The first Big Ten men’s basketball tournament accomplished its primary goal: It made money, perhaps as much as $500,000 per school.
But the tournament also was supposed to whip Big Ten teams into shape for the NCAA tournament.
The conference will know whether it delivered on that promise this weekend, when it sends five teams into the madness. Each carries the burden of improving on the league’s image in recent years. Big Ten teams are 10-17 in the last three NCAAs, with almost half the victories coming in Minnesota’s run to the Final Four a year ago.
“Fairly or unfairly, it’s how we’re all evaluated,” Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said.
Delany said he thinks Big Ten tourney finalists Purdue and Michigan are more ready than they were a week ago. But what about regular-season co-champs Illinois and Michigan State, which combined for one victory in three starts?
“It’s better to play poorly (in the conference tourney) than this week,” Delany said.
Purdue coach Gene Keady isn’t ready to say whether the Big Tens prepared his team for the NCAAs. “I’ll tell you in two weeks whether I like (the conference tourney) or not,” Keady says.
A quick assessment on the Big Ten’s teams in the Big Dance:
Purdue enjoys the closest thing to home-court advantage. The Boilermakers are a No. 2 seed in the United Center, less than two hours from West Lafayette. But the Boilermakers are worried that guard Jaraan Cornell’s badly sprained ankle won’t be healed, and that will mean more pressure on Chad Austin, who struggled here last weekend.
Fourth-seeded Michigan has the most momentum, having grabbed the inaugural Big Ten tourney trophy. But none of the Wolverines have ever won an NCAA tournament game.
Illinois split the conference regular-season title, but it has to make the farthest hike. The fifth-seeded Fighting Illini open in Sacramento, Calif., against South Alabama.
Michigan State, a fourth seed, split the regular-season title and has the Big Ten’s top player in guard Mateen Cleaves. But State has the most doubt after losing its last two games. The Spartans hope Cleaves can snap out of his 2-of-18 shooting slump in the team’s loss to Minnesota in the Big Ten quarterfinals.
Indiana has the best NCAA tournament resume, with a .690 winning percentage under coach Bob Knight. But the Hoosiers have the worst seed among Big Ten entries, a No. 7, and they haven’t won an NCAA tournament game in three years. IU opens against 10th-seeded Oklahoma in the East Region, and if it survives it likely will face mighty second-seeded Connecticut, a team the tournament selectors said would have been a top seed in most years.
Just asking: By giving Ivy League champion Princeton and Big Ten co-champion Illinois fifth seeds, is the NCAA tournament selection committee insinuating the Ivies and the Big Ten are the same strength?
Meanwhile, Michigan State drew a fourth seed, which puts it on par with also-rans from the WAC (New Mexico) and ACC (Maryland), along with the SEC Western Division champ (Ole Miss).
Little House on the Prairie View: Prairie View A&M has one of the easiest roads to San Antonio, site of the Final Four.
“It’s about three hours from here,” an athletic department staffer told a caller Tuesday. “You just take I-10 west.”
In another way, Prairie View, a historically black school of 6,000 students located about 45 miles north of Houston, faces the longest haul of anyone in the 64-team tournament. The 16th-seeded Panthers, who have the worst record in this year’s field (13-16) and the lowest RPI in tournament history, have to face top-seeded Kansas in the first round of the Midwest Region in Oklahoma City. Prairie View earned a bid by winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament.
It’s the same Prairie View whose football team has lost an NCAA-record 77 consecutive games. The basketball team’s last winning season was in 1978.
“We’ve had people calling from all over the nation,” Athletic Director Clifton Gilliard said from campus Tuesday afternoon. “It’s exciting and overwhelming. It’s great for the university. What people have seen is all the negativity about the football team. Now, there’s something positive to talk about with us.”
Prairie View’s record isn’t all that sets the school apart from most of the 64-team NCAA tournament field. For starters, the men’s basketball team shares 3.3 scholarships; the NCAA allows 13 in Division I.
And $189,000 in student fees fund the school’s athletic scholarships, according to Gilliard. Another $550,000 in student fees go to athletic operations, Gilliard said.
Without the contributions from the students, it’s unlikely Prairie View could afford to compete in Division I.
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“In our down time, you never did hear the students turn on us,” Gilliard said. “Everything we’re doing, we’re doing for the student body.”
Holding pattern: Officially, Northeastern Illinois doesn’t have a basketball program any longer. But Rees Johnson answered the basketball office telephone on the first ring Tuesday afternoon.
“I get a lot of phone calls from people who are interested in recruiting our kids,” Johnson said. “Every once in a while, you get a call from somebody with a job possibility. Not often enough.”
Northeastern’s 6-19 season ended Feb. 21. Since then, Johnson has been preparing videotapes and transcripts for players hoping to transfer. Because Northeastern dropped basketball, the NCAA will allow former Golden Eagles to transfer without sitting out a year at their new school.
“We keep after them about going to class and keeping their grades up, because they’ve still got to be (academically) eligible,” Johnson said.
Johnson, who has coached basketball for 33 years, said he’s had discussions about jobs ranging from high school to the CBA.
“I’m waiting for the right offer,” he said. “It’s hard to keep your spirits up. It’s the first time in my life I’ve had to look for a job without having a job.”
Free throws: Purdue is scheduled to arrive in Chicago Wednesday night. The Boilermakers will be headquartered at the Sheraton Towers, 301 E. North Water St. Purdue’s 5 p.m. Thursday workout in the United Center is open to the public. . . . The Bulls’ dressing room was a training center for the Big Ten tournament. This week, it will house the top-seeded team in each session. That means third-seeded Stanford and second-seeded Purdue will draw the champs’ quarters in Friday’s opening round.
Many of the players in the Chicago draw are thrilled about playing in Michael Jordan’s house, but they won’t be playing on his floor. The Bulls’ court has been disassembled and replaced by a different hardwood surface.
“It’s the same floor as we used in the Big Ten tournament, except that it has an NCAA decal on it,” Big Ten Associate Commissioner Mark Rudner said.
Chicago has been Upset City in recent NCAA tournaments. In the 1987 Midwest Regional at the Rosemont Horizon, 10th-seeded LSU shocked seventh-seeded Georgia Tech and second-seeded Temple, while third-seeded DePaul needed overtime to beat sixth-seeded St. John’s. And in the 1993 Midwest Regional at the Horizon, sixth-seeded Cal stunned third-seeded Duke, the defending national titlist.
It’s hard to think of Kentucky as a sleeper. But with all the attention focused on the four No. 1 seeds–defending champion Arizona, North Carolina, Duke and Kansas–the Big Blue has kicked into gear.
“That team can play with anybody in the country,” South Carolina coach Eddie Fogler said after the Wildcats whipsawed his Gamecocks by 30 points in the SEC tournament final. “When they’re shooting like that (13 of 27 from three-point range), they are going to be awfully hard for anyone to beat.”