The Big Ten has suffered some big losses in the first two rounds of this year's NCAA Tournament.
The conference was considered the toughest in Division I basketball in 2021 with Illinois (No. 2), Michigan (No. 4), Ohio State (No. 7) and Iowa (No. 8) all ranked inside the top 10 in the latest AP Top 25 poll. So it was rather shocking to see half of those teams lose in the first and second rounds of March Madness.
No loss was more shocking than Ohio State's; the Buckeyes, seeded sixth overall in the tournament, lost a stunner to 15 Auburn Tige UNC vs. Duke Rivalry Gear rs shirt -seed Oral Roberts in Round 1, becoming just the ninth 2 seed to suffer such an indignit Fl NCAA Crewneck SweatJerseys orida Gators clothes y. But they weren't alone: 4-seed Purdue also lost to 13-seed North Texas, and 11-seed Michigan State lost its First Four matchup to UCLA.
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The Colgate Raiders clothes n, on Sunday, Illinois became the first 1 seed to lose in t Michigan vs. Ohio State Rivalry Gear he NCAA Tournament, getting handled by an 8-seed Loyola Chicago team that, in retrospect, may have been seeded too low. After the Illin Denv UNC vs. Duke Rivalry shirt er Pioneers shirt i's loss, only 1-seed Michigan, 2-seed Iowa, 9-seed Wisconsin and 10-seeds Maryland and Rutgers remained in contention.
Illinois junior guard Ayo Dosunmu — a first-team Sporting News All-America selection — and sophomore center Kofi Cockburn — a second-team selection — were less than efficient in their outing. Dosunmu scored just nine points on 4-of-10 Belmont Bruins shirt shooting, while Cockburn scored 21 points and nine rebounds.
But Twitter is not often a place for rational dialogue. The frenzied masses saw yet another Big Ten team lose and roundly pounded the conference after its top-rated team bowed out early.
MORE: Ohio State, Purdue upsets more evidence that deep leagues wear down teams
