Where Did The Big Ten's March Magic Go?
March used to be a banner month for the Big Ten. In the first two decades of this century, no league was better at maximizing its opportunities in the men's NCAA Tournament. From 2000 to 2019, the Big Ten reached 16 Final Fours, most of any conference, and 48 Sweet 16s, two shy of the ACC's 50 -- despite the fact that the ACC earned 37 top-two seeds and the Big Ten totaled only 21. In the last year of that span, Michigan State crashed the Final Four in vintage Big Ten fashion: Coach Tom Izzo took issue with his team's draw from the selection committee, and then the Spartans made the final weekend by upsetting a top-seeded Duke squad with three future top-10 NBA draft picks.
But all of a sudden, and almost all at once, the league's heavyweights have started imploding on the sport's biggest stage. Only two of the Big Ten's nine NCAA Tournament teams -- No. 11 seed Michigan and No. 3 seed Purdue -- have advanced to this year's Sweet 16. That's more than the league could say last year, when only No. 1 seed Michigan made the second weekend out of the nine Big Ten teams in the tournament.
Considering the draws that Big Ten teams have been awarded, three Sweet 16 teams in two years amounts to a pitiful showing. Three top-two seeds...