NCAA TOURNAMENT SPECIAL: NCAA Showdown - B1G TEN EDITION

 Happy March Madness!!! Thanks to Matt and his amazing charting, we're able to present to you some special NCAA Showdown cards just in time for the BIG DANCE!!! The podcast is run by dudes in the heart of Big 10 Country, and my heart belongs to my schools -- Wisconsin and Illinois. So without further ado, enjoy the full nine tournament squads + the best players on the other teams.

Just like the NBA Showdown cards, games are meant to be played with four quarters.... if you really want that NCAA feel, just double the results from a card's chart on each roll to only have two halves (which should be more chaotic too!). If you have any questions/arguments re: a player's Speed/Power or chart, take it up with Matt -- I'm just the "really enjoying the charts I was given and happy to help with the card-making" guy!

Would you guys like more NCAA cards? Let us know what you think!

Who is that masked man??? 

AN ALL-AMERICAN STAR

1.    ILLINOIS FIGHTING ILLINI (23-6): Big 10 Tournament Champions!!!

It's a great time to be an Illini!!! Ayo and Kofi are both All Americans and will have their jerseys hanging in the rafters.... now it's time to bring a Final Four (and perhaps National Championship) banner to Champaign too! Last time Illinois was a 1 seed, they made it all the way to the finals before falling to North Carolina in 2005.

2.    MICHIGAN WOLVERINES (20-4) Big Ten Regular Season Champions by Winning Percentage!!!

Honestly, making these cards showed me how big a loss Livers really is to this squad. It's hard to envision them getting to the Final Four (let alone cutting down all the banners) without him, so I hope he's fully healthy so this team gets a full, "what if"-less chance at the title!

3.    IOWA HAWKEYES (21-8)

This team has a lot of scoring firepower and their D really stepped up after a weak stretch during Big Ten play. While Kofi is a real weak spot for this team IRL (see, every time these two teams played), Garza matches up better in card form and they don't have to play Illinois again until a hypothetical finals rematch. However, before that they need to overcome 3 seeded Kansas or USC and another super talented center, future top 5 NBA pick Evan Mobley in the Sweet 16 and top-ranked, undefeated Gonzaga in the Elite Eight. Great season, but tough tough tough road ahead!

4.    OHIO STATE BUCKEYES (21-9) Big Ten Tournament Runner-Up in OT! 

I put them here since they're another 2 seed in the big dance. They seem a cut below the top three, but EJ Liddell is a beast..... and 2x Illinois POY in high school. Imagine if he was teaming (with his ability to space the floor) with Ayo and Kofi right now. Anyway, going to be fun watching this team shoot its way through or out of the tourney, depending on how hot or cold the shot-making is!

5.    PURDUE BOILERMAKERS (18-9)

Another year, another pair of awesome big men that'll have me believing Purdue can make a run before they get upset in the first or second round, harming my bracket ;) 

To be fair, last tourney they lost an all-time class Elite Eight game to Virginia..... when I had them in my Final Four, UGH.

6.    WISCONSIN BADGERS (17-12)

What a disappointing bunch who just..... couldn't..... get it done time and time and time again in the B1G Ten this year. They still got so screwed with a 9 seed and having to face UNC. It's always these years the Badgers seem to pull an upset, go to the Sweet 16 vs a surprisingly manageable team and then choke in heartbreaking fashion (Florida, Notre Dame recently come vividly to mind)....... but this team has the feelings of a first round loser like last tournament following that showing vs Penn State and Iowa in the conference tourney.

7.    MARYLAND TERRAPINS (16-13)

It became super clear to Matt and I that Maryland's running a 7 man rotation.... and it's a pretty balanced squad. No superstar though. With UCONN in the first round, a team that fouls constantly, Maryland's got a chance with its "get to the foul line" offense! Then who knows vs Alabama, who all the experts like but I saw get throttled by Mizzou and just cannot take seriously.

8.    RUTGERS SCARLET KNIGHTS (15-11)

Dang, I really like this collection of cards. This is stupid, but I'm putting them deep-ish in my tournament based on the collection of dudes I see here. (A) I know nothing about Clemson except I've never seen them win in the tourney; (B) I respect the hecka out of Houston and want to send them deep, but that's what recently burned me when Cincinnati was a 2 seed so now I know better (don't talk to me when Houston is beating Illinois in the elite eight and I look like a fool, please).

9.    MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS (15-12)

I thought the cards must've underrated vaunted Michigan State, but they're out of the tourney before it's even begun.... I love how Showdown changes your perceptions of players, because I was yelling "You fools, he's a 30 point putz" at the UCLA-MSU First Four game last night as he was jacking up ill-advised shots in crunch time. Not a surprise they lost (although it was in OT).

10.    PENN STATE NITTANY LIONS (bonus squad: 11-14)

It felt wrong not having ten Big Ten teams for y'all, so here's Penn State (who were made while I was watching the Badgers almost blow it to them in the B1G tournament). They're not good, but there's some fun scrappy dudes in here!

Other Big 10 Stars:

Thanks for reading, do you have any of these squads in your Final Four? Best of luck to everyone's brackets (that have Illinois and/or Wisconsin in the Final Four)!!!!!

Sorry there's not more analysis, but it was a ton of work getting these done and out to you, and I'm out of time for the Big Dance!