The last time a Big Ten team cut down the nets during an NCAA tournament was way back in 2000, when Tom Izzo led Michigan State to a convincing win over Florida in Indianapolis. Since then, the conference has seen seven programs reach the national championship game and ultimately come up short.
So, when will the Big Ten finally put an end to its decades-long title drought? According to CBS Sports' college hoops insider Jon Rothstein, the answer is this year, and the team responsible will be No. 1 seed Illinois.
“This is the team that I’m going to pick to win a national championship,” Rothstein told The DA Show on Monday. “The big thing that I’ve noticed here, being in this bubble in Indianapolis for the last couple days, is you obviously have to have great talent to win a national championship. You’ve got to have great role allocation, great chemistry. But you have to have mental stamina, and I see Illinois as being a team, led by veterans, that is going to have the mental stamina to deal with this controlled environment for the next couple of weeks.
"It is not just about the personnel. It’s a big deal, obviously, but you’ve got to have the wherewithal between the ears to make this thing work for three weeks-plus.”
Illinois (23-6), which won its first Big Ten tournament title since 2005 on Sunday, is one of the NCAA-record nine teams from the conference in this year's bracket. As the top seed in the Midwest region, they're scheduled to face No. 16 seed Drexel on Friday afternoon.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, all March Madness games will be held in the state of Indiana, with the Final Four being played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Consequently, the four bracket regions aren't divided geographically, like in year's past.
The lone undefeated team in this year's bracket is No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga (26-0), located in the West region. They're the 20th team in Division I men's history to enter the Big Dance without a loss, and with six more wins, they would become the first undefeated champion since Indiana accomplished the feat during the 1975-76 season.
Gonzaga could see some familiar faces on their road to the Final Four, since the West region's Nos. 2, 3, and 4 seeds -- Iowa, Kansas, and Virginia -- were on their regular season schedule.
"When you really split the atom, we're going to look at those No. 2, 3, 4 seeds as having major hurdles just to get to a showdown against Gonzaga," Rothstein told DA. "Virginia has its own things to deal with, in terms of what it's going to go through after having a positive test last week at the ACC Tournament. They're navigating that. Then we have a scenario where Kansas is going through the same thing, obviously with what they're dealing with with COVID-19 as well. And the first thing that jumped out to me when I saw that bracket, Iowa has a potential Round of 32 matchup with Oregon. That to me is the most under-seeded team in the bracket.
"So, for the teams that Gonzaga has played -- Virginia, Kansas, obviously Iowa -- I think those teams have their work cut out to get to the showdown with the Zags."
March Madness is scheduled to begin on Thursday, Mar. 18, with the traditional 'First Four' games.
The entire interview with Rothstein and DA can be listened to below.
You can follow The DA Show on Twitter @DAonCBS and @CBSSportsRadio, and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.