Michigan Still One of the Last Two B1G Teams to Win the NCAA
The Big Ten's futility in the Final Four is nothing short of amazing. Still the last two teams to win the NCAA championship as members of the Big Ten are Michigan State in 2000 and Michigan in 1989.
Since 2000, the Big Ten is 0-8 in national championship games.
The Big Ten is 1-10 in the title game since 1990.
Good.
From 1979 to 1989, the Big Ten was 4-0 in championship games. Then the shit went off the rails.
If we're mixing metaphors, that's right around the time the train hit the fan.
"Now, make like a tree, and get the heck out of here."
-Biff Tannen
Does the Pope shit in the woods?
And in 1976, two Big Ten teams played for the title.
Izzo has hoarded midwest talent for almost 3 decades now and done less with more - specifically over the past 15-20 years. Beilein would have had multiple national titles at UM if staying put for 30 years and pulling in top 5 recruiting classes like Izzo.
Schools like Indiana and Illinois have suffered due to the talent drain that is East Lansing.
1 National Title for MSU in his tenure, given the NBA talent that has gone through that program, is absolute futility. Sharty fans are absolutely delusional about the "greatness" of Tiny Tim.
Mr. March indeed, because he can't make it to April.
It's pretty remarkable how many different B1G teams have gone to the finals and lost. For that reason alone I figured Purdue's demise was inevitable.
A fitting end to this era of the B1G in basketball.
Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan (twice), Wisconsin, and Purdue all on the wrong side of one shining moment. Every three years a new Big Ten team gets put to the sword.
This is true until it's not. Soon.
Thing that occurred to me tonight is that, beyond actual titles, what B1G teams in the last 25 years were the favorites to win it ? ‘05 Illinois, ‘07 and ‘11 Ohio State (maybe). That’s not a lot.
I can't think of a single instance where the Big Ten was favored or even close. UNC in '05 and Florida in '07 were very good teams with lots of future pros.
The conference has had a lot of unfortunate timing. Also, none of its schools were ever elite during the pre-NIL "bag" phase, so you never saw really loaded rosters as with Duke, Kansas, and Kentucky. (No, I don't think MSU was ever quite in that category.)
The NCAA tournament is about guard play. Purdue’s 3 starting guards went 6-20 for 17 points. UConn’s starting guards went 17-38 for 46 points. Until a Big10 team can put together a championship backcourt, they’re not winning the tournament.
I knew Purdue didn’t stand a chance because Smith is just an average, undersized point guard. Loyer can’t create his own shot and Jones is just a guy. Edey provides them with enough of an advantage inside that they can win a lot of games against good teams, but their deficiencies are readily exposed by elite teams.
That, plus that just seemed out of sync defensively. UConn had no trouble flustering Painter's man defense.
I blame B1G officiating, to an extent. B1G refs allow rough play. I think it's a big reason why Beilein's teams performed better in March, and most B1G teams have faltered.
I think Michigan's 2013 team was talented enough to win it all that year. They had the best point guard that year in Trey Burke with a very competent back up in Spike who played great when Burke had early bullshit foul trouble. Stauskus was deadly as a shooting guard able to hit outside shots while also being athletic enough to take it to the basket, along with Tim Hardaway Junior who could also handle the ball and was almost as good as a shooter, with similar athletism with attacking the hoop. GRIII was an athletic freak who could finish at the rim, and Mitch McGary had come into his own as an athletic center who could finish at the rim with a few different moves, and could lead a fast break. Morgan was starting center and killer at the high pick and roll with Burke as a change up from McGary, and Horford and Beilfeltd could come in to support from the bench. They handled the VCU full court press with ease, broke down Syracuses 2-3 zone defense, and took down Kansas in a crazy comeback, which is probably a better team than Louisville. That team was just fun to watch.
That team was great and certainly an offensive juggernaut, but they weren't quite good enough defensively. They still would have had a great chance at a championship, but that was a great Louisville team they ran into.
It was a 3-point game when Burke got hit with the phantom foul on the block. We absolutely could have won.
That was a momentum changing play and then the whistle and that was Burke's fourth foul which was a total bs foul.
I also thought Beilein should have sat spike once he went cold or sat him for most of the 2nd half. The fouls on Burke altered that game imo but Spike was great the first half.
Don't forget the route of Florida in the regional title game! The first 10 minutes of that game are among my all time favorite UM moments.
That game was glorious. We scored the first 13 points of the game and never took our foot off the gas.
MICHIGAN is the most recent team to win a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP in NCAA “Foosball”!
I re-watched the game for the title rather than watching Purdue-UConn. Fast forwarding through commercials…
It was GLORIOUS!
whatever. I'm glad UM Football is the only National Champion from the Big Ten.
Pull it down!
Glenn Rice continues to have the record for most points scored in a single tournament. Edey now in 2d on that list.
We still got that going for us.
Yess wee doo!
National championship teams ranked by KenPom Efficiency Margin (teams that defeated B1G teams for their titles bolded)
- UConn '24: 36.43
- Kansas '08: 35.21
- Virginia '19: 34.22
- Baylor '21: 33.87
- Villanova '18: 33.76
- Duke '10: 33.29
- Louisville '13: 32.92
- UNC '05: 32.77
- Kentucky '12: 32.59
- Duke '15: 32.48
- Villanova '16: 32.01
- UNC '09: 31.14
- Florida '07: 30.81
- UConn '23: 29.86
- Maryland '02: 29.25
- UConn '04: 28.30
- Florida '06: 28.28
- UNC '17: 28.22
- Kansas '22: 27.49
- UConn '11: 23.93
- Syracuse '03: 23.28
- UConn '14: 22.13
B1G teams have generally played better champs, including some of the real juggernauts.
02 Indiana just got hot like several other tournament darlings and had no business in the championship game.
07 Ohio st lost a solid game to Florida, can't say I was disappointed at all.
2015 Wisconsin, that was a game I thought Wisconsin should have won and had a few bad calls that were just lets gift coack K another one... maybe my bias here.
05 Illinois was a great game, don't kick out to the three on that play, take it to the hoop cause they were sitting on it.. I was thinking that and he turned and kicks it out.. ugh. great game with worthy teams.
09 Msu losing to North Carolina, another of the big ten teams that not enough length, problem illinois had, and just out classed in a year where msu was really good but not close to great... again, can'ts ay I'm disappointed in an embarrasing loss for izzo
Lucky us...
Some things you just need to Block out.
My theory is that it's the Curse of izzo and no Big Ten team will win one until he retires.
I thought he checked out 10 years ago?
What boggles my mind is how many times I see the Big Ten get in and just don't have the ability to score baskets in that game.
If Purdue has a second player that can just shoot the ball they win. Michigan vs Louisville we faced a really good team where I don't think this years teams were on the level of some past tournament teams. One could argue a few teams got shafted by officials in those games on a few close calls that going the other way changes the outcome of games. What it boils down to is getting elite players and the BigTen hasn't really had them across the conference since the 90's tbh.
Purdue had the second best three point percentage in the country this year. Shooting was not the problem. UConn decided to absorb Edey's points and take everything else away. Which is helped because the Huskies have a guy almost the same size who has NBA athleticism who could guard him one on one. Purdue's whole thing all year was that Edey forced doubles and then they could pass out of it into open threes.
If you can't shoot when you are guarded you aren't a shooter. I expect any d1 player to be able to hit an open basket. And for much of that game there were open shots for purdue to take and they kept hesitating passing it back out or around not taking the shot they had. They kept trying to get the wide open shot and not take many shots that were challenged. No one else could hit a shot that was challenged. Not to mention they were missing open shots when they got them.
Uconn was definitely the better team and Clingan for the most part made Edey earn his baskets without committing bad fouls. But again, after Edey nobody for purdue could shoot with a defender on them.
Yeah, but still ugh. What I wouldn't give to have uconn's NCG record.
What is crazy is just how many F4 appearances the B1G has since 2000 with no victories:
ConferenceAppearancesLast Appearance
ACC19
Big Ten17
Big East15
Big 12 12
SEC 12
Conference USA 3
American 2
Colonial 2
Horizon 2
Missouri Valley 2
West Coast 2
Mountain West 1
2013 was a legit chance to win it all, but aside from that I don't think the big ten team in the finals has really deserved a win. They just happened to accidentally make the finals. I guess you could say Purdue was fully justified as a top two team this year, but they could not play with UConn.
Sooooooooo, UConn to the Big Ten?
Wisconsin could well have beaten Duke in 2015.
Considering the mega superstar freshmen in that Duke team, the fact that the best one in the NBA is Tyus Jones is quite ridiculous.
Okafor got robbed of a career mostly due to the Rockets/Warriors revolutionizing basketball with the 3 points and analytics approach making traditional heavy footed bigs obsolete overnight. Add in his lack of d and he was screwed.
Winslow looked like an Andre Iguadola style guard/forward with arguably better athleticism, but was made of glass in the NBA and was never available.
Tyus became the best backup PG in the league in Memphis before going to Washington and being a very average starting PG on a terrible team…I mean any time Poole and Kuzma are your team’s veteran leaders is sad.
Grayson Allen was the only one who stayed more than a year at Duke and became the most hated college player in a generation. He was always a bit streaky if a shooter in the pros, but really found a home in Phoenix finally.
good. once tournament time starts i become a playa hater for any other B1G team
Interesting how HALF of the league (7 teams) have made it to the finals, only UM twice.
Other than Purdue (I don't hold anything against Matt Painter because the FB coach is a douche), I was happy to see all of the other teams lose.
Ouch !!!!