Right, right, the Big Ten has three teams in the Elite Eight of the bouncy bouncy tournament, which is vindication of a league that was maligned all year for being composed entirely of autistic ducks or whatever, according to a bunch of people.
But... not so fast, my friend! Let's look at the murderer's row of opponents the Big Ten has dispatched:
#16 Fairleigh-Dickinson
#14 Bucknell
#13 Vermont
#12 Old Dominion
#12 UW-Milwaukee
#11 Northern Iowa
#10 NC State
#9 Nevada
#1 Duke
That's two teams from major conferences and one team that was expected to make it past the first round. MSU's win over Duke is impressive, but anyone watching over the past couple weeks could have told you that the paper-thin Blue Devils were ripe for the taking, especially with JJ Redick doing his best Gavin Groninger impression during the tournament.
Now come the tests. Illinois has a dangerous Arizona team up next. MSU has a deep and talented UK team (with extra special Joe Crawford drama!). Wisconsin will be up against North Carolina. If two of these teams make it into the Final Four, begin crowing with gusto, Big Ten partisans. But don't pretend that because Wisconsin and Illinois can totally claim that they're way better than a bunch of double digit seeds that the league didn't deserve the rap it got.
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Saturday, March 26, 2005
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2 Comments:
Gavin was the man! Any word on what he's doing now?
Two Big 10 teams in the Final Four.
I don't care who they played to get there - having 2 teams from the Big 10 in the Final Four during what is suppposedly a down year for the conference is impressive. Too bad Wisconsin did not make it or we could have been singing "When you say Biiiiig 10, you've said it all!"
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