2025 NCAA Tournament Bracket Watch: Can the Big Ten produce a contender?

(Editors note: This article is part of the Bracket Central series, an inside look at the run-up to the mens & womens NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.) In the year 2000 ...

Its a legendary Conan OBrien segment and an annual college basketball refrain well, more like several times a year, a reminder (usually from fans of schools in other leagues) that the Big Ten hasnt won a national championship since the last year of the 20th Century.

Advertisement Theres been little reason to believe the 2024-25 season would end up changing that.

Even today, though the Big Ten has nine teams getting bids in this weeks projected bracket, theres no one on the top two lines.

But there are some teams that have raised the question: How much higher are these ceilings than we originally thought? Michigan State , Illinois , Oregon and Michigan , in particular, have outgrown their preseason profiles.

Purdue, which had higher expectations than all of them, is starting to take on a scary look.

Forced to pick one team among the bunch to emerge, it would be Illinois, which lost 80-78 on Sunday at Michigan State with freshman phenom Kasparas Jakucionis fouling out in just nine minutes of action.

He looked like he could have gone for about 20 points and 12 assists in a full days work.

This teams length and skill can be overwhelming, and Jakucionis ties it all together.

Tom Izzos Spartans are much better than expected, but good enough to match what Izzos 1999-2000 Spartans did as the last Big Ten team to cut down the nets? MSU needs to start hitting 3-pointers and find late-game clarity though Jeremy Fears piloting and Jaden Akins taking big shots has potential as a consistent answer.

The player most fun to watch in the league might be Michigans Danny Wolf , the Yale transfer and 7-footer who picks teams apart after calling for ball screens from 7-1 teammate Vladislav Goldin .

Its wild.

So is the idea, still, of any of these teams having enough to win two games in San Antonio in April.

But seeing one of them in the Final Four wouldnt be such a shock at this point.

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(Photo of Kasparas Jakucionis: Michael Reaves / Getty Images).

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