Bracketology Losers: Lumps of coal this Christmas for the Pac-12 and SEC

BIG TEN

Though this league might have the best group of teams in the country, there were some speedbumps last week that knocked some of them off course. Luckily for the Big Ten, there’s still one school, Ohio State, that’s looking like a national title contender.

But others aren’t living up to the hype—at least they weren’t last week.

Take Maryland for example. The Terrapins started the season in the Top 10 and were one of the greatest beneficiaries of the problems that #1 teams have had holding onto their spot. Mark Turgeon’s club slowly crept up the rankings, reaching as high as #3 in the AP poll after Thanksgiving weekend. But fast forward a few weeks and suddenly the Terps have lost two straight that, honestly, should have been very winnable for a team so high in the rankings.

But perhaps that’s the main lesson from this early season.

The rankings don’t mean squat once the ball tips.

Oh, and while there may not be a single great team, there are a lot of very good teams. So, every night is a toss-up, more or less.

Just ask Illinois. The Illini put themselves on the map by beating Michigan two weeks ago to bring themselves back even in Big Ten play. But just when public confidence was starting to rise, they went and lost to a somewhat nondescript Missouri team. Sure, it’s a rivalry game. Anything goes. It was disappointing to see Kofi Cockburn and the rest of the squad take a step back, though. Unless they can play more consistently at the level they did when they toppled the Wolverines, this team could find itself sweating on Selection Sunday.

Surprisingly, the same goes for Purdue, if you listen to some supporters.

This Boilermakers team has been hard to pin down, to say the least.

Before we go on, let’s get something straight. Matt Painter scheduled a tough early stretch. But they are 7-5 and boast the strange combination of a win over Virginia and a loss to Nebraska on their resume. And with the Cavaliers struggling, the cachet from that win is fading quickly in West Lafayette. It’s entirely possible that VCU ends up being Purdue’s best non-conference win. They will surely regret missing earlier chances to add Florida State, Texas, and Marquette to that list. But they had an opportunity for a real whopper of a win over Butler, but just like all those other chances, the Boilermakers just weren’t able to get it done.

This team needs to start winning games.

It’s as simple as that.

I guess while we’re here, let’s pour one out for that Nebraska team. The Huskers lost to North Dakota over the weekend, a rough comedown from the high of beating the Boilermakers. And maybe pour one more for Northwestern, who made the short trip downtown to play DePaul and came away empty. The door was probably already close to shut on their at-large chances, but these teams were happy to hand out nails last week.

This league is going to get a lot of bids, but it won’t get 11. Teams like Illinois and Purdue need to tread carefully with what they put on their resume from here on out.

The Big Ten and Big East’s tandem chokehold on the at-large pool could put the squeeze on the squads in our next conference.