“I’m getting a little tired of hearing in the networks about the Big Ten. Our league should be given a little more credit,” Tom Izzo declared in the opening statement of his postgame press conference last night.
His Michigan State Spartans had just emerged victorious at Illinois 60-53 in a game that was described by Illini coach John Groce as “a heavyweight boxing match.”
Groce used a great euphemism for a game that was horribly officiated, low scoring, and also drifted along at a glacial pace.
If someone asked you how does last night’s game look, you’d answer with “but it’s got a great personality.” Towards the end of his presser, Tom Izzo was asked if he thinks the Big Ten is nationally perceived as mediocre.
“I do, I really do, I’m not just talking about ourselves. I look at Ohio State, our league is good.”
“It’s just we’re not top heavy, we have one standout team Wisconsin, but we have a bunch of very very good teams, and I don’t think the perception is as good as it needs to be or should be, I really don’t.”
Izzo didn’t call out ESPN or CBS by name, but that’s obviously who he’s referring to. ESPN and CBS are the only two networks with any real significant college basketball broadcasting package, and hence the only two that talk about the sport in great detail.
Of course, ESPN is also more powerful than the other three sports networks combined, so what Tom Izzo said there is essentially a thinly veiled shot at ESPN for not giving the Big Ten enough credit.
(Although, to be fair, ESPN has spent so much time obsessed with Alex Rodriguez these past few days, I’m surprised there’s been much time for B1G bashing given their wall-to-wall A-Rod coverage)
Izzo’s opponent agreed that league is actually better than it’s perceived to be.
“There’s a lot more parity now than ever, top to bottom, and that’s what makes our league kind of exciting and at the same time challenging,” said Groce.
“Our league is a lot better than what people think right now, Jimminy Christmas there are a lot of good teams.”
Both coaches are right in that most of the league is very close to being on the same footing. There’s a lot of “regression to the mean” in Big Ten basketball right now.
The league essentially is…the Badgers and then the proverbial “bunch of guys.” Just like pretty much every single media member covering the league said in preseason. Wisconsin is dominant; and then there’s a big a drop-off. I see where Tom Izzo is coming from; he makes some good points. He said himself at Big Ten Media Day that everyone will put Wisconsin #1 and that you can flip coins #2-#10.
Tom Izzo was spot on with that October prediction. Both him and Groce are certainly “saying all the right things.”
However, I respectfully and whole-heartedly disagree with the general premise.
Ohio State is overrated right now and they have been overrated the entire season. Whether Saturday’s loss to Michigan knocks the Buckeyes out of the polls or not, doesn’t really matter. The only B1G teams that deserve to be ranked are Wisconsin and Maryland. Period.
The Big Ten only has two teams that you can call “good.” (One that you can call “great.”) Then you have four bad teams at the bottom. The remaining eight are all mediocre. Call it parity, call it “they beat on each other during the conference season,” but in the end it’s mediocrity. Call a spade a spade.
Look no further than how the Big Ten performed in the non-conference for validation of that. Things haven’t changed since the calendar flipped to 2015.
Of course, you know what a beating Big Ten football took in the national media during the pre-conference season. You saw how that ended up in the New Year’s Day bowls and in the national title game. So maybe the Big Ten will show us something similar come March? We know Tom Izzo usually gets it done that time of year. Maybe he will again?
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive. You can read Banks’ feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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