I'm a huge Big Ten guy. I love Big Ten football. I love Big Ten basketball. I even love the "Big Ten" bar on the University of Minnesota campus. Their Thursday Night Trivia got me through many a week of law school over the past three years. What I don't love about the Big Ten Conference is the way inter-conference games are allowed to be played. I'm writing this on the heels of a particularly ugly game between the Michigan State Spartans and the U of M Gophers last night; a game "Sparty" won, 60-53. The Spartans and Gophers were #1 and #2 in scoring average entering the game, with each team averaging right around 80 points per game. On the surface, this scoring average would seem to indicate that viewers would be in for a high scoring, excitingly played game. Instead, those of us who found the time to view for the odd 5:30 pm CT starting time saw a game where Michigan State was allowed to do what they are seemingly always allowed to do at home. They were allowed to grab, clutch and shove the Gophers all over the floor. To be fair, the Gophers were given the same allowances throughout most of the game, but certainly such tactics were used out of desperation, as the Gophers are much more successful as a team when they spread the floor and use their athleticism to wear teams out. You may be asking yourself, what's the harm with letting teams play freely as opposed to calling countless touch fouls? I'll tell what's wrong with it! When referees "let the kids play," all it really does is bog the game down and create a slow, plodding, half court game. The beauty of basketball is in the athleticism and grace the players display on the floor, but when grabbing and pushing is allowed to the extent that it is allowed in the Big Ten, none of what makes the game great is allowed to shine through. This epidemic of rough play is not specific to the game I watched last night, either. This has been an ongoing problem in the conference since I was a kid.
Many people blame the type of player that is most available to Big Ten schools. Being that the Big Ten is a Midwestern conference, there are a good number of strong, thick, slow-footed big men playing in the conference. This type of player is more likely to enjoy a slow style of play and be guilty of doing things like grabbing and bumping more athletic players in an effort to slow them down to their speed. While this is a fair critique of the problem, the real issue remains that officials allow the big bodies to get away with their tactics. Using the MSU/Minnesota game as an example, referees continually allowed MSU players to grab and bump Minnesota sharp-shooter Blake Hoffarber as he came around screens intended to get him open. Hoffarber is second in the nation in 3-point %, and in the team's last game against a tough Ohio State team he made 7-9 3-point field goals en route to a career high 27 points. Last night, Hoffarber attempted just two three point shots, having one blocked and missing another short. He managed just four points in the game. Everybody has off nights that cause them to play below their normal level, but we never got to see whether that was the case for Hoffarber last night. Michigan State continually held and bumped him to the point that it was impossible for Blake to get a shot off. Calling fouls away from the ball on such activities are what most fans consider to be cheap calls, but as a high school basketball ref, nothing could be further from the truth. Off-the-ball motion is vital to good basketball. Especially at the college level, if teams are forced to play one-on-one basketball because their cutters are unable to run the offense freely, things will invariably bog down and become boring. The Big Ten's motto on most night could easily be "The Big Ten Conference: Where Stagnant Offense Happens." This reality causes conference outsiders to view the Big Ten as a second-class conference that lacks the athleticism to compete. Those of us who are diligent followers of the conference know this perception to be but a product of the style of play imposed on these teams. Looking only at the Gophers' roster, players like Damien Johnson, Paul Carter, Rodney Williams, and Lawrence Westbrook have enough athleticism to compete against any school in any conference. Other players around the conference like Ohio State's Evan Turner, Michigan State's Durrell Summers, and Michigan's Manny Harris illustrate the type of athlete that does exist in the conference. What's most disappointing to me is that when Big Ten teams get to play out of conference with non-Big Ten referees working the game, the athleticism that all of these team possess is put on display. Each year when the NCAA Tournament rolls around, Big Ten schools are typically under-seeded due to a perceived lack of quality in the conference and are often not expected to be successful in the Big Dance. Despite this, Big Ten teams are usually among the toughest outs in the tournament and continually reach the Final Four. Since 1979, the Big Ten has had 21 teams earn spots in the Final Four (second only to the ACC's 28) and won five national championships (behind only the ACC's nine). What this record under the bright lights of the tournament proves is that the Big Ten has comparable, if not superior talent to the other conferences (outside of the clearly better ACC). Equally clear is the fact that during conference games, that talent is not put on full display due to the way Big Ten games are called (or not called).
Some of this may sound like sour grapes stemming from watching my favorite 5 get knocked around like crash test dummies for 2 hours before coming up short in a game that would have provided an important conference victory, but quite the contrary is the case. Despite the Gophers having lost the game, I was pleased with their effort against a team with, quite frankly, a little more talent in a building that is no treat for opposing teams to play in. My only regret is that the game was turned into more of a football game than a high level basketball contest. Such is life in the Big Ten Conference. Unfortunately for the fans, there doesn't appear to be anything on the horizon that is going to stop this trend from perpetuating itself.
So what is the solution? New referees? No. The referees the Big Ten has are more than capable of calling a good game. Many of them work games in other conferences, as well, and a quick view of a Monday night Big East game on ESPN will show that their conference doesn't suffer from the same affliction. Do member teams have to change the way they play stylistically? Maybe. Teams like Wisconsin and MSU are notorious for this rugged style of play, but overall, I don't think the teams are the problem. Indiana's coach, Tom Creen, came from Marquette, which is a Big East school. Minnesota's coach, Tubby Smith, has coached at Georgia and Kentucky, which are both SEC schools. Brett Beilein, the coach of the Michigan Wolverines, was coach of West Virginia when that team employed a wide-open, three-pointer oriented offense that utilized skill and athleticism over brute strength. The coaches of the conference have the ability to play multiple styles, so that can't be the only issue. I think the main thing that needs to change is the direction given to officials by the conference itself. If the quality of play produced during conference games is going to approve, it's going to be because Conference Commissioner Jim Delaney and Associate Commissioner for Men's Basketball Rick Boyages directs the officials to force cleaner play during the conference season. Players are going to play whatever way the referees allow them to play. If the refs force the players to stop with the clutching and grabbing nonsense that is running rampant through the league like an epidemic, then after a short period of adjustment and a few more foul-outs than usual, the players will change their style to accommodate the new enforcement and the game will be better for it.
The Big Ten has to view their current situation as a serious problem. The eventual result of continued rough play during conference games is that the member teams are going to start relying too heavily on such tactics and won't be able to change their style when tournament officials keep them honest. There's nothing worse than watching your favorite conference fall short time after time in big spots, and the Big Ten is getting tenuously close to such a reality. Here's hoping the conference big wigs realize what may lay ahead before it's too late.
In the meantime, Tubby would do well to ask Gopher football coach Tim Brewster if he can borrow a few of his players. The style of play may be a bit rough for them at first, but eventually they'll get the hang of it.
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