The Big Ten’s NCAA Tournament was a success, but to win the ultimate prize, more must be done

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Houston’s brilliantly designed inbounds play with less than three seconds to go prevented Purdue from potentially reaching the Elite Eight. Auburn’s 17-0 first-half run kept Michigan State coach Tom Izzo from a ninth trip to the Final Four. Maryland and Michigan ran into better teams in the Sweet 16, but both played in the second weekend one year removed from losing seasons.

The Big Ten’s eight qualifiers for this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament maxed out their performances. All eight won their first-round matchups, and only one of their tournament exits came at the hands of an opponent ranked lower in the NET and KenPom’s adjusted efficiency margin. But for a league bursting with financial resources, not sending a team to the Final Four — let alone not winning an NCAA title for the 25th consecutive season — is nothing short of disappointing. But it’s hardly surprising.

The Big Ten is built on coaching prowess, player development and defense. All but four Big Ten teams ranked in the top 80 in defensive efficiency this year. But elite backcourt talent cuts down the nets. That’s the area where the Big Ten is far behind its peer conferences, and it’s struggling to catch up.

Two Big Ten players were named All-Americans: Purdue point guard Braden Smith and Wisconsin combo guard John Tonje. Their ascension reflects the elite development Big Ten players receive from their coaches. Smith was a three-star recruit ranked No. 216 overall by 247Sports before Matt Painter turned him into college basketball’s best point guard. Tonje was an unrated prospect when he signed with Colorado State in 2019. After an injury-plagued season at Missouri, Tonje landed with the Badgers this year and became one of the sport’s best stories.

But the Big Ten needs more than overachievers on the recruiting front. Rutgers tried to make it happen with five-star freshmen Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey this year, but the chemistry was off, and the Scarlet Knights missed the tournament. In the 15 years before Harper and Bailey, Big Ten programs signed just seven top-10 prospects based on 247Sports Composite rankings, and only one was a guard. The league couldn’t secure its recruiting footprint: Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul produced eight top-10 players over that span, and none picked a Big Ten school.

The 2025 class follows a similar path. The Big Ten has just two five-star signees on the way: USC shooting guard Alijah Arenas (No. 7 by 247Sports composite rankings) and Michigan combo guard Trey McKenney (No. 17 overall). They’re the Big Ten’s only incoming freshmen ranked in the top 30. Final Four participants Duke and Houston combined to grab seven top-25 recruits, while Arizona, UConn, Arkansas and Louisville have two apiece.

To win a national championship, the Big Ten needs a talent infusion everywhere, especially on its best teams. The only way to get it for next season is through the transfer portal. So far, the league has landed two of the top four transfers ranked by 247Sports (No. 2 Bennett Stirtz to Iowa, No. 4 Donovan Dent to UCLA). But that’s not how Big Ten powers Purdue and Michigan State usually build their rosters.

After a national title appearance in 2024, Purdue did not add a player through the transfer portal. Every Boilermakers starter in this year’s Sweet 16 was a homegrown product. Michigan State, which won this year’s Big Ten regular-season title, brought in two transfers, and both were role players.

“We’ve just stayed the same path as we have before,” Painter said during a Sweet 16 news conference. “We’ve taken transfers before. Even though we’ve taken two people out of the portal in four years — probably the fewest amount in the country — but we still took someone out of the portal that was a big piece for us last year, going to the Final Four in Lance Jones. We’re going to get a guy or two here in the portal in the spring.

“It’s just kind of the way in terms of how you recruit and how you go about things.”

Along with talent acquisition, style of play and tempo also figure into the factors separating the Big Ten from national contenders. Purdue was the conference’s only team to rank in the top 12 in offensive efficiency, but it was 300th in Division I in possessions per 40 minutes, according to KenPom. Teams build themselves to withstand the regular season of what is traditionally college basketball’s most physical league and be successful within it, almost at the expense of NCAA Tournament success.

“When I came up in this league, winning the Big Ten championship was the greatest thing in the world,” Izzo said after earning the outright Big Ten title in Iowa City this season. “Because you go through 20 games, man, and that’s a grind.

“You can win three games in the (Big Ten) tournament and get lucky. You can win four games and get to a Final Four. It’s impressive, but it ain’t like the grind of the 20 games that we just got done playing. People, unfortunately, think we barely play basketball until the end of (March).”

The road to a league title — and ultimately NCAA success — is that much more difficult for West Coast newcomers Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA, all of whom took four trips to the Eastern or Central time zones during regular-season action. USC coach Eric Musselman proposed the league should examine three-game road trips like the NBA. Other coaches have suggested more travel during a school’s winter break, starting league action as early as possible or shortening the mandated scheduling principle of two preparation days to one, in the interest of lessening the strain of several long road trips.

“It’s going to be really, really hard for a West Coast team to win the Big Ten regular season, because there’s just disadvantages with having to take four trips compared to one,” Washington coach Danny Sprinkle said. “It would have to take an elite team, kind of like Purdue last year. You’d better have somebody like Zach Edey in order to withstand a lot of that.”

Edey, the consensus national player of the year in 2024, elevated the Boilermakers to the NCAA title game. In the championship, the 7-foot-4 Edey scored 37 of Purdue’s 60 points. However, UConn’s backcourt outscored Purdue’s 46-17, and the Huskies won the title by 15.

This year, Michigan State won the regular-season crown by three games yet didn’t have a player voted first- or second-team All-Big Ten. Of the league’s top nine scorers, seven played for teams that didn’t even qualify for the NCAA tournament. To compete on the highest stage, the Big Ten needs that number reversed. Whether it’s by development, portal acquisition or traditional recruiting methods, the Big Ten needs elite playmakers competing for its best teams.

“In today’s era, players are more offensively motivated,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “Not that they weren’t before, but I think just with all the development, the personal trainers, just a lot of things have changed within the game that make it that you have to be able to score. If you look at the teams that consistently play deep into the tournament, they’ve got some pretty good offensive firepower. Some of that comes through NBA-level players.”

With the extended travel, the league office must help all teams stay fresh as they enter the postseason. USC and Washington have each signed three top-100 recruits; Oregon and UCLA each won an NCAA Tournament game. To bog them down with five trips east (counting the Big Ten tournament) over 10 weeks could accelerate their physical wear and tear and worsen their NCAA seeding. One trip packaged differently could turn into one more regular-season victory or one higher NCAA Tournament seed or perhaps one or more rounds of advancement. In a parity-rich tournament where one possession regularly determines history, that’s history.

The Big Ten reached its ceiling in this year’s NCAA tournament, a testament to its players and coaches. But for the league to reach the third weekend with a legitimate chance at a title, its talent must match its outsized influence. Otherwise, the names will change, but the story will stay the same.

(Photo: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)

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