After being the bully of the Big 12 all season, Arizona ran into an even bigger bully in Michigan. It was jarring to watch the Wildcats get so thoroughly dominated in the Final Four.

Arizona faced its largest deficit of the season just minutes into the game, and eventually trailed by as many as 30.

Not only could the Wolverines match Zona’s size and physicality, but they also had vastly superior guard play, especially once Arizona’s Jaden Bradley went to the bench with foul trouble. 

Michigan knocked down 12 of 27 three-pointers, and the Wolverines backcourt consistently found success with clever lobs to the bigs inside. That’s something we later learned was the genius of Wolverines head coach Dusty May. 

And Michigan did all of this with its best player, Yaxel Lendeborg, dealing with foul trouble and an ankle injury throughout the game. 

Two things are true about Arizona. The Wildcats had a historically great season and would have been a worthy national champion in most years. They were also simply outclassed by a Michigan team that looks as dominant as any in recent college basketball history.

That can be a disheartening reality, especially when the Big Ten looks poised for a basketball national championship after winning the last three football national titles. Are we now moving into a Power One world where the Big Ten simply runs everything?

The answer is no, and the guy who tweeted that (me) is an idiot. Shoutout to my buddy Travis for calling me out on it.

In fairness, the tweet was meant more as both a self-depricating jab when Arizona was down by 30 and a shot at the SEC, which has long fancied itself as the overlord of college sports. But there is a real fallacy and danger in associating every individual game result with a big picture conference realignment-related narrative. 

In tweeting that, I fell victim to the same disease that afflicts the entire college sports world these days. Every game becomes a referendum on some conference or group.

When a Group of Five team loses a College Football Playoff game, an angry mob is ready to cut the G5 out entirely. When Texas Tech gets shut out in a College Football Playoff game, a columnist says the Big 12 shouldn’t be able to call itself a power conference anymore. 

It’s exhausting to do this after every big game, and it robs us of the joy that comes from following college sports in the first place. It’s also not accurate. 

In today’s society, no one has the attention span to let things play out. We are still only about three years into the wild-west NIL and transfer portal era of college sports, and things are changing rapidly.

How much has our view of the SEC changed in three years? How much has our view of Texas Tech changed in one year?

Arizona getting blown out does not mean the Big 12 will never win another national title. 

Houston was an eyelash away from winning it all last season. Bill Self and Scott Drew have both won national championships. Texas Tech played for one less than a decade ago. 

The Wildcats just retained head coach Tommy Lloyd, who was North Carolina’s top target, according to CBS Sports. TJ Otzelberger and Grant McCasland are also on the short list of the best coaches in college basketball. 

We are seeing in this portal and NIL era of college sports that being a blue blood matters less than it used to. If you have good NIL support, play in a power conference, and the fans care, there is not a huge gap between your job and one like North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, or Kansas.

That means the programs at Arizona, Houston, Iowa State, Texas Tech, and Baylor are all just as capable of winning a title as KU is. 

It was a disappointing NCAA tournament for a league that Brett Yormark consistently called the second-best in America behind the NBA, but the Big 12 isn’t going anywhere.

What You Need to Know

• Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd turned down North Carolina and offered a legendary quote when explaining why. 

• The college basketball transfer portal officially opens tomorrow, so it’s about to get crazy. Here are some key Big 12 players who recently announced they’re entering: Flory Bidunga, LeJuan Watts, Bryson Tiller, PJ Haggerty, Terrence Brown, Elmarko Jackson

• One of the most talented players from last year’s K-State men’s basketball announced that he is staying to play for new head coach Casey Alexander

• Texas Tech megabooster Cody Campbell clarified his criticism of Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark. 

• One of the winningest Big 12 football programs just signed its coach to an extension. 

• President Trump signed an executive order to regulate college sports. It is likely to face legal challenges.

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