Mike DeCourcy Joins to Break Down Big Ten Basketball & Football

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00:00Mike DiCorsi is the famed sports writer from the Sporting News.

00:06He's also very popular on the Big Ten Network.

00:08They just announced their season broadcasting schedule and partners and everyone that's

00:13involved and of course DiCorsi on the top shelf, the top rung of the talent there will

00:19be covering massive Big Ten basketball.

00:22The only problem with Big Ten basketball is the last time they won a NCAA championship

00:27was before Christ and you wrote about it and Tom Izzo talked about it and you're both

00:35right.

00:36I mean it is really embarrassing and I got to tell you, you know you got problems in

00:40that conference when the most exciting thing going in the Big Ten is my Indiana Hoosiers.

00:50Six and 0, scoring 40 plus points a week.

00:53Your boy Cignetti getting it all accomplished in Bloomington.

00:58Well Scott as we can attest, the present company included, if you want something done right

01:03you got to get a Pittsburgher.

01:05That's right.

01:06It's quite obvious.

01:08Kurt Cignetti has done a magnificent job in energizing a program that's had very few moments

01:14of excitement in its history really.

01:17They had some nice moments under Lee Corso, they had that one terrific season under Tom

01:22Allen in 2020 during the pandemic year when Michael Pennix was their quarterback.

01:28But this is really something to see and they've got a week now to prepare for Nebraska, which

01:35I've always viewed as a pivotal game for them.

01:38It's a home game, should be a great crowd.

01:41It's a great opportunity for the Hoosiers and if they get it, then they'll be talking

01:47about not just the silly ranking stuff that we're talking about now, but like some serious

01:53possibilities.

01:54I mean they still have to play Michigan and they have to play Ohio State, etc.

01:58But if they can get Nebraska at home, they have real possibilities of having a significant

02:05season, not just bowl eligibility and we get to go play in Shreveport or whatever.

02:10No, we're talking about maybe them playing some serious games in December and January.

02:15I mean, it really is unbelievable and I guess my question is, look, I think Michigan has

02:19a horrible rack of quarterbacks and Indiana doesn't have that problem.

02:25Now I think Ohio State is loaded with talent, absolutely shredded every position.

02:31They're incredible.

02:32But they're playing them in Columbus and I think what will be fascinating to me is if

02:36for once in their life, they could hang with Ohio State because they've never been able

02:41to hang with Ohio State and they certainly haven't done well against Michigan.

02:46But I think that Michigan team, like I bet on Washington last week at Husky Stadium,

02:51that's a hostile place to play.

02:53I've been there in Seattle.

02:54It is a tough place to play and they lost and their quarterbacks, I mean, how many of

02:59them are they going to use?

03:00How many do they have?

03:01They started bringing in Tuttle.

03:03I thought it was YA Tittle.

03:05I didn't know what I was seeing.

03:06I think Indiana can actually beat them.

03:12Them meaning the Wolverines or them meaning the Wolverines and the Wildcats?

03:16The Wolverines.

03:17Yes, I think that's true.

03:18I want them to hang with Ohio State if they can hang with them and be in the game.

03:23Let's say it's a wild game and that they would gain respect nationally, like they're legit

03:30if they can hang with them.

03:31I can't win a bunch of games against nobodies and then get beat by 30 by Ohio State because

03:36they'll lose all the respect in five minutes.

03:39I think a lot of that depends again.

03:42That Nebraska game is huge, which I believe is next weekend.

03:47They've got this weekend off and then next weekend they face Nebraska.

03:50It's a huge game.

03:51They've got some other games that are losable along the way, but obviously the ones you

03:56circle after this are the Michigan home game and the Ohio State road game.

04:01I think if they can continue to succeed as they have, beating the sort of teams that

04:09they've beaten, like Maryland, a good team, not great, but good, winning at Northwestern.

04:15If they can continue to go in that vein, I think being competitive against Ohio State

04:21would mean a lot.

04:23I think it's more important that they win the winnable games, which when you look at

04:27what the odds would say, that's pretty much everything left except for the trip to Ohio

04:33State.

04:34So, why is Big Ten basketball so good, yet so far away from a title?

04:43Yeah, you know, a lot of that's been circumstantial.

04:47They've been in a lot of Final Fours.

04:49The last time I checked, and I haven't checked this in a little while, but the last time

04:52I checked, they had about as many Final Fours, if not more, than any conference in college

04:57basketball since the 2020 season, or excuse me, the 2000 season, when they won their most

05:03recent national championship.

05:05So they've had a ton of Final Fours, they just haven't had the right team to get all

05:09the way home.

05:10I mean, I think Purdue last year's Purdue team would have won the championship a lot

05:14of years, including probably the prior year against the 2023 UConn team, but they weren't

05:20beating UConn 2024, one of the really terrific teams we've seen in this century.

05:27Michigan State makes the Final in Detroit in 2009, well, great, but the team that they

05:32played against, Carolina, was one of the legendary teams in college basketball history.

05:38They were fantastic.

05:39They had four first-round picks on their team.

05:42It's just sometimes it works out like that, and they have always been a deeper conference

05:47than they have been in a conference that produces the absolute elite team.

05:53That's just the way it's been for most of this century.

05:56It's been great for their fans to watch, it's certainly been great to call on BTN, but producing

06:02that one special, extraordinary team just hasn't happened.

06:07You know, I got to ask you, when you go into this season, do you think that, like, you

06:13know how those new teams from the West have come into the Big Ten in football?

06:17What do you think they're going to be like when they come in on the basketball side?

06:20Well, I think that, first of all, you've got the fact that they were very careful about

06:26scheduling these games.

06:29They've gone more for multiple days of rest, two to three days rest in between games.

06:37They've been very careful about that, something that wasn't always a high consideration in

06:41conferences like the Pac-12 in the past.

06:44They were used to playing on one-day prep a lot.

06:47Now you get more days of prep, more days of opportunity if you have a bad game to try

06:53to regroup for the next one.

06:55We've seen, to this point, statistically, teams have not performed well in football

07:01when traveling multiple time zones.

07:03But they've performed fine in other sports.

07:05I mean, I pointed out, we talked about this a couple weeks ago, Pitt's women's volleyball

07:10team has been to the West Coast on multiple occasions already this season and is undefeated

07:15wherever they play and has only lost one set so far.

07:19So I don't know that the travel is impacting every athlete in every sport.

07:23I think basketball players will do fine with it, especially with the care that, at least

07:27in the Big Ten, has been presented to scheduling.

07:29I'm not saying they haven't in the Big 12 or the ACC, which are also going to have long

07:33trips.

07:34I just haven't studied that.

07:36So you wrote an article about a player that I really like watching play basketball, Juju

07:41Watkins.

07:42She's something else.

07:43And basically, in essence, you said that she can pick up the pieces from Kaitlyn Clark,

07:50you know, leaving Iowa for pro basketball.

07:53And this girl, I got to tell you, I think her and that Rice kid at UCLA can both flat

07:58out ball.

07:59Those are great women's basketball players.

08:02Yeah, they were in the Elite Eight last season with Juju as a freshman, a much different

08:09player than Kaitlyn Clark.

08:10Kaitlyn Clark is a point guard who can fill it up.

08:15And she showed that this year by leading the WNBA in assists.

08:19And before she left college, breaking the all-time NCAA women's Division One scoring

08:24record.

08:25So she showed that she can do both those things.

08:28Juju is more of a wing athlete, scorer type player.

08:32And as Lindsay Gottlieb, the terrific coach for the SC women, told me last week, she doesn't

08:40like to use these comparisons, but it's a little bit more like a like a LeBron, like

08:46a Michael Jordan, excuse me, like a Michael Jordan kind of player.

08:49Not that it's she wasn't super comfortable using the comparison, but it's that it's that

08:55kind of player.

08:56It's that kind of player who brings dynamism and intelligence in terms of how to play and

09:02great shooting ability and fills it up.

09:04And I think that's what you'll see from Juju in the Big Ten this year.

09:07I can't wait to see her another season into her great career there at USC.

09:12Mike, fabulous stuff today.

09:14Enjoy the rest of your week and all the games this weekend.

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