Epic Choke Job by the B14

[ATL MU Warrior]

Exactly. Good, but not great. No lottery pick. Only Ayo goes in 1st round.

Yeah, it's gonna take a while for Cockburn.

[lawdog77]

Yeah, it's gonna take a while for Cockburn.

His usage rate needs to increase

[Jockey]

Yeah, it's gonna take a while for Cockburn.

One-trick pony. No mobility. No defense.

That doesn't play in the NBA today.

[Galway Eagle]

Exactly. Good, but not great. No lottery pick. Only Ayo goes in 1st round.

What's Livers' injury? He certainly had 1st round potential.

[MU82]

The Big Ten is just fine.

Unless I have miscounted, the Big Ten has put more teams in the Final Four than any other conference since the year 2000.  They have been represented 16 times by six different schools.  Since Michigan State won it in 2000, they have lost seven national championship games.

Sure they haven't won it, but they have been very successful in the tournament.  The only conference arguably better has been the ACC.

Agree, in general, about the B14 representing itself pretty well over the years.

But the B14 wasn't "just fine" this year, and is very mock-able.

Unlike in non-COVID seasons, there was precious little non-con play by which to judge things. But that didn't stop talking heads at every turn from declaring that the B14 was not only the best conference in the nation this season but maybe the best EVER. Ever!

Sadly for the B14 sycophants, when the league finally got its chance to prove itself against national competition on the biggest stage, it shat the bed.

Three of the headliners -- Illinois (favored by many to win it all), Ohio State and Iowa -- were embarrassingly woeful in their elimination games.

Michigan at least had a legit injury-related excuse, and UCLA is looking like a team of destiny; plus Michigan did get to the Elite 8, so they have nothing to be embarrassed about. But otherwise, the conference simply didn't produce on a national scale.

Pretty funny to see the AAC and the WCC (not to mention the Pac-12) represented in the Final Four ... but The Greatest Conference Ever, the one that was gonna put 3 or 4 teams in the FF, ain't got nuthin'!

[Jockey]

What's Livers' injury? He certainly had 1st round potential.

Livers could end up being the best NBA guy out of the B10 this year. He is made for the 3-and-D role.

[LAZER]

We're not talking about MU now, this is about the Big14Ten conference.  However, MU's conference has had more recent NCAA tournament championships than the Big14Ten in the last 20 years. 

And MU was 1-0 vs. the Big14Ten this season.

Since 2014, the Big 10 has significantly outperformed the Big East in the NCAA tournament.  While NC's are obviously important, I don't think they reflect the strength of a conference.

[TVDirector]

One-trick pony. No mobility. No defense.

That doesn't play in the NBA today.

now only if he had a rocket launcher...

[GooooMarquette]

What's Livers' injury? He certainly had 1st round potential.

Official word is 'stress injury,' which could mean anything from minor trauma to the bone to a stress fracture. Should be fine with rest.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Dr. B mentioned that their approach has "limited their post season success."  I would argue they have been plenty successful but short of winning it all.

For instance, I don't think the new BE has been overly impressive outside of Villanova winning two titles.

I guess I wouldn't call that success but underperforming their ratings, especially for the size of their conference. Based of the affiliation at the time, the B1G has 14 Final Fours and zero natties this century. MSU has five of those.

The ACC has 12/7. BE has 10/6. Big 12 has 11/1. SEC has 10/3. PAC has 6/0. (Numbers count 2021 F4).

Again, will they be okay? Yes, they are productive....up until the point of ultimate success, especially considering the amount of teams in the conference. They are statistically overrated because of the factors I mentioned, and certainly didn't deserve having four teams seeded in the top 2.

Basketball centricity (either conference or school within a football conference like MSU or Kansas) matters.

[LAZER]

Dr. B mentioned that their approach has "limited their post season success."  I would argue they have been plenty successful but short of winning it all.

For instance, I don't think the new BE has been overly impressive outside of Villanova winning two titles.

Some back of the envelope math here, but since 2014 I have NCAA tournament records as:

B10 - 68-48
BE   - 36-34 (18-29 for non-Nova schools)

[cheebs09]

This probably warrants its own thread, but isn't it weird how in the last few years we've seeing guys like Markus, Powell, and Garza contend for the Naismith trophy but have low chances of getting drafted? I wonder if that's just a recent fluke or if there's a potential trend here.

I think it’s similar to the Heisman in college football. What works in college doesn’t always work against a league full of pros donning 15 years in age.

I remember Scottie Reynolds being a great college player but didn’t do much in the pros.

[MU82]

Some are arguing B14 vs BEast. And that's certainly fair game. As arre the B14's performance this century and all-time.

But some of us are just having fun laughing at The Greatest Conference Ever's performance in March.

One 1-seed lost to an MVC team. The other fell to a team that barely qualified (and needed to beat another underperforming B14 team in the "first four" just to stay in the tourney). One 2-seed lost to the Summit League's 4th-place team. The other 2 was run out of the gym by a 7-seed. A 4-seed lost to the 3rd-place finisher in Conference USA's West division.

Ladies and gentlemen, your fearsome B14 of 2020-21!