With Purdue’s loss, Michigan State remains last Big Ten team to win title: How it happened

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The Big Ten has been one of the premier basketball conferences in the country year in and year out for the last two decades, but no Big Ten team has reached the summit of March Madness since Michigan State’s triumph in 2000.

Tom Izzo and the Spartans remain the last Big Ten team to win a men’s basketball national championship after Purdue fell to Connecticut in Monday’s national championship game, with the Boilermakers coming up one game short of the ultimate redemption season.

Purdue was the latest Big Ten team to reach the championship and ultimately fail, extending the conference’s drought for at least another season. Seven Big Ten teams, including MSU, have reached the national championship game since 2000, but all have fallen short of taking home the trophy.

Michigan State celebrates with the trophy as coach Tom Izzo smiles after the 89-76 victory over Florida to win the national championship, April 3, 2000 in Indianapolis.

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After MSU’s title, Indiana was the first Big Ten team to make the final in 2002, but fell to Maryland, then in the ACC, in the championship. Illinois made it three years later in 2005, but ran into a buzzsaw North Carolina team to come up one game short. Ohio State made it in 2007 with Greg Oden and Mike Conley but dropped to the last team to win consecutive titles before UConn, Florida. MSU made it to the 2009 national championship in Detroit, but another North Carolina superteam stood in the way. Outside of MSU, Michigan is the only other school to appear in two title games in the 2000s, but dropped to Louisville in 2013 and Villanova in 2018. Wisconsin was the other school to make it in 2015 but lost to a Duke team that also beat the Spartans.

As the years pass, Michigan State’s 2000 team remains a part of the conversation each basketball season in the Midwest as a reference point and marker in the history books. There have been a lot of great teams in the conference since then, but…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/purdues-loss-michigan-state-remains-185555740.html

Author : Detroit Free Press

Publish date : 2024-04-09 18:55:55

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