As far as is obvious, the only reason for the Big Ten basketball tournament was to determine if Michigan State should be taken seriously for the national title. Worse reasons than this have been concocted for four days of college basketball with most of them starting with the word Great and ending with the word Shootout.
As expected, there Michigan State was Sunday at the United Center cutting down the victory nets, maybe the most dangerous chore the Spartans had all weekend.
And a few hours later, the NCAA selection committee saw no reason to make them other than the top seed in the Midwest Regional, further rewarding the Spartans with the Mt. St. Mary’s Mounties, an opening opponent that would need a billboard and a blimp just to move up to anonymous.
“This caps an unbelievable Big Ten season for us,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.
That’s a word I’ll accept. Unbelievable. I can’t believe this team has won 18 games in a row, is a No. 1 tournament seed or will get to the Final Four. It should not be possible for a top seed to sneak up on somebody, but this one might.
Michigan State convinced me of nothing, other than this: If Mateen Cleaves is the best player in the Big Ten, the NBA will not be calling out any Big Ten names come draft day.
The only authentic, head-turning talent I saw was Michael Redd from Ohio State, though Illinois guard Cory Bradford could be the goods. He needs a point guard to prove it. Evan Eschmeyer may be able to fill Luc Longley’s shoes, or one of Longley’s and one of Greg Ostertag’s.
Otherwise, the whole league looks like a typical Indiana team, a bunch of grunts with ham hands, big calves and the coach’s foot up their backsides. The Big Ten tournament sorted out nothing, it merely jiggled the pile.
The Wisconsin bone’s connected to the Iowa bone, the Minnesota bone’s connected to the Hoosier bone, the Buckeye bone’s connected to the Purdue bone and the whole jangling collection is following Michigan State into the Big Dance.
“I’m a coach and I don’t see (a lack of quality),” Izzo said, “so I don’t know how writers get to be experts.”
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Apparently barely beating Northwestern did not dissuade any opinion that counts, nor did tromping upon last seed Illinois, a job made easier by the fact that the Illini spent their fourth game in four days standing on their own tongues.
“A great day for the Spartans,” Izzo said, and it was if you count waxing a sarcophagus as real work.
None of this is Michigan State’s fault, after all. It did the expected while Illinois was messing everything up by eliminating teams that might have challenged, or at least bothered, Michigan State in the final.
The way this worked out, with Illinois in the final and the other NCAA invitees home resting, it is not clear if only Michigan State took the tournament seriously.
“We watched the final on TV last year,” Cleaves said, “so winning this tournament championship was one of our goals.”
“Michigan State sets the standard in the league, a lofty standard,” Illinois coach Lon Kruger said. “They set the tone.”
This, I take it, is meant to be a compliment.
It is common to side with the bully who has just stolen your lunch money, or in the case of Illinois, the very last cent in the piggy bank. The Illini get no reward for finishing second or for imitating the Little Engine That Almost Could.
Illinois slides back where it came from, the bottom of the league, while Michigan State is still left to defend its inability to convince anyone to put it at the top of their office pool.
“This team has been under pressure all year, not just from the media and the fans, but from me,” Izzo said. “So we are used to pressure. If people do not believe in us, we believe in ourselves, and whatever happens in the games to come, any team we play is going to get our best effort.
“How we get judged in the next weeks is just fine by me.”
That’s how it should be. College basketball does play the opinion of strangers into actual results.
And about time too.