Another Big Ten Bashing...

Mike Imrem of the Daily Herald wrote a piece yesterday essentially bashing the Big Ten's basketball teams. As if the football bashing wasn't enough, apparently the Purdue and Michigan State don't deserve to be in. If you want to check out the article, click here.

I'm not surprised with Imrem's comments ("The Big Ten shocks me everytime it wins an NCAA Tournament game. It's like the stock market going up. You don't understand but you are grateful."). Geez, Mike, give us some credit. The Big Ten did get seven teams into the Big Dance this year, more than the alleged "ACC Powerhouse" and just as many as the "Big East Powerhouse". Oh yeah, did I mention the Big Ten is 2-0 against ACC opponents in the tournament this year (both upsets -- Michigan over Clemson, Wisconsin over Florida State).

I'd like to take this blog post to respond to some of Imrem's comments about the weakness of the Big Ten:

1. Imrem got his Wooden Award ballot and only Michigan State's Kalin Lucas, the conference's Player of the Year, was on the docket from the Big Ten.
Rebuttal: If Mr. Imrem is assuming that the Big Ten has few good players, he is gravely mistaken. Has he seen Evan Turner these last three weeks? What about what Manny Harris has done for Michigan? Or Talor Battle for Penn State? Same goes for Robbie Hummel, DeShawn Sims, Kevin Coble and Marcus Landry. Are you going to sit there and tell me that those seven guys aren't good? With the exception of Landry, all of those guys are underclassmen. The Big Ten's sophomore class is better than any conference in the country and if they stick around, they can be among the nation's elite players.

2. He remarks about Sam Smith's blog on the World's 30 best players not in the NBA. Two Big Ten players, Turner and his freshman teammate B.J. Mullens were on the list at Nos. 28 and 29. Rebuttal: Smith knows his stuff, so I'm not going to sit here and bash that, but this goes back to the previous point of the conference's perception of having no good players. Not true.

Imrem: "You probably get the idea by now. The Big Ten doesn't have as much talent as the rest of college basketball."

Really? Says who? You? Digger Phelps? Doug Gottlieb? Hubert Davis?

The Big Ten may not have an elite team like the Big East or ACC, I'll contend that. But do not, DO NOT, sit there and spew this anti-Big Ten garbage like ESPN tends to put out by basically saying this conference sucks. It doesn't. Perhaps you don't take into account the nine Final Fours Big Ten teams have been to in the last decade. Perhaps you missed seeing two of the best teams of all time in college basketball, 2005's Illinois Fighting Illini (37-2) and 2007's Ohio State Buckeyes (34-5), play for National Championships. Perhaps you are overlooking the best group of coaches in the country, right here, in America's heartland. I dare you, DARE YOU, to find a conference that has better coaches from top to bottom. Also, find me a program that you believe is truly not improving.

Write what you want. Just don't kiss our ass in two years when the conference is elite.