The Big 10 has not done well in the NCAA tourney. Lot's of

The Big 10 has not done well in the NCAA tourney. Lot's of
by Domerduck (2020-07-31 22:53:50)
Edited on 2020-07-31 23:24:35

In reply to: Get the Pac 12 Raves, But Also Agree the B1G Isn't Blah posted by dillon77

Post Reply Return to McGraw's Bench

the Big 10 teams might make the tourney and have good records beating up conference foes, but very few even get to the Sweet 16. Only Maryland made it to the Final 4 in 2015, their first year after they moved from the ACC to the Big 10. Prior to that the last Big 10 Final 4 team was MSU in 2005. The last NCAA tourney (2019) the Big 10 had the worst winning record of any of the major conferences going 7-6 while the SEC was 9-7, Big East/UConn 5-3, ACC 14-8, Big 12 7-3, and PAC12 14-6. Only 2 Seed Iowa even made it to the sweet 16 while 3 Seed Maryland was upset by 6 Seed UCLA. That was similar to the previous 2 times as Big 10 champs they had a top Seed and got upset by a PAC12 team: 2017 when 10 Seed Oregon upset 3 Seed Maryland and 2016 when 7 Seed Washington upset 2 Seed Maryland. In my mind the Big 10 continues to be overated and underperforming.

The truth is all 9 of Bett's teams were in the sweet 16 the last tourney including all 4 who made it to the final 4. In fact her 9 teams have accounted for 75% (24/32) of the Final 4 participants the last 8 tourneys. The other 8 participants were Mississippi State twice, Maryland twice (once while still in the ACC), Cuse while in the ACC, and 3 other PAC12 schools (Cal, UW, & OSU). I'd say being a top recruit and staying away from the Big 10 is a wise move. Maybe staying home like Caitlin Clark may make sense. Megan Gustafson went from Wisconsin to Iowa but she ultimately didn't play for the big prize over her 4 years. We will see if that changes down the road, but you have to wonder with so many Big 10 FOY transfer from their Big 10 school out of the conference.

I feel that Final Four point to be disingenuous

Saying "her top 9 include 75% of final four participants in the last eight years" is basically meaningless. UConn, Notre Dame, and Stanford account for 53% of them already. How many final fours have UCLA and ASU been to since 2012? None.

Using success in the tournament is fine, but the state of the league recently is such that there's a few elite teams and then a drop-off. It's called March Madness for a reason - with the exception of those elite teams, it just takes one bad game or an exceptional one for a better team to be upset by a worse team. (Heck, even Baylor and Notre Dame have fallen to worse teams in the mid-decade.) Sure, B1G teams haven't fared well in the past few seasons, but that's just one piece of the puzzle.

You're correct on ASU/UCLA, but only Maryland has made a

Final 4 from the Big 10 the last 15 years and as I said that was 1 year after they made the Final 4 the year before in the ACC. Still I believe both ASU/UCLA have made multiple Sweet 16s in those last 8 years as have several other PAC12 schools (Stanford, Oregon, & Oregon State). Other than Maryland, not sure there are any Big 10 schools that made multiple Sweet 16s since 2012.

My main point was UConn, Baylor, & South Carolina are good choices for a recruit as they currently dominate their conferences. Then choosing multiple options from the PAC12 & ACC make sense given they both have had multiple teams make the Final 4 in the last 8 years with the PAC12 having 5 different teams and the ACC having 4 different teams. Maryland is the lone Big 10 team to make it and as I said they have clearly underperformed in the NCAA tourney while in the Big 10. It's not surprising Betts (the top recruit in the nation) didn't have a Big 10 team on her list.