Cake free, but winning anyway

Big Ten football will continue to be viewed as a second-rate BCS conference in 2009 (until the nonleague and bowl showings improve), but it hasn't taken long for the best collection of basketball coaches in the country to push their league toward the top.

    The actual AP preseason poll probably won't include seven Big Ten teams as does this one, because Wisconsin probably won't be in it (even though I think the Badgers can be way better than some people think with Leuer, Nankivil and Jarmusz maturing, and Hughes and Bohannon in that backcourt, and good recruits such as Diamond Taylor arriving. But anyway).
    Six is a pretty good bet for the Big Ten, and that should be more than any other league. My rankings had three apiece for the Big East, ACC, SEC and Big 12. Maybe you drop the Badgers and add Georgetown or Clemson, but the Big Ten should start the season with the most.
    That's hardly the most important measure, but maybe it will help the league's perception. Performance and RPI should matter a lot more than they did for the Big Ten last season -- when the league cleaned up in November and December, sat no lower than No. 2 in the RPI all year, yet battled a lot of the same old stereotypes from the same old stereotypers.
    Let's be honest, though. The Big Ten was deep, solid through nine teams, and it scored a lot of impressive nonleague wins, but it was not as talented or as good as the Big East, and it only got two teams to the Sweet Sixteen and one beyond it. MSU then scored a couple of huge diggers to the midsection by knocking out Louisville and UConn.
    This time around, all of those talented Big Ten sophomores are juniors. The only two players from the league who got drafted were Goran Suton and Ohio State freshman B.J. Mullens.
    The Big East had nine -- Hasheem Thabeet, Jonny Flynn, Terrence Williams and Earl Clark in the first round and Dante Cunningham, DaJuan Summers, Sam Young, DeJuan Blair and A.J. Price in the second.
    (By the way, MSU's NCAA run came at the expense of a lot of talent. The Spartans got past UConn with the No. 2 pick (Thabeet) and No. 52 pick (Price); USC with No. 9 (DeMar DeRozan) and No. 26 (Taj Gibson); Louisville with No. 11 (Williams) and No. 14 (Clark); and don't forget the Kansas guys who stayed for another run. And the four Tar Heels who were drafted -- Tyler Hansbrough at No. 12, Ty Lawson at No. 18, Wayne Ellington at No. 28 and Danny Green at No. 46.)
    The ACC had nine players drafted -- Gerald Henderson, Hansbrough, James Johnson, Lawson, Jeff Teague, Ellington and Toney Douglas in the first round, and Green and Jack McClinton in the second.
    The Pac-10, coming off a down year, nevertheless had nine picked -- James Harden, Jordan Hill, DeRozan, Jrue Holiday, Darren Collison and Taj Gibson in the first round and Jeff Pendergraph, Jon Brockman and Chase Budinger in the second.
    That's nearly 50 percent of the draft between those three leagues. It speaks to the talent they featured last season -- and the talent they lost.
    It also supports those who say the Big Ten lags in personnel. That has been true. It will remain true in some cases. Duke and UNC order up a new batch of burger boys every year. It may change in others. The recent, likely short-lived ability of schools such as USC and Memphis to lure top prospects has been downright uncanny!
     The 2009-10 season should see a continuation of the positive effects of having so many top coaches in the Big Ten. MSU isn't going anywhere. Purdue will be strong. Tubby Smith is bringing major talent to Minnesota. Bruce Weber is rolling again. John Beilein is building a winner with his brand of player. Thad Matta has one-and-done flu, but his 2010 class might be No. 1 in the nation. Tom Crean and Indiana will ascend rapidly.
    ESPN draft analyst Chad Ford's top 100 prospects for 2010 features a lot of one-and-done guys (such as John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins at Kentucky, that Calipari guy is uncanny!), with six of his top 19 falling into that category. As is the case every year, at least a couple of those guys will be exposed by the college game and will have to do more schoolwork than originally planned.
    But while the idiotic one-and-done rule exists (perhaps only through 2010-11), the teams and leagues that attract those guys will have more talent. Outside of Columbus, not many of those guys have been coming through the Big Ten.
    Experience still matters more than some realize, though. North Carolina's four stars last season consisted of two juniors and two seniors. That's why the Tar Heels were so extraordinary.
    And now the Big Ten is getting experienced. Ford has eight Big Ten players in his top 100, with Evan Turner at No. 11, JaJuan Johnson at 34, William Buford at 40, Kalin Lucas at 56, Durrell Summers at 59, DeShawn Sims at 69, Manny Harris at 71 and Robbie Hummel at 89. Going strictly by the numbers, that's five guys who Ford would expect to be drafted a year from now.
    Progress, yes. Overwhelming, no. Consider all the other good young players who are returning and improving, though -- the entire All-Big Ten first team, all sophomores last season, is back along with six of the 10 from the second and third teams -- and the coaching and the fact that Big Ten teams play defense, and you can see why this should be a good year.
    (Too bad Mullens didn't come back for a sophomore season he could have used. But just as the Big Ten isn't quite as uncanny at luring the upper crust of high school talent in recent years, it hasn't had as much luck convincing those guys to stick around. Remember 20 years ago, when Iowa City, Champaign and Ann Arbor were teeming with future pros? Do you think the culture has changed a smidge in the Big Ten?)
    Look for this in 2009-10: More good nonleague wins, at least five Big Ten teams appearing in the rankings each week, another strong RPI showing, and three or more league teams in the Sweet Sixteen. Maybe even a repeat of 1999, 2000 and 2005, when two Big Ten teams reached the Final Four. MSU and Purdue have the chops.
    Considering both quality and cleanliness, the Big Ten is the best basketball league in America. Despite the cleanliness, it's making advances on the others.
    Now what to do about football?

Comments

[Stone]

For football, it's time to do this http://spartannation.com/?p=6478

Basketball might be in another "golden era" with the conf being as deep as it's been and as well coached as it's been. Really enjoy having Tubby Smith around, Tom Crean in the mix, and Eddie DeChelis making an actual team of the usually lowly Lions.

[spartan4life33]

That just goes to show you how good of a coach Tom Izzo really is. He gets to the final game with only 1 guy drafted. As Joe said, USC, Louiville, Uconn and North Carolina all had multiple guys drafted. It would be scary to think how good Izzo would do if he had the talent that North Carolina gets every year. Izzo continues to prove why he is one of the best coaches in America.

[Spar10Larry]

"diggers to the midsection" Nice!! Phelps can keep on dissing Spartan hoops ... seems to fire up Izzo and the boys.

[Tanfan]

Big Ten got eleven baby !!!

[Dr. J]

Purdue never makes the Final Four.

[NorthForkRancher]

..

[psyc]

As far as football goes I don't like the idea of playing any more regular season conference games. (Like BT Hoops) The brand of play around here is more physical and absolutely wears teams down. I would much rather see a team added then a championship created. Or even get rid of one of the cupcake games and schedule a real non-conference opponent.

The quality of BT basketball coaching is rediculas. The edition of Crean, Tubby and Beiline in the matter of a couple years put us way over the top.

[SteveinKY]

Coach Izzo has said many times that he wants to recruit kids who want to come to Michigan State. This would seem to indicate that he is not interested in pursuing the John Walls of the world. These one and done players frequently cause alot of problems due to NCAA violationa and hurt team unity.
Kalin Lucas wasn't interested in joining the NBA yet because he didn't want to leave his team mates (family).

This is why I love MSU. We feel it more and we try harder.
GO GREEN!

[SpartanInBuckeyeland]

Izzo does it the right way. End of discussion. I'm not one of those willing to buy a championship with one-and-dones. I truly hope Coach Izzo retires from MSU -- but not for a long, long time.

[spar-TANFAN]

You know, I never realized that Marquise Gray was ranked 15 nationally.
He was aid to be prolific player who could make an immediate impact.
In the same class Goran Suton, a three star, was noted to be a wide bodied kid with good potential.
This just shows you not only what a great choach and talent developer Izzo is, but it goes to show how much experience and teamwork matters.
I would not trade what Izzo does for anything, UNC

It also goes to show you how much a better coach Izzo is than any other coach in college basketball.

I guess im done ranting.

[rooster]

Shannon Brown -World Champion...
No rating required.

[Tanfan]

Big 10 got talent baby !!!
Tanner on fire baby !!!

[LeeBee]

B10 will get Basketball respect only when it wins a majority of the B10-ACC challenge a couple of years in a row.

[Laconophilia]

The ACC can continue to win the ACC B10 challenge as long as we keep raising Final Four banners.

[robb.]

i like how "uncanny" is code for "NCAA rule violator."

[buy fioricet]

DeJuan Blair was a bear of a man.. He's a monster of the board..