I'm a big fan of college basketball, it's one of those things that you either love it or hate it there's just no in between. However, the one thing that I can't stand in college basketball, especially this season, is how everyone is in love with the Big Ten. I have to tell you, I am not at all impressed.
Michigan State is probably the best team in the Big Ten. They're good. They have good wins, and outside the loss to Northwestern, they don't really have any bad losses. But the rest of the conference I am not impressed with. Am I looking at numbers? A little bit. Am I looking at who they have lost to? Yeah, a little bit. But am I looking at the eye test? Yes, a lot of it has to do with the eye test. Having a bunch of ranked mediocre teams only makes you a conference with a bunch of ranked mediocre teams, it doesn't make you a good conference.
I watched two teams who are not only considered two of the best teams in the conference, but two of the best teams in the country in Ohio State and Wisconsin play yesterday and I wanted to rip my eyes out with a sharp object. Sullinger is supposed to be this dominating big man, yet he went twenty minutes without scoring a point with a sub par athlete defending him the entire game. Then Wisconsin's offense bunches everyone up outside the three point line every time down. They have three or four guys on the same side of the court ninety percent of the time. And no one is underneath the basket, and their seven foot white guy who can't dribble is handling the ball and shooting three pointers. Explain to me where this makes sense.
Then people want to talk how there's not a bad loss in the conference. Really? Tell that to Indiana who got beat my Nebraska and blown out by Iowa. Or tell that to Ohio State and Michigan who both lost to Illinois. I don't wanna hear about Iowa being a bubble team, they're 15-14, the only thing they should be a bubble team for is the NIT. RPI my ass, how about looking at teams and telling if they can play or not?
Yeah, college basketball is watered down a ton this year, but to say that the Big Ten is by far and away the best conference is ridiculous. I think the Big East and the ACC are better conferences than the Big Ten. How? Just by watching I see better athletes and better basketball players. Teams in the Big Ten have a lot of losses to a lot of bad teams. And just in that area alone I don't think you can consider them great basketball teams.
The Big 12 is pretty legit this year too
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