Let's take a quick trip in the Way Back Machine. The year: 2009. You remember 2009, right? Conan O'Brien was still on speaking terms with NBC. New Orleans Saints fans were a sad sack group that actually had to wait until Mardi Gras to start partying. Eighteen conquests represented what Tiger Woods did on the golf course. And college basketball conference races were generally entertaining.
Strange days, I know.
That's why the five-wide horserace in the Big Ten is so stinking exciting. Look around the major conferences: Vanderbilt might "only" be a game behind Kentucky in SEC land, but I'll bet the Commodores' "2010 SEC Champs" t-shirts are probably not in production just yet. And thanks to Texas' spiral down the commode, Kansas had a three-game edge on Kansas State and Texas A&M as of Monday morning. Sure, Syracuse and Villanova are tight in the Big East, but somehow the top two spots of a 16-team conference were locked up in January. Outside of a Sweet-16-at-best Duke team, is there a single team in the ACC you'd guarantee gets out of the NIT's first round, let alone the big tourney? And no, just because four losses separate first and last in the Pac-10 doesn't make it a race. I might as well watch the World Series of Coin-Flipping.
But in the ultra-competitive heartland, there's a slugfest for the conference title. Entering this week, an improbable five Big Ten heavyweights still had a clear path to the title belt. Michigan State and Purdue entered the season as the favorites, and it's hard to argue their February 28th tilt in West Lafayette won't be the biggest clue left in solving the conference puzzle. But both squads still have to go through the good ship Buckeye, which somehow managed to stay afloat without the best player in the country, Evan Turner, for five weeks. Ohio State has been on a roll since Turner's return, with the development of his supporting cast a silver lining to his horrific back injury.
Just at their hindquarters lurk the two dark horses. Wisconsin, whose media guide every year might as well read, "Will outperform expectations by 25% this season," sit poised to take advantage of their remaining schedule. The Badgers will only face one of the other four contenders, a season-closer at Illinois. As for those Illini, Bruce Weber's team managed to surge from bubble status only a couple weeks ago to possible conference champs. They're probably the longest shot to take the crown, but it's hard to forget their handling of Wisconsin in Madison, a place ranked teams often find themselves about to be ranked lower.
It's a fascinating and, likely, rare scenario. While the rest of the country lives (Kentucky) and dies (North Carolina) with its freshmen, the Big Ten has managed to amass an impressive lineup of old-timers. Players like Turner, Kalin Lucas, Robbie Hummel, Jason Bohannon, and Mike Tisdale actually played in postseason games last decade (I know, I know; it's still last decade, work with me here). In fact, don't be surprised if these grizzled children of the '80s outperform expectations in March. As odd as it sounds, they have been in three and four times as many games as the first-year phenoms and their coaches have that much more experience working with these specific players. Sure, Kentucky looks like a juggernaut, but does John Calipari know how his young players will react when they face adversity in the tournament?
Certainly, in coming years as this group of veteran players matriculates through the conference, the Big Ten will look like its major conference peers. But in a sport dominated by the boom and bust of one-and-done recruiting, it's refreshing to see a good old-fashioned pennant race on the shores of the Great Lakes.
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