Big 10

Just how bad is the Big Ten?

Only once in the last 23 years has the Big Ten sent fewer than five teams to the NCAA tournament. That was in 2004, when it got three bids. With only Wisconsin (21-1), Ohio State (18-3) and Indiana (15-5) assured of berths this year, it's possible the conference could repeat that dubious feat this year.

I think that it comes back to the quality of coaching. How many truly outstanding coaches are there in that conference.

I would absolutely say Bo Ryan is the top coach in the league, followed closely by Tom Izzo. Then maybe Weber, but he benefited from the Bill Self recruiting machine,
After watching a veteran OSU team a year ago, I am NOT sold on Matta, but boy can he recruit!!! Kelvin Sampson is a quality coach, and if the people at Indiana back him then they will be back at the top of the league.
Painter is young, DeChellis, and Carmody coach in impossible situations. Minnesota doesn't know who their coach will be. Ammaker is about to get canned, and lord knows Alford...

I think that Big 12 has a good group of coaches, but some of them, like G Mac, Sadler, Sutton, and Capel, while promising, still have to prove themselves. But I do think this group is promising.

The Big 12 may have the best set of bball coaches. They just have trouble recruiting the real athletic people. This shows when they play other big name schools.

I think the Big 10 will get there 5 teams in. Especially since they are stuck playing one another and there will be no way to evaluate how good a team is. And some lucky (better not be the freakin Hawks again) will win the tourney and sneak in.

Anyone else think it is messed up that the Big 12 Tournament Championship doesn't even get evaluated while seeding teams? I heard them say last year that they had to make the decisions before the outcome of the game and the only way the winner would matter is if they didn't already have an at-large bid.

I think MSU will still find a way into the tournament, and I'd be a little surprised if Michigan didn't as well. They need to beat Iowa tonight. I mean they'd already be at 16 wins, they'd just have to go .500 to get to 20 wins. That's still something of a magic number for major conferences.

And no one is mentioning the quality coaching job that Alford's doing in Iowa City?