The Big Ten made college basketball history this year, as a record nine teams from the conference received bids to participate in March Madness.
But, sometimes records are meant to be... irrelevant.
Of the nine total Big Ten teams in the 2021 bracket, only No. 1 seed Michigan managed to reach the Sweet Sixteen round. The other eight teams were booted during the first and second rounds, squashing the Big Ten's reputation as the nation's strongest conference.
"It's been a disappointment. There's no other way you can put it for the Big Ten conference," Westwood One broadcaster Kevin Kugler told After Hours with Amy Lawrence on Monday. "This was the year that the league was the best in college basketball, and in the regular season, they were. They were the best league in college basketball. And then they've come into this Big Dance and they've kind of flopped.
"I mean, you look at Iowa. Iowa was a team that was built for success in the tournament. Multiple scorers, a big, talent all across the board, veterans all across the board. They get tripped up by Oregon and give up 95 points. The Achilles heel for Iowa all year was defense, they though they'd shored it up late in the year, clearly they had not. Illinois, the biggest surprise for me, maybe in the entire tournament, because Illinois, coming in, was the best-looking team not named Gonzaga in the field. They had everything, including two superstars, and Loyola Chicago absolutely dominated them from start to finish...
"And then you just look around the rest of the league. Rutgers battled about as much as you'd expect a No. 10 seed, Maryland the same on their side of the bracket. But a real disappointment for the league this year. This was a year in which the Big Ten was hoping for lots of representation in the Elite Eight. They were hoping for a Pac-12-esque showing, and instead, it's the Pac-12 that gets the showing and Michigan is carrying the banner for the league that was touting itself, and justifiably so, as the best league in college basketball this season."
Michigan, which is scheduled to face No. 11 UCLA in an Elite Eight matchup on Tuesday night in Indianapolis, will need three more wins to become the Big Ten's first national champion since 2000.
The entire March Madness conversation between Kugler and Lawrence can be accessed in the audio player below.
You can follow After Hours With Amy Lawrence on Twitter @ALawRadio and @AfterHoursCBS, and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.