No Big Ten team has won an NCAA Tournament since Michigan State in 2000, but Michigan changed all that on Monday night, beating Connecticut 69-63. They were the 16th conference team since 2000 to have a chance at the Final Four, and the first to get it done. The nightmare is over.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — There's no denying that the Big Ten is a great basketball conference. It always has been, and always will be.
That's why it was all so shocking, watching the league go 26 years without winning a national championship. Michigan State won in 2000, and Michigan finally won again on Monday night, beating Connecticut 69-63.
The national nightmare is over.
Two Big Ten teams reached the Final Four this year, Michigan and Illinois, which lost to UConn in the semifinals. Illinois was the 15th Big Ten team to get to the Final Four since 2000 — and lose.
Michigan was the 16th, and they finally got it done.
It's been interesting, watching this journey, because it shows off the depth of the league. Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin have all been to a Final Four, some multiple times.
There is pride among the brethren, as well. They beat up on each other all year long and scratch and claw against each other in recruiting, but when it's all said and done, Michigan winning it all for the Big Ten is a good thing for everyone.
Michigan coach Dusty May, who was a student manager under Bob Knight at Indiana, was asked about conference pride on Sunday. He explained it all perfectly. Michigan first, of course, but for the good of the league as well.
"As far as winning one for the Big Ten, we want to win one for each other first. Those that have supported us and put us in position to be here, all those that have poured into everyone in our locker room,'' May said. "We want to win one for the University of Michigan who we represent and our fan base. And then also we're in the Big Ten, so we take pride in representing the Big Ten.
"As far as bygone history, all that stuff, I am from an era where whatever team I'm on, that's who I'm fighting with. If Michigan is on my jersey, Michigan is on your jersey, then I'm with you, no questions asked. We take a lot of pride in representing Michigan, and with that, the Big Ten conference because every year we're competing against each other, we're competing against the SEC, the Big 12, the Big East, all these other leagues. The better we can do as a group, as a league, it also helps financially as TV contracts are renegotiated and things like that. So we have to do well for us and the Big Ten if we want to continue to be on the cutting edge and hopefully be in the premier basketball league in the country.''
This Final Four was my last event in a career that's lasted nearly five decades, and it's time to retire. I've seen a lot of Big Ten failure in the back half of that career, so I was hoping for some good conference story lines on the way out the door.
I got it.
The league had five of its nine teams advance to the Sweet 16, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State and Purdue. The Boilermakers made it to the Elite Eight as well. It was a fun final run, and seeing Iowa beat defending champion Florida live in Tampa was cool, too.
It was a final NCAA tournament worth remembering.
College basketball has changed a lot in the past few years. NIL and the transfer portal has changed everything. Get it right, and you can be a champion. Get it wrong, like Juwan Howard did three years ago, and you win eight games and get fired.
Building a brand new roster with all new players every year is stupid. I had to watch it at Indiana this year, with 13 new players and zero returning minutes. The Hoosiers missed the NCAA Tournament, probably by one game. While Michigan hit with most of their transfer portal additions, Indiana only got it right with a couple.
A swing, a miss.
Getting the transfer portal exactly right is a hard ask these days. Most every Big Ten school has plenty of money to spend these days, and they all now value its importance.
They're all trying to accomplish what Michigan just did. Everyone chasing that one prize.
Putting together the perfect roster is the goal. And it's a lofty one.
"I would say we look more at personality traits. There's a baseline of talent for us to recruit to at Michigan, but we also try to recruit guys that are unselfish that enjoy passing the ball, that either love to compete or love to hoop,'' Michigan's May said. "If you love to hoop, you're going to enjoy being around us every day, and if you don't love to hoop then the competition piece is going to be enough for us. Then after that, as far as being big, we felt like that's very safe defensively. If we can be really big, then we've got that side of the ball covered because we have confidence in our ability to teach the game on that side.
"Offensively it's always a puzzle because there's so much that goes into it. We just want guys with unique skill sets, that have a skill set. They don't have to be great at everything, but also teaching the self-awareness of what they are great at. They need to live in those strengths, while we're going to work diligently after practice, before practice expanding their game and showing them that their long-term growth and development as individuals is important to us, as well.''
And winning a national championship will always be the goal at Michigan. It's the goal at Michigan State and Purdue and Illinois and UCLA and even Indiana, too.
Michigan got it done. Who will be next?
"We want to win at a high, high level. I want to be at this press conference (at the Final Four) on Sunday next year,'' May said. "But we also want our guys to feel like when they leave here that we poured into them and invested in them outside of just winning for us and winning for Michigan.
"And I say the guys that put the team above themselves — we don't expect them to put the team — just put the team on the same plane. Their individual success and development is important to them, and it has to be important for us if we're going to earn their trust, and they're going to do what our guys have done.''
It worked for Michigan this year. Who does it work for next year?
I'll be watching. Not from the press box, but I'll be watching.
Big Ten basketball is in good hands. Big Ten football, too, with three different champions — Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana — in the past three years.