Chicago — Seeing the Big Ten dominate the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament and send a league-record six teams to the Sweet 16 might come as a surprise to some.
It wasn’t for Michigan guard Elliot Cadeau, who filled out his own March Madness bracket just for laughs and had three conference teams in the Final Four: Michigan, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
“It’s something I expected. I played in the ACC (at North Carolina), which is a really good conference, but coming out here, it was a little bit different. There’s a lot more firepower, a lot of good teams,” Cadeau said.
“Every game I play is always against a really good player, and every team is hard to beat. Even though we’re a really good team, we faced a lot of trouble against other teams.”
While only one of the three Big Ten squads Cadeau picked to reach the final weekend is still standing heading into Friday’s slate of Sweet 16 games, it doesn’t diminish what the league has accomplished.
Nine Big Ten teams earned an NCAA Tournament berth, exactly half of the league. Ohio State and Wisconsin both lost in the first round by a combined three points. UCLA beat UCF in its opener before falling to second-seeded UConn.
All the others — Michigan, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan State, Nebraska and Iowa — won their first two games, giving the Big Ten a 13-3 record in an impressive showing of conference strength. And of those 13 wins, eight were by a double-digit margin.
“I feel like we went through a gauntlet of a schedule this year,” guard Roddy Gayle Jr. said. “Playing against these guys throughout the course of the year, we beat up on each other, and I think that makes us better.
“I think the Big Ten Conference is the best conference in the world. We want everybody in the Big Ten to be successful. But seeing the success that the conference has had in the tournament is really good. And I think it speaks to how good we were in the season to be able to finish first.”
All the Big Ten’s higher-seeded teams — No. 1 Michigan, No. 2 Purdue, No. 3 Illinois, No. 3 Michigan State and No. 4 Nebraska — took care of business against lower-seeded teams in the opening weekend.
The lone exception was ninth-seeded Iowa, which knocked off No. 8 Clemson before edging top-seeded Florida, the reigning national champion, in the South Region.
“Watching that Florida-Iowa game, are you kidding me? I was pulling for those guys 100%,” forward Will Tschetter said.
“That brings a smile to your face. The Big Ten gets so much slander for our overall performance in the Big Dance. To have six teams and then have that matchup with Nebraska and Iowa with a guaranteed Elite Eight spot is super cool.”
The Big Ten’s six teams in the Sweet 16 were the most of any conference. The SEC had four of its 10 NCAA Tournament teams reach the second weekend, followed by the Big 12 at three (out of eight), Big East at two (out of three) and the ACC at one (out of eight).
“We’ve been cheering like crazy for the Big Ten and everyone’s done well,” coach Dusty May said. “The television rights and packages, everything that goes with the enterprise of college basketball, how we do in the NCAA Tournament is incredibly important. Not to mention the revenue and the shares the league gets for advancing.
“The better all of us do, I think the more it benefits all of us in the long run, because when you’re competing in the best conference, then it’s attractive to recruits and future talent.”
As Gayle pointed out, the Big Ten’s success in the NCAA Tournament speaks volumes to what Michigan was able to accomplish in the regular season — winning the outright regular-season title by four games with a 19-1 record and going undefeated on the road in league play.
Those feats look even more impressive now with how the conference has made its mark in the postseason.
“It shows how tough the Big Ten was this season and it shows that we were the best conference in America,” guard Trey McKenney said. “I think from top to bottom, there were a lot of teams that could win on any given night, and you can lose on any given night in the Big Ten.
“For us to be able to come out in first in the Big Ten regular season shows how much we were focused and how talented this team is.”
Added Cadeau: “Basically dominating a conference that is dominating the tournament makes us feel better about ourselves, for sure.”
The Big Ten will have a chance to make history with five teams reaching the Elite Eight. The record is four from a single conference, which was achieved by the Big East in 2009, the ACC in 2016 and the SEC in 2025.
The Big Ten secured three spots on Thursday, with Purdue beating No. 11 Texas, Iowa surging past Nebraska and Illinois besting No. 2 Houston. Michigan and Michigan State can add to that total with wins over No. 4 Alabama and No. 2 UConn, respectively, on Friday.
The more teams that make it, the better the odds are of the Big Ten snapping its national title drought that dates to 2000, when Michigan State last won it all. That’s something that Cadeau, McKenney and Tschetter are all aware of.
“It’s definitely something that we can do and something we’ve been thinking about since we came here in the summer,” McKenney said. “We have the opportunity to do it. I think anything is possible with this team.”
Mock brackets aside, Cadeau feels several Big Ten teams in addition to his own have the potential to win March Madness, including Illinois, Purdue and Michigan State.
Since 2000, Big Ten teams have reached the national title game eight times and come up short, including Michigan in 2013 and 2018. That could change this season.
“When you look back and you see how talented the Big Ten Conference has been for 20-plus years, it’s surprising,” McKenney said. “But I think this year is going to be the year that one of these teams gets it. Hopefully it’ll be us.”
jhawkins@detroitnews.com
@jamesbhawkins
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Big Ten’s March Madness success makes Michigan’s season all the more impressive
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