I was just checking the scores before writing a post congratulating the Big 10 on getting through the first round of the NCAA tournament without a loss. I knew Ohio State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan State and Purdue had won and the last I saw Illinois was beating up on Virginia late in the game which would have been a pretty big upset.
Apparently, the Illini forgot how to score any points over the last few minutes of the game and let Virginia come back and get the win. I was really pulling for Illinois since Pruitt went to my high school and was coached by the same coaches as I was.
I was entirely ready to suggest that maybe a one or two more Big 10 teams should have gotten into the tournament based on the first round success of the teams that did make it.
But, alas, Illinois choked meaning that I really can’t complain about Iowa or Michigan not making the cut. Especially since Michigan got pounded in the first round of the NIT and Iowa wasn’t even good enough to really deserve to get into the NIT this year.
The Big 10 is left with 5 pretty good looking teams with the lower 3 seeded teams getting some really great opportunities to make some noise.
Tomorrow Indiana gets to take on 2 seed UCLA. On Sunday, Michigan State gets to play 1 seed North Carolina and Purdue gets to play 1 seed Florida. Go Big 10. Destroys everybody’s office pool.