Big Ten Tournament history.
by John M (The Crimson Quarry) on Mar 10, 2009 3:21 PM EDT
4 comments
- As bad as the Illini were last year, their three wins further expanded the Illini's lead over most of the pack.
- IU's overall BTT record is unremarkable, but IU is 3-0 when forced to play on the first day. Of course, this is the first time that IU has been seeded lower than #8 in the BTT and therefore the first time IU has been playing on day one as an underdog.
- IU's first round opponent, Penn State, has won only one BTT game in the last seven tournaments, even though the Nittany Lions have played on the first day in each of those seasons.
- Purdue has reached the weekend only twice, and is the only Big Ten school that hasn't won a BTT game in Indianapolis. That looked certain to end last year, when IU and Purdue seemed destined for a semifinal matchup, but IU lost to Minnesota and Purdue lost to Illinois.
- Michigan is the only one-time winner of the tournament. Five schools have won it twice, and five schools have never won it.
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it's funny that IU and Purdue
have historically been very mediocre in the BTT considering that the games have mostly been in Indianapolis or Chicago – two pretty big alumni bases for both schools.
i really like the way Purdue’s draw is set up for them. considering Michigan State doesn’t usually play well, this may be the most wide open the Tournament has ever been.
Ewing with the step...YES! and the foul!
by Anthony Masons Haircut on Mar 10, 2009 4:48 PM EDT reply actions
Yep.
It’s also hard to believe that the two schools have only played each other once (the first year in Chicago—#3 Purdue beat #6 IU). I didn’t want to do a complete cut and paste job from my post last year, but in that one I noted that in the 25 years prior to the BTT, either IU, Purdue, or both won a share of the Big Ten regular season title in 18 of the seasons. It would have been hard to predict on the eve of the inaugural tournament in 1998 than in 2009, neither IU nor Purdue would ever have won the thing and that each school would have just one title game appearance. Of course, these haven’t been glory days for either program. IU’s share of the 2002 Big Ten championship is the only one by either school in that time.
Illinois certainly has used its advantage in Chicago, but the Illini have played well in Indy as well.
by John M (The Crimson Quarry) on Mar 10, 2009 5:45 PM EDT reply actions
Eh
The BTT tourney never really meant much to me in the past since we just conformed as a league to be like everyone else. Don’t get me wrong I’d like to see IU make a little run at things. I don’t think the tourney has anything to do with how well the team will perform in the big dance. OSU won the tourney in 02 but we were in the final game.
If things came easy, then everybody would be great at what they did, let's face it.
Mike Ditka
Catch Phrase of the day: YAAAAAAAY! <---- Courtesy of ChiFan13.
I don't think it's a question of having a tourney or not.
There’s no way to expect the conference (any big conference) to not have a tournament. Sure, the B10 was one of the last to start one up but to image them not having one now is crazy. It’s a way to get more media exposure and show off some of the best teams.
Now, whether the conference tourney champ should get the auto-bid in our conference or any conference is a whole separate issue — and I think they way they’re doing it now is completely wrong. Especially in small conferences when only one team makes it to the dance…the whole regular season is essentially a waste.
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