Both their representatives got annihilated yesterday and no team was able to get past the regional semifinals this year for the first time in a long time.
Wisconsin embarrassed themselves against the Southern Conference champs (one of the weakest conferences out there) in a site friendly place like Detroit, and MSU was completely outclassed by Memphis in a game that wasn't even competitive outside the first 5 minutes.
Not just that, Indiana lost to a very mediocre team in Arkansas and Purdue lost to one of the most overrated teams in Xavier--of course, Purdue was one of the most overrated teams themselves.
Throw in the fact that the ACC/Big Ten challenge is a joke (only MSU can boast a winning record in that competition after almost a decade) and the bottom 4 teams in the league were beyond horrid (Iowa, Penn State, Michigan, and Northwestern). I mean, I still consider the Big Ten pretty good and there are some elite players and coaches to be sure, but the gap between say a mid major like the MVC is closing, while the gap with other power conferences like the ACC, Big East and Pac-10 is growing.
Wisconsin embarrassed themselves against the Southern Conference champs (one of the weakest conferences out there) in a site friendly place like Detroit, and MSU was completely outclassed by Memphis in a game that wasn't even competitive outside the first 5 minutes.
Not just that, Indiana lost to a very mediocre team in Arkansas and Purdue lost to one of the most overrated teams in Xavier--of course, Purdue was one of the most overrated teams themselves.
Throw in the fact that the ACC/Big Ten challenge is a joke (only MSU can boast a winning record in that competition after almost a decade) and the bottom 4 teams in the league were beyond horrid (Iowa, Penn State, Michigan, and Northwestern). I mean, I still consider the Big Ten pretty good and there are some elite players and coaches to be sure, but the gap between say a mid major like the MVC is closing, while the gap with other power conferences like the ACC, Big East and Pac-10 is growing.
