We have arrived at the final 10 days of the 2010s. The Big Ten came close to winning a college basketball national championship this past decade, and the team which was in position to claim that title was none other than the Wisconsin Badgers, in 2015 against the Duke Blue Devils. However, a man named Grayson Allen — before becoming college basketball’s most central on-court villain — caught fire. Tyus Jones, a Minnesotan, thwarted the Badgers, and the best Wisconsin hoops team in modern times was denied its ultimate crowning moment, two days after it scored one of the most significant victories in college basketball history, the upset of 38-0 Kentucky. Hashtag #38and1.
Michigan reached two national championship games this past decade and gave Louisville a very good run in 2013. Ohio State made the Final Four under Thad Matta in 2012 but lost in the national semifinals to Kansas. Michigan State reached several more Final Fours, including at the start and end of each decade. The Spartans were there in Indianapolis in 2010, and they were there in 2019 in Minneapolis, but they couldn’t break through in national semifinals this past decade, losing all three times they made the Final Four over the past 10 seasons. Their last win in a Final Four game was the 2009 semifinal versus Connecticut in Detroit.
The Big Ten will try to knock the door down in the 2020s and claim an elusive college basketball national championship. Meanwhile, programs in the lower rungs of the league will try to attain more modest achievements. We are going to look at the main question or challenge facing the 13 non-Wisconsin Big Ten basketball programs this decade. We can then measure the Badgers’ larger situation against these other 13 programs, and appreciate both the successes and unattained goals Wisconsin can keep in mind as it moves into a new decade. Stay tuned for the “10 for 20” basketball series here at Badgers Wire.