2011 NCAA Tournament: Big Ten recap
by Loretta8 on Mar 21, 2011 10:54 AM CDT
in Northwestern Wildcats Basketball
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PrintFor the 73rd consecutive year, our beloved Northwestern Wildcats were snubbed from the NCAA tournament. What a traveshamockery; you have to wonder if there's an anti-NU agenda among members of the selection committee.
But while NU may have come up short, seven of our Big Ten brethren were fortunate enough to get an invite, so let's take a look at how they represented the conference.
Friday: Beat #8 UNLV 73-62
Sunday: Lost to #1 Kansas 73-59
There have been all sorts of rumors flying around about Bruce Weber's job being in danger (he even got one of the dreaded Doug Gottlieb hot seat videos on ESPN.com), but he should be ok after this weekend. Many people (myself included) thought they were going down to UNLV, but instead the Illini took the Rebels behind the woodshed; the 11 point margin doesn't come close to indicating how big a beatdown this game was. And against Kansas, Illinois acquitted themselves pretty well, hanging around for most of the game before fading in the final few minutes. Certainly not the season Illini fans were hoping for, but at least they had a decent NCAA tournament.
Next year will be very interesting for Illinois, as they lose a lot in McCamey, Davis and Tisdale, yet still have a lot of talent on the roster and bring in their third straight highly touted recruiting class. It could be a case of addition by subtraction (much the way Michigan improved despite losing DeShawn Sims and Manny Harris), or it could mean the end of Bruce Weber's tenure.
Friday: Beat #9 Tennessee, 75-45
Sunday: Lost to #1 Duke, 73-71
Of all the teams in the nation no longer in some sort of tournament, Michigan should be the happiest about how their season went. Picked by many to finish last in the Big Ten, and left for dead after a horrible 1-6 start to conference play, the Wolverines stormed back to finish 4th in the Big Ten, made the NCAA tournament, annihilated the trainwreck that is Tennessee basketball (and their athletic director Mike Hamilton has to be one of the dumbest humans on the planet, first he hires Lane Kiffin, and then he goes on the radio and says Bruce Pearl's job is in jeopardy two days before an NCAA tournament game, way to create a huge distraction Mike), and gave Duke all they wanted in round 2, as a Darius Morris floater rimmed out in the final seconds. What a coaching job by John Beilein.
With everyone set to return next year, the Wolverines could be a dark horse Big Ten title contender, but they'll need to avoid a repeat of 2009-10, when they were coming off a second round NCAA loss, returned pretty much everyone, and were one of the nation's most underachieving teams, finishing 15-17 and eighth in the Big Ten.
Thursday: Lost to #7 UCLA, 78-76
Sparty was a popular pick to make another deep NCAA run, based on Izzo's incredible March track record and a favorable draw, but they cemented their status as the most underachieving team in the nation with a first round loss. They certainly didn't quit, nearly erasing a 23 point second half deficit, but that comeback was mostly due to UCLA's inability to make free throws, and the season came to an end on a Kalin Lucas travel. Brutal.
With Lucas and Durrell Summers graduating, Izzo will have some big holes to fill next year. A talented recruiting class will help, but it's hard to see Michigan State regaining their status as a Big Ten title contender.
Friday: Beat #16 Texas-San Antonio, 75-46
Sunday: Beat #8 George Mason, 98-66
After watching Ohio State this weekend, it's amazing to think they nearly lost twice to short-handed Northwestern squads, because the Buckeyes are terrifyingly good. They treated poor George Mason like George Mason had picked a fight with them in a taco joint:
Since everyone knows that Ohio State is really good at basketball, let's break down this video instead, because I've watched this fight (it starts at about 0:40) 10 times and seen something new every time.
- Normally you'd feel bad for the kid who got destroyed, especially since his two friends hang him out to dry and make him go one on two to start, but the combination of his sideways hat and #69 jersey means I feel zero sympathy for him. I've never seen a human being wearing a custom-made #69 jersey, but I imagine they all look just like this kid.
- It kills me how casually the two guys at the table stand up to avoid the fight, I'd be in a much bigger hurry to get out of the way. The dude in the red hat even appears to be laughing. Quite a contrast from the girls at the front who take off running at the first sign of trouble.
- #69's two friends are quite the pair. I didn't notice this the first few times I watched it, but the kid in the black shirt is carrying some sort of animal (I cant tell if it's a dog or a cat) and drops it when the fight starts. At least he sticks around the whole time to help out his friend though, the shirtless guy (who takes off his shirt outside in preparation for the fight, god knows why) makes a halfhearted effort to intervene, pointlessly knocks over a table while #69 is getting whaled on, then gets run out of the store and leaves his friend on the ground.
Ok, I'll stop now, not sure why I'm so entertained by that video.
Thursday: Lost to #7 Temple, 66-64
A valiant effort from Penn State, who appeared headed to overtime after a Talor Battle NBA-range bomb with 14 seconds left, but Juan Fernandez hit a contested leaner to win it for the Owls. As a side note, has anyone ever looked less like a Juan Fernandez than Juan Fernandez? It's very odd.
A disappointing way for the season to end, but Penn State and Ed DeChellis deserve a lot of credit for rebounding from the 2010 last place debacle and making a late charge to reach the NCAAs. Next year though, with nearly the entire team graduating, DeChellis will be fortunate to keep the Nits out of last place.
Friday: Beat St. Peter's, 65-43
Sunday: Lost to Virginia Commonwealth, 94-76
Purdue losing to a red-hot Virginia Commonwealth team wasn't all that surprising, but the way they lost certainly was. The generally terrifying Boilermaker defense, which dominated people all season long, got completely and utterly dismantled, allowing 94 points in just 66 possession. That's Northwestern vs SIU-Edwardsville levels of destruction. VCU had just 4 turnovers the entire game, and made a ridiculous 29 of 44 2-point field goals; the second half was basically a 20 minute VCU lay-up line. JaJuan Johnson (who won Defensive Player of the Year in the Big Ten, to the dismay of talent evaluators) was noticeably absent on that end of the floor, getting owned by guys named Jamie Skeen and Juvonte Reddic. The suspended Kelsey Barlow may have helped out a little, but his presence wouldn't have made up an 18 point difference.
Meanwhile, FBC's favorite son Shaka Smart is off to the Sweet 16, and has subsequently made himself too big for the Northwestern job; another couple of wins and he'll enter Brad Stevens territory. Unless NU could somehow find a really rich booster to offer him a lot more money than they currently pay Bill Carmody, Smart will certainly find far better job offers available to him this off-season.
Thursday: Beat #13 Belmont, 72-58
Saturday: Beat #5 Kansas State, 70-65
Very quietly, the Badgers had a strong weekend, taking out of one of the toughest #13 seeds of all time in Belmont and overcoming Jacob Pullen's 38 points to beat Kansas State. I was quite impressed that they beat KSU despite Jordan Taylor having an uncharacteristic 2 for 16 from the field performance. Next up is a date in the Sweet 16 with Butler: first team to 55 wins.
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Nice Rundown...
After two rounds, I’m left with the thought that the B1G slightly underperformed. However, we’re lucky that this happened at the sametime as the Big East imploded this weekend.
OSU and Wisky both played true to form — and it seemed like the latter had a much tougher slate of opponents. I’m not surprised that Illinois lost to Kansas, as that was a virtual road game, but given their body of work, they should’ve not been 9th seeded and not have to face a #1 seed until 16s.
I’m disappointed in Purdue. Yeah, they ran up against a f*cksaw of VCU, but where was the bruising, punishing B1G defense we’ve all learned to accept? Was Barlow that much of a difference?
Agreed, Michigan should feel great about where it ended up — pushing the defending champs to the brink. Coach B has a nice formula up there, and they should be set for awhile. As much as Jordan Morgan, Hardaway Jr and Darius Morris are real difference makers, they got a bunch of good glue guys -Novak, Douglass, Smotrycz. And they’ve got a system that makes them tourney tough.
Penn State was a minor disappointment in that I thought they had Temple that game. Hard to complain though since they lost Brooks — but I really liked the storyline that had going.
BCS conference wise:
I think the ACC saved face (FSU’s stomp of ND was big with perennials Duke/UNC advancing)
B1G underperformed (only 2 advancing while getting 7 bids)
BE really underperformed (only 3 advancing while getting 11 bids, losing a #1 and #2 seeds)
SEC saved face/underperformed (UK and FLA as big seeds advanced, but Vandy upset
Big12 slight disappointment – Kansas defends seed, but Texas flops.
Pac10 slight overperform – AZ gets through, and Wash and UCLA played hard.
MidMajors – Big winners with Butler, VCU, and Richmond upsetting and BYU, SDSU holding serve impressively.
www.massivecreativity.com
I suppose I agree that the B1G underperformed....
…but it’s hardly open and shut. I mean, before Illinois getting beat by a much better Kansas team (and Illinois played with grit, so no shame in that loss…though you’re right that they should have been seeded higher), all of the Big Ten’s losses had been by just 2 points — MSU (to UCLA), Penn State (to Temple), and Michigan (to Duke).
The Big Ten teams showed up and played (until Purdue fell asleep at the wheel against VCU), and in some of those cases should have arguably won (Penn State would have beaten Temple with a healthy Brooks; Michigan had a chance to tie/take the lead against Duke at the end but didn’t run that effective of a play).
I’d say the Big East is a HUGE disappointment — they practically were guaranteed 2 Sweet 16 teams with the way the bracket set up (see 2nd round Big East only matchups), but to ONLY get 2 teams? Just embarassing.
Yeah...
In hindsight, I’m being a bit harsh on the B1G. But maybe that Purdue loss left an uber-bad taste in my mouth. Sure, they were the only real blow-out, but Purdue was one of the conference’s big 3. I agree with kenpom that the B1G was the best conference, but I don’t think our tourney performance backs that statement up 100%.
Yep — the BE was the disappointment. And my brackets are paying dearly for buying the hype.
www.massivecreativity.com
Purdue really did suck..;..
In November, I made a steak dinner bet with a friend who is a huge Big East fan — whatever conference (Big Ten for me, Big East for him) gets more teams into the Sweet 16 gets a steak dinner from the loser.
This bet looked really foolish when the regular season ended….and worse when the brackets were revealed (Illinois and Michigan needing to upset #1 seeds to go to the Sweet 16?). Then, by Sunday morning, it was looking REALLY good….only to have Purdue wreck it. (Michigan would have been a bonus, too).
Still, the Big East has been (for the past 4 years or so, anyways) built on absurd hype — this year, over 40% of the conference wins by the 11 teams in the tourney came against the bottom 5 teams in the conference. The Big Ten was just a tougher conference top-to-bottom, and I will not budge from that….
(Although I will concede, readily, that the ACC is pretty damn good…)
I should add...
…that with the 2 Big Ten – 2 Big East tie, the bet was a push…..
SDSU?
Holding serve impressively? I’ll have to disagree there – taking 2OT to oust temple (with a healthy brooks for PSU, they might have made the sweet 16). Though if they beat UConn, I’ll retract that. Jimmer’s made me a believer in BYU, however, and VCU is on fire. I’m not sure Duke/Ohio St./Kansas would beat them with the way they were playing this past weekend. Yay mid majors!
Big 12, with only Kansas remaining, should be below the B1G in terms of performance, although a 5 seconds call might have changed that… Where would that league be without Kansas?
ACC continues to justify themselves as the best tournament conference. Really didn’t think they were that great of a conference this year, but FSU really impressed. They are like the SEC is in football – even in a down year they seem to have a few teams contending for a national title. But we are on a 4 game win streak against them. Awesome.
Big East seems to be to basketball what the Big Ten is to football. A lot of teams look good in the regular season, but seem deficient in postseason success. By chalk they were supposed to have 5 teams in the sweet 16? If the fighting Kembas of Connecticut go all the way, they might redeem their conference, but that’s about the only way.
B1G was seeded to have 3 sweet 16 teams, but only 1 in the elite 8, if wisky beats butler and OSU holds serve to the final 4, I think it’s hard to say that the conference underperformed.
They looked like a bunch of chimps fighting
(minus the ripping-off-limbs-and-head part, of course).
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