Big Ten Basketball: 3 biggest storylines for 2019 offseason
By Adam Childs
Big Ten Basketball had a resurgence this past year after a down 2017-18 season. It looks like it could be an even better conference next year. We take a look at the top storylines for the offseason.
Big Ten Basketball struggled in the 2017-18 season as only four teams made it to the Big Dance and had it not been for Michigan making the national championship game, it would have been a total loss. Nebraska had a great record but didn’t even make the tournament because they had very few big wins because the Big Ten was bad. The conference needed to come back strong this year and that is exactly what it did.
The Big Ten sent the most teams to the tournament from any conference with eight. They had three teams make it to the Sweet 16, with Maryland just missing out. Purdue was a second away from beating eventual national champion Virginia and Michigan State made it to the Final Four taking down tourney favorite Duke.
They had their bad teams in Northwestern, Illinois, Penn State, and Rutgers, but even those teams upset some top-tier teams. There were no easy games in the conference this year and especially if you went on the road.
Cassius Winston came from what seemed like nowhere to almost win national player of the year and the conference had some of the best seniors led by Ethan Happ.
The conference rebounded in a big way and it couldn’t have come at a better time. What is more promising for the Big Ten is that it looks like it could be even better next year. There is a lot of talent returning even with the natural attrition that happens each year.
But before we get to the next season we must first make it through the offseason and that will tell us a lot about how the year will go. There have been a few changes, but most of the conference will look about the same next year. Even with that, there are some key storylines heading into the offseason. We take a look at the three biggest ones.