Hello and welcome to a very special, Postseason edition of This B1G Week. With this season being as great for the Big Ten as it was I thought it required one more edition for the 2020-21 season. We'll start by looking at the NINE teams that made the tournament and then talk about the five who did not.
Tournament Teams
Michigan
- Seed Line: 1 Seed
- First Round Opponent: Mount Saint Mary's Mountaineers or Texas Southern Tigers
- Potential Second Round Opponents: LSU Tigers or Saint Bonaventure Bonnies
- Thoughts: The biggest missed opportunity for the Selection Committee was not making it so a 16 seed Appalachian State play a heavily favorited Michigan team. Yes that game was 14 years ago but we can't let them forget. The second round should be difficult. LSU was a bounce away from winning the SEC tournament and St. Bonaventure is a very, very good team.
Illinois
- Seed Line: 1 Seed
- First Round Opponent: Drexel Dragons
- Potential Second Round Opponents: Loyola Chicago Ramblers or Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
- Thoughts: Let's not waste time on the first round. Illinois didn't get much help in the second round. Loyola Chicago is a top ten KenPom team and Georgia Tech just won the ACC Tournament. Ulimately Illinois will still be heavily favorited but it'll still be very tough.
Iowa
- Seed Line: 2 Seed
- First Round Opponent: Grand Canyon Antelopes
- Potential Second Round Opponents: Oregon Ducks or VCU Rams
- Thoughts: Iowa has the tougher road to the Sweet 16 of the two Big Ten 2 seeds. Oregon and VCU are both teams that are capable of winning against Iowa. Grand Canyon is a decent 15 seed but I don't think good enough to pull of the upset.
Ohio State
- Seed Line: 2 Seed
- First Round Opponent: Oral Roberts Golden Eagles
- Potential Second Round Opponents: Florida Gators or Virginia Tech Hokies
- Thoughts: I don't think the Buckeyes are going to have much competition until they reach the Sweet 16. Oral Roberts shouldn't be too much of a problem. While Florida and Virginia Tech are good teams I don't think they're good enough to make OSU sweat that much.
Purdue
- Seed Line: 4 Seed
- First Round Opponent: North Texas Mean Green
- Potential Second Round Opponents: Villanova Wildcats or Winthrop Eagles
- Thoughts: Purdue's first round opponenet isn't too interesting. North Texas isn't a bad team but they're probably the weakest 13 seed in the tournament. Their second round foe sets the Boilers up well to make the Sweet 16. Nova lost their star player and leader. Winthrop is a popular upset pick but I'm not sure the Eagles to knock off two teams of this level in a row.
Wisconsin
- Seed Line: 9 Seed
- First Round Opponent: North Carolina Tar Heels
- Potential Second Round Opponents: Baylor Bears or Hartford Hawks
- Thoughts: The Badgers did this to themselves. They were very bad down the stretch almost as if it was carma coming back from how the ended last season. It'll be difficult to get past North Carolina in the first round and if they do they're rewarded by playing the second best team in the country.
Rutgers
- Seed Line: 10 Seed
- First Round Opponent: Clemson Tigers
- Potential Second Round Opponents: Houston Cougars or Cleveland State Vikings
- Thoughts: The Scarlet Knights have a very interesting game the first round. Clemson is one of the better defensive teams in the country which means this should be a strength on strength matchup. In the second round I might actually like Rutgers to pull off the upset against a Houston team that's been up and down all year.
Maryland
- Seed Line: 10 Seed
- First Round Opponent: UConn Huskies
- Potential Second Round Opponents: Alabama Crimson Tide or Iona Gaels
- Thoughts: This is a very tough draw for the Terps. UConn is a very good team and have a guard in James Bouknight that has the elements to be the talk of the tournament. If they do get past the Huskies they have to go against notorious basketball school Alabama.
Michigan State
- Seed Line: 11 Seed (First Four)
- First Four Opponent: UCLA Bruins
- Potential First Round Opponents: BYU Cougars
- Thoughts: I like many was surprised to see MSU this low on the seed line. It certainly didn't help that there were multiple big thieves but it still feels low. UCLA is a tough draw being arguably the best team in their power conference. If they do win I think they are set up well to beat BYU in the first round. This, afterall, is a team that beat two of the 1 Seeds and one of the 2 Seeds.
Tournament Teams
Indiana
- Final Record: 12-15 (7-12)
- What's Next?: The team will be heading in a new direction with the hiring of Archie Miller after four seasons so the next thing for IU will be finding a new head coach.
- Outlook For The Future: Indiana and Minnesota are going to get the same outlook in as it just depends on who gets the job. Indiana has a ton of resources, just look at the fact they get donors to pay the entirity of Archie Miller's 10 Million Dollar buyout, and is the biggest brand in the hotbed of high school basketball talent. If the right guy gets the job a sleeping giant can be awaken but we did say the same thing when Archie Miller was hired.
Minnesota
- Final Record: 14-15 (6-14)
- What's Next?: First thing first is replacing Richard Pitino who was let go ahead 8 seasons in the Twin Cities.
- Outlook For The Future: Just like Indiana this will depend on the hire. Richard Pitino was more successful than I original projected. He had a few solid years but they were surrounded with many disappointing years. The Golden Gophers do play in the second largest city in the Big Ten which could be helpful in attracting recuits and a new coach.
Penn State
- Final Record: 11-14 (7-12)
- What's Next?: The Nittany Lions are the third team making a coaching change but have already hired a new coach in Purdue assistant Micah Shrewsberry so the next thing is getting the new staff set in place for the team.
- Outlook For The Future: I'm a big fan of this hire. Yes he hasn't been a head coach aside from a few year stint at NAIA level Indiana Univeristy South Bend. He has a solid track record as an assistant having been under Brad Stevens at Butler and with the Celtics and under Matt Painter at Purdue. He's known for his ability to help develope young players at both the collegiate and professional level. Overall I think he can be successful at a place like Penn State where he'll have time to get the program running with football being the top priority at the school.
Northwestern
- Final Record: 9-15 (6-13)
- What's Next?: Figuring out what worked well during their three game Big Ten winning streaks to start and end the conference season and what didn't work in the winless time inbetween.
- Outlook For The Future: It's hard to tell what the future will look like for the Wildcats. They have some good pieces and they definitely improved this season but I'm not sure they're going to get good enough to make their second ever NCAA Tournament.
Nebraska
- Final Record: 7-20 (3-16)
- What's Next?: The Huskers need to figure out the roster for next since their coach Fred Hoiberg utilizes the transfer market to an extreme.
- Outlook For The Future: After two miserable years things are looking up in Lincoln. For a lot of the season the Huskies were just plain bad but they had some bright spots and improved on their record from season one of Hoiberg's tenure. Nebraska will get a big lift by bringing in a five star guard, a second top 100 recruit, and one of the top junior college players.
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