NCAA Basketball: Big Ten record bids, Baylor as #1, and more weekly takeaways

1) Big Ten may challenge record for NCAA Tournament bids

Outside of Michigan State, who is a perfect 5-0 in the conference play, everyone in the Big Ten has fallen victim to the upset bug (usually on the road).

Take Maryland, for instance. On Tuesday, they handled Ohio State at home and beat them by double digits. Then, on Friday, they played one of their worst games of the season against Iowa and lost by 18. An Iowa team, mind you, that had been upset by Nebraska earlier in the week.

The result of such parity, on the heels of a quality non-conference performance for the conference as a whole, is that virtually everyone has a legitimate chance to make the NCAA Tournament.

Outside of Northwestern and Nebraska, every Big Ten team has a top 56 NET ranking as of Saturday, and six ranks in the top 23. And, so far, Northwestern is the only team without a Quadrant 1 win.

In Busting Brackets bracketologist Lukas Harkins’ most recent projection, 10 teams from the conference are expected to earn bids. The record was set by the old Big East when 11 of the conference’s 16 teams were selected. Considering that Purdue and Minnesota were not included in Harkins’ field and are currently on the NCAA Tournament bubble, it certainly looks like the Big Ten will at least challenge the Big East’s record

Either way, it’s clear they’re going to the conference with the most bids this season.