Michigan State's Gary Harris, left, poses with the championship trophy as Adreian Payne kisses it after they defeated Michigan 69-55 in an NCAA college basketball game in the championship of the Big Ten Conference tournament on Sunday, March 16, 2014, in Indianapolis. Lacey Holsworth, lower right, who is battling cancer and has become close to Payne, looks on. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Autumn's lament across the Midwest, often punctuated on Jan. 1, is what the heck happened to the Big Ten as a football conference? Only the most delusional believe the league is what it once was – which isn't to say it can't one day return.

Good news always follows, though.

Fall turns to winter and winter turns to March, and no matter how much complaining there is in football about regional population trends, harsh weather scaring off recruits and other leagues supposedly being more cutthroat, basketball arrives and the Big Ten flourishes.

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For decades on end now, almost without fail, the Big Ten has trotted out some of the best teams, best players and best coaches to put together thrilling seasons in some of the game's best on-campus venues.

Basketball is the Big Ten's rock, undeniably great. Same as it ever was.

And yet, the league enters this week's NCAA tournament in the midst of one of sports most inexplicable streaks. It can't seem to do one thing that used to come somewhat routinely – win the national championship.

Not since Tom Izzo and a bunch of kids from Flint, Mich., clipped the nets in 2000 to give the league its 10th title all time, has a Big Ten team won the NCAA tournament.

This is the second-longest period without a championship in league history. It's surpassed only by the 15 seasons between Ohio State's 1960 title team and Indiana's 1976 perfect season. The main culprit for that was UCLA, which won two-thirds (10) of the titles during that stretch.

There's no John Wooden out there now. Nine different teams have won it all during this stretch. It's resulted in five championships from the ACC, four from the Big East, three from the SEC and one from the Big 12.

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Yet none for the Big Ten, no matter how good the league is year in year out; no matter how many All-Americans, future lottery picks or NBA All-Stars it showcases; no matter how many top two seeds (13), appearances in the Final Four (9) and trips to the national title game (5).

Somehow a league that is anything but broken just can't find a way to break through.

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"I was the lucky one who got [to play] the team that won it the year before and everyone came back," Matta said with a laugh. "I know my excuse."

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