The Louisville Cardinals were up 8 points at half-time – something everyone would expect out of a 2 seed in a 2nd round game.    But the Cardinals opponent are not any normal opponent.   Because the Michigan Wolverines seem to be on one of those magical journeys.

This team has been through a tremendous amount in the last couple of weeks.   But something has been different about this team since their charter plane to the Big Ten tournament had to abort their take-off and crashed due to the high winds.   For those who have been following this story, you knew that they would probably make a run at some point.

Moritz Wagner scored a career high 26 points to help lead the Wolverines back, Derrick Walton, Jr. – who had a unusually poor shooting game – hit a fantastic drive to the basket to keep the lead at 4, and then DJ Wilson hit four free throws to make sure that Louisville couldn’t catch them.   And the Wolverines become the third Big 10 team into the Sweet 16.

Much has been made by the media about how this has been a weak year for the Big 10.   The regular season champion from Purdue barely snuck into the protected seeds as the last of the 4 seeds.   The Wisconsin Badgers, who were ranked 7th in the AP poll and 5th in the Coaches Poll on February 6th, went on a losing streak where they lost 4 of 5 games, but they righted the ship in the conference tournament by making it to the championship game – they were given an 8 seed.   And these magical Wolverines who won the Big 10 tournament by sweeping 4 games in 4 days were only ranked a couple of spots ahead of the Badgers – getting a 7 seed.

Thanks to that seeding, the tournament no longer has defending champion Villanova – the #1 seed in the tournament, and ACC powerhouse Louisville, who was the last 2 seed.    But this leads to something that does bother me.    When teams lose in the ACC and the Big 12, it is because those conferences are so strong that it is tough to go through that tough schedule without some blemishes – and so those losses are OK.   But you lose a few road games in the Big 10 (by the way, Wisconsin’s 4 losses that took them from top 10 in the polls to an 8 seed were Northwestern, and road games to Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State) and you are punished for not being able to beat weak teams.  If you go 10-8 in the Pac 12 like USC but don’t beat Arizona, UCLA, or Oregon, you didn’t beat anyone.  Well, the 4 Pac 12 teams haven’t lost yet in the tournament.  No one talks about the strength of the SEC, but Kentucky, Arkansas and South Carolina are still playing in the 2nd round and Florida is already in the Sweet 16 after being an ACC team by 26 points.

Great basketball is played all around this country – not just on Tobacco Road.    I am not saying that the ACC isn’t tough – I am sure no one would want to have to play the likes of UNC, Duke and Louisville twice every season.    But there are lots of really talented teams outside of the ACC – it would be great if the media gave those other teams and conferences just a little more attention.    It looks like these teams are going to claim that attention the best way possible – winning games and advancing in the tournament.