Give the Big Ten a Gold Star

I was impressed with Penn State's perseverance tonight in digging out the NIT championship against Baylor. Just another example of the Big Ten's strength this year. Can you believe the Nittany Lions finished with 27 wins?!

More specifically, I was impressed with Jamelle Cornley. The undersized, injury-plagued senior forward was a great representative for the Big Ten Conference. He must have gotten the memo. Cornley turned in some gritty performances in the NIT after hurting his shoulder. Penn State will miss his game enormously next year.

Penn State also loses two other seniors who logged a lot of time in Happy Valley in Stanley Pringle and Danny Morrissey. The team loses almost half of its scoring and a third of its rebounding with those three, so I am not sure where the Nitts will fall in the conference pecking order next season. Battle returns of course, and Penn State also has a pair of big, long bodies in Andrew Jones and Jeff Brooks that flashed potential.

As for the real tournament, the Big Ten would have been expected to post a 6-7 record based on seeding alone, but has already secured a winning record thanks to the run by Michigan State. Add an 8-7 record (or maybe even 10-6 if MSU gets crazy) in the NCAA Tournament to Penn State's postseason success, and you almost forget about Indiana's epically embarrassing season and Iowa's impending disaster.

The future looks bright for the conference despite not having any incoming McDonald's All-Americans. The all-conference team was littered with sophomore stars, so keep an eye on April 26 -- the deadline for early entrants to declare for the NBA Draft. Purdue's JuJuan Johnson has already announced he will be back (as expected), while Ohio State's Evan Turner seems the most likely to bolt.

Marcus Landry is in Detroit as I type this, awaiting his chance to display his skills in the NABC College All-Star Game on Friday night. After that, Landry's next stop will be the Portsmouth Invitational event out in Virginia next week to see if he can get any indications that an NBA team might want to take a chance on him. Best of luck to him. Joe Krabbenhoft must settle for getting bashed (along with his father) in the comments section on a hometown newspaper site. Unbelievable ...

So the question is, can I root for Michigan State this weekend? In a word, yes. With conference pride. And also because it helps my ridiculous bracket.

Around the Brackets

Wisconsin's extended break from competition will come to an end tomorrow when they play at Penn State. Add Michigan State's horrific loss to Iowa to the recent St. Louis debacle and UW's own nightmare against Duke looks slightly more acceptable. Not to mention Wisconsin's entire Dick Bennett Era. How has Roy Williams managed to contain himself?

Indiana and Wisconsin are now the final two teams still undefeated in Big Ten play. Over at ESPN.com, Joe Lunardi has moved the Badgers into a #3 seed in this week's Bracketology. Wisconsin joins Indiana and Marquette on the 3-Line, with Texas A&M. I eagerly anticipate next week's update of the Lockbox at The Bracket Board (love the lime green!), where there Badgers were a #4 seed 10 days ago.

If you are interested in such things, The Bracket Matrix attempts to track all relevant NCAA Tournament projections together in a grid format and reach a consensus. Wisconsin is a #4 here as well.

Sour Sixteen

With all my tournament brackets officially busted, it's time to handicap the Sweet 16. A second chance - huzzah!

MIDWEST
(1)Florida v. (5)Butler
winner: Florida
(3)Oregon v. (7)UNLV
winner: Oregon

WEST
(1)Kansas v. (4)S. Illinois
winner: Kansas
(2)UCLA v. (3)Pittsburgh
winner: Pittsburgh

EAST
(1)N. Carolina v. (5)USC
winner: N. Carolina
(2)Georgetown v. (6)Vanderbilt
winner: Georgetown

SOUTH
(1)Ohio State v. (5)Tennessee
winner: Tennessee
(2)Memphis v. (3)Texas A&M
winner: Texas A&M

FINAL FOUR
(1)Florida v. (1)Kansas
winner: Kansas
(2)Georgetown v. (3)Texas A&M
winner: Texas A&M

2007 NCAA CHAMPION:
Kansas

Is that possible? It is a risky proposition to put your faith in Bill Self at tournament time. When I look at Kansas, I see a team with at least five future NBA players. More importantly, the Jayhawks have supremely talented players that play very good defense. I will ignore the fact that Kansas has no seniors on their entire roster.