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Quantity, but not quality

Seven-bid conferences have struggled in NCAAs

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Posted: Tuesday March 09, 1999 03:45 PM

If past NCAA Tournaments are any indication, odds are against the Big Ten's Michigan State advancing to the Final Four. AP

By Ryan Hunt, CNN/SI

ATLANTA -- The Big Ten again had a chance to flex its muscle on Selection Sunday, getting seven teams into the NCAA Tournament for a record third time. But the conference probably should wait before ordering any celebratory champagne.

In the three previous times a conference received seven bids into the NCAA Tournament, including the two times Big Ten teams accomplished the feat (1990 and 1994), no team from that league advanced to the Final Four. Five of those 21 teams made it to a regional final, but 13 didn't make it past the first weekend of play.

The Big East (1991) is the only other conference to have seven teams invited to the NCAA Tournament in one year.

Perhaps it is because the teams have beat each other up in the regular season. Perhaps it is because the teams become overconfident once tournament play begins. Or perhaps it is because the conferences are a bit overrated.

Whatever the reason, the Big Ten teams, which have been under scrutiny after making a number of all-too-early exits in the last couple of tournaments, had a combined winning percentage of only .576 in the league's two seven-bid years.

Which Big Ten team is least likely to advance to the second round? Indiana Iowa Minnesota Ohio St. Purdue Wisconsin View Results

Seven Big Ten teams -- Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin -- will get an opportunity to justify the conference's stature as the nation's toughest, based on RPI ratings, in this year's tournament.

Michigan State earned a No. 1 seed for the second time in the '90s, the first being in 1990. That season the Spartans, one of just two league teams to survive the first weekend, could only make it to the Sweet 16 before being upset by Georgia Tech.

Purdue received a top seed in 1994, but the Boilermakers were knocked off by Duke in the regional finals.

In 1991, though, the Big East's cream of its seven-team NCAA crop, Syracuse, had a fate worse than what Michigan State or Purdue experienced. As a No. 2 seed, the Orangemen became the first to lose to a No. 15 seed, falling to upstart Richmond.

Syracuse, though, was the only Big East team beaten by a lower seed in 1991. In the Big Ten's two seven-team tournaments, eight of the 14 were sent packing by lower seeds.

The seven Big Ten teams in 1999 do indeed have something to prove.

 

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