butler's 18 points led them into sole possession of first place in front of their home crowd. The crowd will be on hand again on Sunday (4 EST) and a win over Wisconsin will lock up their second straight conference championship.

Purdue was another team whose moment in the sun didn't last long. After blasting Indiana last week and getting a bye on the weekend, the Boilermakers were pounded in Iowa City. David Teague and Carl Landry only scored a combined 22 points. Matt Painter takes his team to Northwestern on Saturday. The Wildcats have given Ohio State and Wisconsin tough games in Evanston. Back on January 25, I opined that they would deliver a bad blow to someone's NCAA push. I'll put my chips on an upset here this weekend.

Indiana stopped the bleeding with a win over Minnesota. At 8-5 in the conference, the Hoosiers needed the win to stop their slump before they go to East Lansing on Saturday night for ESPN's national game of the week (9 EST). And though Chief Illiniwek did his last dance on Wednesday, his beloved Illini improved their chances of dancing in March when they notched their 20th overall win against Michigan.

1 vs. 2 Coming Up Again

Just as it was during football season, the Big Ten holds the top two spots in the rankings as we head toward a showdown in Columbus. With Florida's loss in Vanderbilt, Wisconsin and Ohio Stare are 1-2 in the country. On Sunday they will meet up in their long-awaited showdown that will give the winner a clear run to the conference title and a #1 seed. Both teams had easy games this weekend. Wisconsin beat Penn State going away. Thad Matta made his first lineup change in 19 games in response to his team's recent narrow escapes. The alterations paid off, as Ohio State was not challenged in Minnesota.

There is a split poll, with the AP ranking Wisconsin #1 and Ohio State holding the top spot in the ESPN coaches poll. Of course it's all hair-splitting anyway, since they'll settle it on the court and the loser will still have a shot at a #1 seed in the tournament. But before we focus in on Sunday's game, the Badgers will have to be careful about what lies around the corner. Bo Ryan brings his team to East Lansing to face Michigan State on Tuesday (7 EST, ESPN). The Spartans hammered Iowa and pulled up to 6-6 in the conference, squarely in the mix of the five-team joust for bids going underneath the powers-that-be.

Michigan made that joust all the more heated when they beat Indiana in a grind-it-out 58-55 win that Bo Schembecler would have loved. A loss would have all but finished the Wolverines, and all but secured a bid for the Hoosiers. Now, Tommy Amaker still has breathing room, as he heads into titanic battle with Illinois (7-6) on Wednesday. As for IU, it's a stretch to say they are on the bubble, but at 7-5 in the league, they do run the risk of making it interesting if they don't stop the bleeding at home against Minnesota. The Hoosiers have lost three of their last four, although it's more the schedule that turned on them as opposed to a real slump in performance. The losses were on the road to Iowa, Purdue and Michigan. None of them individually are noteworthy, but taken in succession they've turned into a good-sized bump in the road.

The Bottom Pushes The Top

The bottom of the Big Ten gave the powers a stiff run this past week. Wisconsin went to Minnesota, and the Gophers hung in with the Badgers before running out of gas. Alando Tucker got 29 points to carry UW through and tie the school record for wins. We can look for Wisconsin to get its record-setting 26th triumph in a home game Saturday against Penn State.

And speaking of Penn State...the Lions played their guts out on Wednesday night. Trailing Ohio State 40-19 at half, they rallied and got a good look at a last-second three-pointer that could have won it. But the Buckeyes held on. The Nittany Lions' cardiac comeback has been the bright spot in a dreary conference campaign. This was a year that held promise for Penn State. The team sports two quality inside players in Geary Claxton and Jamelle Cornley. Both go to the glass well and each is a threat to score. But Big Ten play has been a major disappointment. Sad to say, it looks like this loss might well be the high point of the season.

Give credit to Ohio State too though. While the Buckeyes played far from their standards in this game, they manage to keep surviving these potential trap games. Michigan State, Purdue, and now Penn State. Even losing one of them would have been an enormous boost to Wisconsin in the championship race, but the youthful Buckeyes keep avoiding upsets that young teams often aren't able to avoid. They face another trap test Saturday when they go to Minneapolis.

But in looking back on the midweek games, no one deserves more credit then Matt Painter and Purdue. The Boilermakers took revenge against Indiana for an earlier thumping, and worked their record back to 6-6 in the Big Ten. Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star writes that the Boilermakers are now in the NCAA Tournament discussion. Their 1-2 punch of David Teague and Carl Landry devastated their rivals for a combined 54 points. Painter gets the weekend off and extra time to get ready for a road trip to Iowa next week that could be the big road win his team badly needs.

Injustice At Illinois

It hasn't been the greatest week in the Illinois athletic program, with two completely different crises popping up. The first a potential tragedy, the second an injustice. In the first, two basketball players were injured in a car accident. One of them, Brian Carlwell was hurt seriously. It looks like he's on the way to recovery and the thoughts and prayers of Big Ten Country go out to the 6'11' freshman. Herb Gould of The Chicago Sun Times has more on the accident.

On the football side, the Illini are fending off rumor and innuendo regarding alleged recruiting violations by Ron Zook. The coach landed a top-flight recruiting class and aced out Notre Dame for a key player at the wire. The result is that Zook is being victimized by unsubstantiated rumors that he cheated to get the talent. In a column on ESPN.com by Gene Wojciechowski, the writer quotes deposed Michigan State coach John L. Smith as essentially saying the only way a coach of a low-rung program could get those players was to cheat.

In short, no actual evidence of Illinois improprieties exists, but somehow it's okay to throw wild rumors out there? Sounds like the work of sour grapes to me. And if it's not, then an obligation exists on the part of those making the accusations to bring forth real evidence of their claims. Since none has been brought forth, I believe the rest of us have the obligation to believe Zook.

This sort of thing happened to Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin as well. In his autobiography Don't Flinch, the coach recalls his program constantly being reported to the NCAA for alleged violations never amounting to anything. Ironically it was Illinois doing most of the dirty work. The reasons aren't hard to figure out. Wisconsin's rise meant someone else had to fall. And the same applies to Illinois. There's a lot of folks in Big Ten cities that stand to be threatened if Zook gets his program off the mat. The burden of proof is on them.

The Time For Moral Victories Has Passed

There's no way anyone can fault the effort that Iowa and Purdue gave on Saturday. Both were on the road against the league heavyweights, in Madison & Columbus respectively. Both threw a serious scare into the home favorites. And both came up a little short. Normally you could file those in the "quality loss" section for building a tournament resume. But the Hawkeyes and Boilermakers are rapidly passing the point where the quality loss can be of much good. They need a big win.

Iowa in particular has no more room in the house for moral victories. They hung with Wisconsin for about three-quarters of the game, until the Badgers slowly and methodically took control on their way to a 12-point win. Steve Alford's team is at 14-11. If they are to have any chance at an at-large bid you have to assume they will need to win five of their last six. Going 4-2 might do it if they made the final game of the conference tournament, but that's pushing it.

Purdue is looking to make the NCAA Tounament for the first time since 2003, and they aren't in quite as desperate a shape. But Matt Painter needs to get a big win fast. Indiana comes to Mackey on Wednesday. Boilermaker fans will have to show up ready to rally their team as though their life depends on it. As though they need a reason to get juiced for the Hoosiers. Jeff Washburn at Boiler Station examines what Purdue needs to do to dance next month.

Indiana avoided playing its way back into the mix of bubble teams when it escaped with a home win over Illinois. Terry Hutchens at The Indianapolis Star reports that IU fans returned the favor to Bruce Weber for the cold treatment Kelvin Sampson got in Champaign. This rivalry is getting ugly. And while I hope it doesn't get out of hand, a venomous IU-Illinois rivalry in hoops is great for the Big Ten.

Michigan kept its hopes alive by winning at Minnesota. The Wolverines trailed by nine at the half, and Mark Snyder of The Detroit Free Press writes that Michigan actually played worse defense in the comeback, but managed to get hot enough to overcome it. In particular, Dion Harris who scored 27. But Snyder notes that the poor second half D is a trend in Ann Arbor, and if it's not halted, Saturday's win will only have delayed the inevitable.

Knight's Drive For Record Bid Stalling

In the span of five days in late January, Bob Knight's Texas Tech team knocked off both Kansas & Texas A&M and it looked like the General had an unlikely contender for the Big 12 title. Since then, however the Red Raider season has been coming undone. A heartbreaking double-overtime defeat at Oklahoma State yesterday marked the fifth straight loss for Tech. It's the first time that's happened to Coach Knight since 1972. His 1985 team in Bloomington that failed to make the NCAA Tournament and fell apart down the stretch never lost five in a row. His team last year in Lubbock that finished sub-.500 never lost five in a row. But somehow a team capable of beating Top 10 teams in succession has turned the trick.

The prospects of Knight garnering a record 28th career appearance in the NCAA Tournament are rapidly dimming, though the strong start means they still have a chance to recover. Tech is 15-10 overall and 4-6 in Big 12 play. If they can win four of their final six games they would at least have a shot at using the conference tournament to make a run for an at-large bid. The Red Raiders go to A&M next, so you can realistically pen in another loss there. They also go to Texas which has to be tentatively written off. They have home dates with Colorado and Baylor, bottom feeders in the Big 12 which have to be marked as wins. So the swing games will be a home date with Oklahoma State and the finale at Iowa State, who trail the Red Raiders in the conference standings. If they sweep both of those games, they go to Kansas City at 17-12, and perhaps two wins and a 19-13 record overall could get them a bid. Three wins would probably push them over the top, and four W's would mean they'd won the tournament and the automatic bid.

In the big picture, if you'd told me that Tech would be 15-10 right now with an outside shot at March Madness, it would have been about what I expected. The team is still young, as Knight recently steered away from the reliance on juco players he used to inject quick juice into the program upon his arrival prior to the 2002 season. So overall, the Red Raiders are about where you'd expect, but it's still a little disappointing, given the high hopes that their back-to-back big wins engendered.

Muddle In The Middle

Wisconsin and Ohio State kept things stable at the top, churning out wins over Penn State & Michigan respectively. But the middle turned into an even bigger mess, and we are no closer to sorting out who's going to get on the NCAA bubble then we were on Tuesday morning.

Illinois did what they had to do in beating Northwestern. The Illini owned the paint, with a 40-16 rebounding edge. Warren Carter and Shawn Pruitt combined for 30 points and 23 rebounds. The Illini nudged back over .500 in league play (6-5) and have a critical road date in Bloomington with the third-place Hoosiers who have not played since Saturday.

Iowa kept itself in the running, winning easily at Minnesota. The Gophers aren't that good, but everyone in the Big Ten knows not to dismiss how hard it is to win up there. And it's the third straight W for the Hawks, who are perhaps to blame for the muddle. At 6-4, they are clearly the fourth-best team in league play. But at 14-10 overall they would surely get jumped by someone else for an NCAA bid. They need to keep winning. For most teams a road trip to Madison would be frightening. But Iowa has to see Saturday's visit to the Kohl Center as the chance they need to deliver a big blow in their longshot battle for an at-large bid.

While the Hawkeyes may cause the muddle in the big picture, nothing did more short-term damage to the cause of clarity then what happened in West Lafayette. Purdue relied on a series of unexpected events to put a shocking 62-38 win on Michigan State. Not shocking in that the Boilermakers won, but that they did it so dramatically, keeping every Spartan player in single digits offensively. A loss would have been fatal to Purdue's hopes. The win puts them at 5-5 and squarely in the middle of the race. A visit to Columbus on Saturday gives them the same chance as Iowa--the chance to send a message.

Football Recruiting News

ESPN.com has published a commit list, of the high school football players who've given verbal committments for next season. Unless you're a prep football junkie a lot of the names won't mean anything, but this list does provide a grade for each player based on a 1-100 scale. The grade was put together by Scouts Inc. So while my misgivings about the feasiblity of these grades that I expressed below remains, we can at least say that these were put together by knowledeable football men and they'll be as accurate as any system rating high school seniors playing completely different competition can be.

The commit list requires a subscription to ESPN Insider, so for those of you not subscribed I'll summarize what's there. A ranking of 80 or higher looks to be the elite level. There's only 13 such players on the entire Big Ten list, so it seems safe to guess that these are the difference makers. Michigan got four of them, and Illinois grabbed three. If we take a step further down and look at who had success signing players graded 75 or higher, some patterns emerge. The Wolverines would still have the top class using these admittedly crude analytical parameters. Illinois is still strong, but Penn State grabbed ten guys in the high 70s. Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota all got one elite prospect (80+) and a handful of high 70s. Most surprising is that Ohio State's class is on a level with these three schools, trailing Penn State and way behind Michigan. Michigan State, Northwestern and Purdue were the only ones not to sign at least one eighty-plus prospect (Michigan and Illinois were the only ones to sign multiple).

Illinois' class is the main news here. Mark Schlabach at ESPN.com assesses the charge made against Ron Zook that he can recruit, but not coach. Zook argues that he was not allowed to stay at Florida and coach the players he recruited--the same ones who won the national title. I'm not down on Zook or anything, but I don't buy this argument. He did not inherit a cupboard that was bare in Gainesville. In replacing Steve Spurrier, he assumed command from the man that only Bear Bryant can rival in SEC history. He certainly did not need four years in which to win. Giving him a full four years to win in Champaign is only fair, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking his track record is that of an elite coach who had the carpet ripped out from under him before he won it all down south.