Selection Sunday is still two weeks away, but the Big Ten already is fretting over potential snubs by the NCAA tournament committee.
How do we know? We know because Commissioner Jim Delany issued a formal, letterhead rebuttal Thursday to recent media snipes about the Big Ten’s prospects for the tournament. Firing away from the league’s red-brick bunker in Park Ridge, Delany touted the Big Ten’s recent tourney triumphs and predicted eight teams would receive strong consideration for at-large tourney berths.
Careful readers might detect defensiveness in Delany’s tone–the rhetorical equivalent of a 2-1-2 matchup zone, it looks to me, but I’m no expert.
His statement came two days after a story in the largest daily newspaper in the Big Ten (hint: the conference office is in its circulation area) questioned the strength of the conference, after NCAA tournament bracket guesses in USA Today and on several Web sites predicted the Big Ten’s best team would be seeded fifth, and after CBS analyst Billy Packer forecast a “short and sweet” run for the Big Ten in the NCAA tourney.
Everyone but the UN Security Council chimed in on the league’s decline. Delany had heard enough. Once a scrappy guard for Dean Smith at North Carolina, he decided to take a charge for his conference.
Calling this year’s race “one of the more exciting, wide-open races ever,” Delany noted six teams still could win or share the Big Ten regular-season title.
“We believe the Big Ten has eight teams that will be considered for NCAA at-large consideration,” Delany said. “The Big Ten is one of four conferences with eight teams ranked among the top 64 in the latest RPI. As is standard policy, the NCAA . . . will look at a league’s season-long accomplishments in selecting the best 34 at-large teams.”
More Top Picks Skque X1l10
One of those may be Indiana. Then again, maybe not.
The Hoosiers, who played for the national title last spring, absorbed an 80-54 loss Tuesday night at Illinois. The Hoosiers (16-9 overall, 6-6 in the Big Ten) showed a national television audience they are ready for the tournament–the National Invitation Tournament.
But back to Delany. He’s not finished preaching.
“Big Ten coaches will have their teams ready to play for the NCAA Division I men’s basketball championship. . . . I would be extremely surprised if we do not have a team or teams that advance deep into the 2003 NCAA championship,” Delany said.
“While some in the media are pessimistic about our competitive future and aspirations, I believe nothing prepares teams for NCAA competition better than playing well-coached, quality teams on a day-in, day-out basis throughout the season.”
Delany didn’t identify the pessimists in the media. The commish surely couldn’t have been referring to me. He knows me to be Mr. Sunny-Side-of-the-Street, even in February. I’m the ultimate glass-is-half-full guy–although I have noticed the Big Ten’s glass is smudged and chipped.
“I’d be surprised if our teams do not continue to perform successfully in the NCAA tournament,” Delany said. “Certainly, it will be fun to play as the `underdog’ conference, a role that teams in this conference rarely get a chance to experience.”
OK, commish, I give up. When some people think of tourney underdogs, they think of Valparaiso. Not me.
I think of gritty little Ohio State, struggling to get by on an athletic department budget of about $80 million while graduating at least a third of its football players. I think of the University of Nike–I mean, Michigan–which makes millions every time it sells out America’s largest football stadium. I think of Michigan State hoops coach Tom Izzo, who has it so good in East Lansing that he turned down a reported $15 million from the Atlanta Hawks a couple of years ago.
I’ll concede it takes imagination to think of such a mighty conference as an underdog. The same imagination could transform a landfill into landscaping. Depends on whether you’re upwind, I suppose.