ROSEMONT, Illinois — Almost 25 years ago, Tom Izzo led the Michigan State Spartans to the 2000 national championship. That was the last time, however, the Big Ten enjoyed a run to the pinnacle of the sport.
That national title drought has haunted the league for almost a quarter century, as the Big East, ACC, Big 12 and SEC have all won multiple men’s basketball national championships within that span.
Thirteen Big Ten schools have reached the Final Four since the Michigan State run in 2000 but all have come up short, including Purdue in last season’s national championship game loss to UConn.
As a result, the flack the Big Ten has received is valid, according to Izzo.
“It’s fair because it has been 25 years,” he said during the Big Ten’s men’s basketball media day on Thursday. “I used to think, ‘Oh man, I’m the last Big Ten guy [with a national title] standing.’ Last year. I’m calling [Purdue head coach Matt Painter] and I’m saying, ‘Matt, Matt, you’ve got to win this [national title] game.’ I don’t want to be the last Big Ten guy standing, you know? But I think it is a reality.”
In recent years, the league has been at the doorstep of ending the drought multiple times. Last year, Purdue lost to a UConn squad that won its second consecutive national title. In 2015, Wisconsin had a lead in the second half before Duke rallied and won Mike Krzyzewski’s final national championship. And Michigan State lost to the 2008-09 North Carolina squad, which had seven future NBA draft picks, in that year’s national championship game.
Izzo said the opposing talent the league has faced when it has had opportunities to win another national championship has been the biggest factor in its drought — the longest among the major conferences — not the conference’s style of play.
Izzo said perceptions of the league’s gritty, physical brand of basketball are outdated and no longer the reality for the conference, which has produced at least three first-round picks in the past three NBA drafts.
“We used to go up [to Minnesota in the 1990s] and everybody laughed when I put on football pants one time and a football helmet [in practice],” Izzo said. “I needed a full barrage when I went up there and I loved it. But it’s not that way anymore.”
He added: “I just don’t want it to get painted as if the Big Ten’s [national championship drought] is because of style of play,” he said.
The road to the national title could be a challenge for the league in 2024-25, too. The Big Ten might not have a team in the top 10 of the Associated Press preseason poll. But UCLA, Indiana and Purdue are teams with postseason potential. And Rutgers star Ace Bailey is expected to compete with Duke’s Cooper Flagg for the No. 1 spot in next summer’s NBA draft.
Still, Izzo knows that anything can happen, even to a great team that seems to have the tools to win a national title, an achievement that has eluded this conference for nearly 25 years.
“Sometimes,” Izzo said, “it’s bad luck.”
