Western Courier

Issue date: 3/30/05 Section: Sports

Media Credit: KRT Illinois junior guard Dee Brown has been a key part of the Illini´s run to the Final Four.

Media Credit: KRT Junior guard Maurice Age of Michigan State celebrates the Spartans´ victory over Duke.

While watching Michigan State University defy the experts and silence its doubters by knocking off top-seeded Duke University Friday night, I really thought Billy Packer, the game's color analyst, was going to hop over the press table and give each and every Blue Devil a passionate hug.

It couldn't have been more obvious just how much Packer, an avid Atlantic Coast Conference supporter, and his partner Jim Nantz were rooting for Duke to pull it out.

Even as the game concluded and Michigan State was celebrating on the court, Packer and Nantz could not restrain themselves from giving the Blue Devils more credit for their run in the tournament, even though the Spartans' road still has not ended.

Between Packer, Nantz, Dick Vitale and the rest of the national media, the overwhelming support and praise for the ACC is becoming ridiculously out of hand, especially since the Big Ten Conference has been given little to no credit this season.

The University of Illinois trounced the nation this season and has brushed off opponents with ease, including ACC power Wake Forest University. Michigan State put together one of the best under-the-radar seasons in recent memory, while Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin universities made unheralded runs into the NCAA tournament.

Still, the ACC continues to get the notoriety the Big Ten is so deserving of. Michigan State knocked out Duke, and Wisconsin sent North Carolina State University packing, helping the Big Ten comprise nearly 40 percent of the Elite Eight. Adding in Illinois' win over University of Arizona and Michigan State's win over University of Kentucky, the Big Ten makes up half of the Final Four participants.

So where's the love?

It all rests in the hands of the University of North Carolina, the lone ACC team to reach St. Louis. Despite constant reminders of how the ACC was supposed to receive three bids to the Final Four, Packer, Nantz and Vitale are relying on the Tar Heels to prove them right about the ACC.

Instead, Illinois and Michigan State are proving everyone wrong about the Big Ten. A conference supposedly in decline is sending two teams, one of which was given no chance, to the Final Four. And if it weren't for Wisconsin's late-game collapse against North Carolina, the Big Ten would be celebrating with its third team in St. Louis.

It is not enough that we had to hear from the "experts" in the preseason and regular season of how dominant the ACC is; we still have to hear about it while 10 of the 11 conference members are watching the Final Four from their couches.

Preseason predictions and regular season records mean nothing come March. And with the Big Ten proving that, no t only this year but in years past, it is about time the conference receives the credit it is due.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools