Big Ten Notes: League having a down year

Best-case scenario for the Big Ten: the NCAA Division I men’s basketball committee had a power outage Tuesday night. Or its cable went out. Or its satellite dish was covered in snow.

As long as the committee could not watch ESPN or ESPN2, the Big Ten should be okay. If the committee did tune in, the league could be in trouble.

Make that, should be in trouble. You've heard of must-see TV. Tuesday night was must-ignore TV for the Big Ten. Indiana took on Northwestern, while Iowa took on Penn State.

Oh, the games were entertaining because of the narrow final scores. As they always do, the Northwestern Wildcats played their purple tails off in a 69–65 loss to Indiana. And last-place Penn State earned every bit of a 74–72 triumph over Iowa.

In Northwestern's case, good for the losing team. In Penn State's case, good for the victors.

In the Big Ten’s case, bad for the league. Why? Because Penn State-Iowa/Indiana-Northwestern was promptly followed by Maryland-Duke/Texas-Texas A&M on the ESPN family of networks.

It was "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," followed by "The Departed." It was "Good Housekeeping," followed by "Maxim." It was sleepy, followed by riveting.

The level of basketball in the second half of the doubleheader — a thrilling ACC affair, next to yet another gem from the Big 12 — exposed the Big Ten. This is a down year for the Big Ten. And that’s okay.

Indiana is supposed to be the third-best team in the 11-team Big Ten. The Hoosiers will own the No. 3 seed for the conference tournament. They beat one (Wisconsin) of the Big Two (…and Ohio State). And the Hoosiers looked Tuesday like they deserve, oh, about a 13 seed in the NCAA tournament.

We've seen Winthrop. Indiana is no Winthrop.

And then there's Iowa, another one of six Big Ten bubble teams who hopes to make the 34-team at-large cut a week from Sunday. Please, please someone cast a vote for Adam Haluska as Big Ten Player of the Year. If not for Haluska, the league’s leading scorer and a tireless fighter, you wonder if Iowa wins six games. Not in conference play, but all season.

The disturbing part for the Big Ten: Iowa is tied for fourth place.

Truth is, the league figured this season would be a struggle. Nine of 10 first- and second-team all-conference players from 2005-06 are gone. There are two good teams — No. 1 Ohio State and No. 4 Wisconsin — and both of those have a shot at the Final Four. If that happens, let's hope the Big Ten doesn’t try to spin it to make the league appear better than it is. It's not.

You could see it Tuesday night, as Duke and Maryland raced, dunked and sizzled, even while Texas and Texas A&M created an instant classic. Earlier, Indiana-Northwestern wrote a lullaby, and a last-place Penn State squad beat an NCAA hopeful (Iowa).

The computer numbers, as they are being called, tell us that six teams deserve at-large bids to the NCAA tournament (Wisconsin, Ohio State, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan State, Purdue). All six boast sub-50 RPIs. There are 34 at-large bids available and they have to come from somewhere. Remarkably, it looks like all six will make it.

But as seen Tuesday night, the basketball being played in the Big Ten is not to the level of the Big 12, the ACC, the Pac-10, or even the SEC (East). It is a deliberate and defensive style, more new NHL than old NBA. Last season there wasn't a single Big Ten team remaining in the second week of the NCAA tournament. If Ohio State doesn’t play well, it could happen again.

Rising Team: Illinois
In a season of misfortune, the Illini continue to press on. They've won six of seven games and are playing their best basketball. Only one of their last seven opponents has topped 60 points. A favorable schedule has helped Illinois. Their opponents over that seven-game stretch entered this week with a combined record of 31–70.

The late-season run came at a time when Illinois was facing a more-pressing challenge, after teammates Jamar Smith and freshman Brian Carlwell were involved in a car accident Feb. 12. Both are likely done for the season — Smith through a mutual agreement with coach Bruce Weber, and Carlwell due to a concussion suffered in the car accident.

Falling Team: Indiana
The defensive game plan against Indiana seems fairly straightforward: Shut down the outside shooters and you can beat the Hoosiers. Indiana did not eclipse 50-percent shooting in February and went 3–4 for the month. Opponents with solid perimeter defense (Illinois, Michigan State) had success. Coach Kelvin Sampson should be commended for getting the most out of a team limited in its abilities.

Player of the Week: Roderick Wilmont, G, Indiana
If Indiana has success in the NCAA tournament, expect this 6’4’’ senior guard to play a large role in it. Wilmont erupted for a school-record nine three-pointers against Northwestern on Tuesday. He finished with career highs of 31 points and 12 rebounds.

Freshman of the Week: Mike Conley, G, Ohio State
Longtime teammate Greg Oden leads the nation in "let me see his birth certificate" jokes. Perhaps someone should check Conley’s, too, for he performs beyond his years.

On the biggest regular-season stage — No. 1 Wisconsin at No. 2 Ohio State — Conley controlled the game in crunch time. The point guard was efficient (11 points, six rebounds, four assists and two turnovers in 36 minutes), and he hit the game-winner, a runner with four seconds lift to place Ohio State atop the AP Top 25 poll for the first time since 1962.

Stat of the Week
Since the NCAA tournament was expanded to 64 teams in 1985, 91 of 101 Big Ten teams with at least 20 wins have made the field. Only one Big Ten team with 20 wins and a plus-.500 league record did not make the cut. That was Iowa (20–11, 9–7) in 1997-98.

They Said It
"Twenty years from now, I'll sit back and say, 'It would have been a nice win.’ When I’m living in Winnetka (Ill.) in a big house and have kids and making a lot of money. There's a bigger picture than the game." — Senior Tim Doyle, after Northwestern’s 69–65 loss to Indiana

"Doyle is crafty. He's going to be first-team All-American in a men's league some day." — Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson

Games to Watch
Illinois at Iowa (Saturday): A win probably will clinch an NCAA tournament berth for the Illini, but a loss won't doom their hopes. Iowa could use this game for Big Ten tournament seeding purposes, and likely will need to defend its conference tournament title to return to the Big Dance. Carver-Hawkeye Arena is sold out for Haluska's final home game.

Michigan State at Wisconsin (Saturday): The Spartans cemented their bid for an at-large berth by beating the No. 4 Badgers last week. That gave Michigan State something few teams in the Big Ten have: a marquee win to highlight their NCAA tournament resume. Wisconsin is losing steam down the stretch, having dropped two in a row.

Ohio State at Michigan (Saturday): The Wolverines could have looked at their regular season-closing schedule and shrugged their shoulders. But it appears they are taking home games against Michigan State and Ohio State as an opportunity. Michigan dumped Michigan State, and now must stump the top-ranked team in the country. A victory over Ohio State would put Michigan on the right side of the NCAA tournament bubble.

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