The big ten have 4 of the 8 projected seeds

The Big Ten features the imminent history with March Madness in full swing.

The biggest question is: Can one of the conference teams capture the first NCAA Championship title since 2000?

The Big Ten has two No. 1 projected seeds in the Big Dance in Michigan and Illinois, and two No. 2 projections in Iowa and Ohio State, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. There has never been a conference on four of the top eight seeds before.

In total, Lunardi’s nine Big Ten clubs are expected to hear their names on March 14 – Election Sunday.

According to the NET rankings used by the NCAA Selection Committee, the Big Ten has four of the top 10 programs: No. 3 Michigan, Big Ten regular season champ, No. 4 Illinois, No. 6 Iowa and No. 8 Ohio State.

Apparently Ayo Dosunmu and No. 4 Illinois locked in No. 1 as a result of their 73-68 win over Ohio State No. 10 on Saturday. The Illini came off a 23-point blow of Michigan in a game in which Dosunmu did not play due to a face injury. The Illini’s have now posted nine Quadrant 1 winners (top-25 home, top-75 road).

Under second-year coach Juwan Howard, Michigan, the interim is 18-2 and will be a No. 1 seed for the first time since the 1992-92 season when Howard was part of the famous “Fab Five” at school together with Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson.

The Big Ten now has a new wave of stars, with six of the 15 finalists for the Timber Award coming from the conference: Dosunmu and sophomore Kofi Cockburn from Illinois, Luka Garza at Iowa, Hunter Dickinson from Michigan, EJ Liddell of Ohio State and Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis.

The 6-foot-11 Garza is considered the clubhouse’s favorite to win Wooden and Naismith awards since he opted to return to the field last summer after courting the NBA. He gets an average of 23.9 points and 8.4 rebounds while shooting 55 percent off the field.

However, the Dosunmu 6-5 gives him a run for his money with an average of 20.9 points, 6.2 assists and 5.2 rebounds. The Cockburn 6-11 averages 17.3 points and 9.6 rebounds, giving Illinois a 1-2 punch as strong as you’ll find in the country.

When Garza, Dosunmu and Cockburn all chose to return to school and pull out of the NBA Draft last August, it then emerged that the Big Ten was the big winner, and that has revealed how the season has come. ‘expansion.

Outside of the Big Ten, Gonzaga has three major Woodland Awards for Corey Kispert, Drew Timme and freshman Jalen Suggs.

Despite the hoopla around the Big Ten, the conference needs an NCAA champion to prove the hype, as I wrote here in December.

Since Tom Izzo-coached Michigan State last won the conference title in 2000, here ‘s how the 19 NCAA tournaments were divided (the 2020 NCAA Tournament was not due to the pandemic:

ACC – 8

Great East – 6

SEC – 3

Large 12 – 1

America – 1

Gonzaga and No. Baylor’s 3-ranked is considered the co-op to cut the nets for much of the season, but Michigan and Illinois are more battle-tested than the Zags and must be considered legitimate opponents to net the nets. cut down.

Also keep in mind that the entire NCAA Tournament will be played in Indiana state, so a team like Purdue (18-8, 13-6 Big Ten) should be considered, which will play all of its games in the familiar field of Each dark. The Boilermakers will enter the Big Ten Championship after winning five in a row, including wins over Michigan State, Wisconsin and Indiana.

For what it’s worth, Iona’s Rick Pitino, who won NCAA titles at Kentucky and Louisville, doesn’t think the Big Ten needs to win a title to prove the hype.

“No,” he said in December. “A one-match match in a NCAA Tour does not prove the strength of the league. ”

Izzo, whose team is on the bubble, still wants his conference to see another title.

“One of those days,” he said in 2019, “we have a lot of teams knocking on the door, we’re going to find a way to win one.”