Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BIG 10 SQUAD: The Big 10 is CRUSHING March Madness | Will Michigan & Illinois MEET in the Final?

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

Big Ten dominance is rewriting the college sports landscape as the conference makes a statement in both football and basketball. With powerhouse programs like Michigan, Ohio State, and Illinois consistently reaching Final Fours and securing national titles, has SEC supremacy finally faded? The squad unpacks how NIL and transfer portal shifts have tilted the scales, and what it means for the future of national championships. The Big 10 Squad debates on marquee coaching hires, player transfers, and the Big Ten’s path through the NCAA tournament. Key matchups include Michigan vs. Arizona and Illinois vs. UConn, with insights on Dusty May and portal stars like Aday Mara. Can Michigan or Illinois finally break the Big Ten's title drought, or will Dan Hurley's UConn derail the conference’s run? Find out who the experts pick in these crucial showdowns. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

To the chagrin of many, the Big Ten might just run all of college sports now. That and how the Final Four plays out. On today is a Locked-on Big Ten Squad. You're talking ball with the Big Ten Squad, sponsored by Game Time. From U.S. to Ohio State, from Michigan to Oregon, from Nebraska to Washington, it's the local experts of the Locked-on Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming Big Ten weekend. No hurt feelings and thin skin allowed.

Squad up, you're part of the Big Ten Squad. Happy Thursday, everybody. Welcome to this week's Lockdown Big Ten Squad. I'm your host, Spencer McLaughlin, Neutral Arbiter of All Things. College football, Zach Anderson, Yoxheimer of Lockdown Bruins is here with Mark Colkin of Lockdown USC. The L.A. Rivalries in the house today. How about that? Jay Stevens of Locked on Buckeyes.

Speaking of rivalries, we just got to pair everybody together. Roman Tomashoff of Lockdown Huskies is here. And then Isaiah Hall of Lockdown, Lockdown, Wool. This is a nice little rivalry pod that that we have. I just, I just realized that because Jay Stevens decided to join right as we ran the intro. And I don't know if anyone's offended that their team isn't in our esteemed locked on big 10 squad intro out there. But, you know, I'm, I'm sure it, uh, it keeps people awake at night. Kind of like how the big 10 keeps people awake at night, right, Zach?

Because all the big 10 seems to do is just, is just win, is just when national champion. That's kind of the thing now, right? Football three in a row and basketball, 50% chance. I'm sure they won't blow it. We'll talk about that later. I mean, does this feel like the era of the Big Ten just dominating this new world of college sports? I mean, it seems like, obviously, when the conferences merge NIL became a big factor. SECC supremacy has gone by the wayside. And heck, even their baseball stranglehold might be gone. So everything from football to basketball, men's and women's and baseball, it seems like all the sports from fall to spring, by the Big Ten with all the money and the switching

and the transfer portal. Mark, you think that it's as simple as that, that once everyone was, you know, aggressively able to legally pay players above board, that it just kind of leveled things out and swung things in the Big Ten's favor? You know, they say money can't buy you happiness, but it sure can't

buy a whole hell of a lot more, right? Except an Oregon national championship. Oh, there it is. Yes, there are some things that will always pull true. With that being, Yeah, look, right now, if you've got the money, you can put together a really good roster, whether it's basketball to fall.

I don't know if it's trickled down to baseball yet, but yeah, it's, it's, if you're one of those conference raraws, now's a good time to be a Big Ten time. Yeah, it's, it's kind of hard to deny, because, Roman, you look around and, I mean, I'm trying to envision a world in a major sport where the Big Ten doesn't have a player at the National Championship table. So I have to start this with saying that all of my esteemed colleagues in the top half of this year's show, I'm extremely disappointed in all three of you because none of you use the term conference of champions to describe the Big Ten.

It's very clearly happening. There's only one conference champions. It's true. But, you know, the best parts of the Pack 12 were all brought to the Big Ten if you want to go that far with this. No, this is true. So it, no, but that really is the case. And it's a lot of fun, right? Like this is, this is what it was all about for, especially our four schools at the end of the day.

It was about finding more ways to continue to stay relevant as the PAC 12 died off, sadly, unceremoniously. And the fact that we do get to see this all year round and now get to be part of this, it's a lot of fun, right? Yeah, don't, don't forget that it's back in a new iteration. And, you know, the PAC-12, eight way. The PAC-State, as I like to call it. It is the PAC-State conference.

If you don't have state in your name, you are not invited to the cool kids table. Them's the rules. Then what's Gonzaga? That was a good point. Yeah. Well, they're, they're not a, they're not a full-time member. They're few and far between, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Gosh, darn it. Now I have to rethink my entire PAC State mantra. The PAC State sounds so good and fluid, though. It's smooth. It's just, it's smooth. good pour into a tall glass. Anyway, Jay, the Big Ten has just been on this incredible run.

Ohio State's been a big part of that. Can you see a world where in football or any other sport, the Big Ten is not at least putting a team into the final four? I mean, this is what? Four years in a row in every major sport, the Big Ten's putting a team there. They're not getting left out of anything. No, I don't see it changing unless there's a lot of interest. to a lot of really good teams lately here or one of the schools ends up not having a really good coach.

That could be the downfall, but no, the big tent has been put in a place where the ex-exitation now is final four in football and in men's basketball. And so you kind of have to, did I forget somebody in women's? I don't follow the women's tournament like that. UCLA did make it. Sorry, Zach. Sorry, I apologize. They're good, too. They're really good. It's all about the, to me, coaching is big, too. Like we look at the players and what the players do, what the money can do to make the roster really good. You got to have good coaching.

College basketball, yeah, you got to have good league guards. Now you've got to have good big men too. You've got to have good coaching. And the Big Tins found a way to get everything needed to be a Final Four in multiple sports. So that's the answer to your question, Spencer. Money will buy you a lot. You still got to get good coaching up there. I would say it's the two biggest coaching hires of any cycle, right?

You have Michigan with Isaiah, right? you have Dusty May being higher to the men's basketball side, getting Michigan back to prominence and men basketball, and the most surprising greatest hire of all time, Kurt Signetti with Indiana, that's been the two biggest hires in both those sports, and that's led to a lot more depth and success for the conference overall. Isaiah, you want to weigh in?

Well, a couple of things. Number one, just to touch on the football of it all, Jonah Leiaa, who transferred over from Utah with Kyle Whittingham. We met with him today. And one of the first things out of his mouth, because everyone else that we've talked to from Utah that followed him has been like, yeah, you know, I loved everything that Kyle Whittingham did while I was there. And I had to follow him. But Leah is like, I want to play in the Big Ten. And we ask why the Big Ten. He's like, because they've won the last three national championships. That says a lot, right? So you have that. And other sports even, like, you know, Michigan and Wisconsin are in the Frozen for right now. And I understand that's kind of expected. to have a big 10 team in the frozen four. But I mean, even still, the fact that now that everything is somewhat even, you know, like that's why you hear Nick Saban being like, this is just unfair.

We've got to change the NIL, right? It's like, oh, really? You think you change it now, huh? Yeah. You know, NIL was working so much better for them when it was just called recruiting. So, you know, it's pretty incredible what the, what the Big Ten has been able to do. I think it just speaks of like just how the conference is. It has an appeal.

I understand the SEC has an appeal as well. And I think a lot of it's weather related. But ultimately, like the Big Ten has all these traditional institutions that have these grand cathedrals and football and basketball and everything. And I think that you're starting to see that now that money is involved, yeah, it can attract the top talent in all these sports as well. Yeah. I think you lay that out very well.

And also once you started talking about the weather advantage, Zach and Mark were probably perking up going, what's wrong with that? Nothing wrong with warm weather football all the time. No one needs to play in the snow. Right, guys? That's exactly what you were thinking. Just rained in Southern California yesterday.

Yeah. Yeah, I was actually, I'm actually in Southern California right now. It rained for like 20 minutes and it was barely a sprinkle. When we were in bed. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I was at Disneyland. But yeah, yeah. No, Mark gets to bed early. That should surprise absolutely nobody. So when we get back, we're going to break down each of the final four games.

Will Michigan break through and get to the national championship game against Arizona? Can Illinois pull it off against Yukon that coming up next right here on the locked on big 10 squad? First, this episode brought to you by our friends at TurboTax. It's tax time. But for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot, trying to book an appointment. That's not the most convenient sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers emailing back and forth Wondering if they really get your situation but this year you're getting a major upgrade into it TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide you can meet face-to-face with a real tax expert and your documents get uploaded

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Jay couldn't handle it talking about Michigan for that long. He bolted. Just absolutely repulsed at the notion. But you take on Arizona in the final four this weekend. Where's your confidence level? I mean, it's about 50-50. It all kind of just depends on how Michigan shows up. Ultimately, I mean, I think Arizona's obviously the toughest team that they'll have seen yet.

I like what Jay Billis said about it, said that basically Michigan's got a front court advantage, whereas Arizona's got a back court advantage. I think maybe with Elliot Kadoe not traveling today because he had apparently an allergic reaction to something he ate. That, you know, that's kind of not a great harbinger. of potential things to come there. But ultimately, I mean, if Michigan plays the way it's capable of and not fouling a lot and getting Arizona or the foul line, I mean, they're third in the country as far as that's concerned.

And Michigan doesn't tend to foul a lot. So as long as they can play ahead of the whistles essentially and not put Arizona on the line and get them in the double bonus, I think that they've got a really good shot. Yeah, I mean, all these teams are really good. I don't know how many people. I'm sure some did picked Illinois to get to this spot, but they can really score. No.

Did you really? Yeah, I did. Well, I guess you're next. Where did your confidence from in Illinois come from? I thought they were good. I was kind of a death taxes, Kelvin Samson kind of guy. So for me, it came down to a couple things. It was, it's the length on the offensive glass and how good they were in that category throughout the season.

And then their ability to shoot the three-pointer. Like when it's, it was just one of the. those things where it was always going to be a little bit of a high risk, high reward thing in terms of like brackets, right? But when the three-pointers are falling, there were hardly any better teams in the country. We saw it throughout Big Ten play, right? Like when they couldn't shoot, they were off. And when they could, they looked like a juggernaut team in this conference. And I thought that was a lot of fun to see. And just, again, what they're able to do with that rotation of bodies in the front court and how they crash them. Whoa. Bless you, Smith.

Dude, that would... He sneezing on that PS. I mean, there's no way you've got all that from like one Illinois game you watched at Washington. Wait, you guys didn't hear that, right? No, but we're... Oh, okay. Just making sure my mute button worked because I got to tell you, that was aggressive. No, I didn't get all that from one game, Zach.

I just... Watching Washington basketball just made my brain melt out of my ears at this point. But it's been a really fun team to watch throughout the season. Washington basketball, so bad. They lost to Oregon. one point in time. Speaking of so bad, they lost to Oregon. Mark from Lockdown, USC, wanted to bring you into the conversation here.

If both favorites are victorious, we'll have an all Big Ten national championship. Are you rooting for that, or do you not care? I actually want to see early in the finals so I can watch him lose in the finals and just watch him lose his ish on national TV. Yes. I don't know. Look, you talk about losing to Oregon. USC lost to Washington both times this year. At least they split.

Three times. Oh, my gosh. Did they really? That's right. Don't remind me. Two of the times they had seven scholarship players. Oh, my gosh, Musselman. What are you doing?

So, yeah. I'm looking for entertainment value. So I'm looking for Hurley to lose on the big stage. That's a very logical way to look at. Quick show of hands. How many of you are a fan of Dan Hurley? It goes back and forth. Like, yeah, that's the only one.

Nick Cronin and Dan Hurley share this, this, the spotlight. Who can be the biggest little man? See, here's the thing. Cronin's a little bit more whiny to me, but I'm overall okay with it. Hurley is funny in the post. Hurley is just a straight is just straight up mean and I love it. I could, I can't get enough of Dan Hurley just, berating everybody and everything under the sun. I'm, I'm here for it. Zachard, are you here for it?

I mean, I'm here because UCLA has played every single one of the final four teams, from Arizona early to Yukon ending their season, obviously the Big Ten opponents. I blame Michigan for losing to Duke because Arizona, Michigan should be the national championship game. They're clearly the two best teams, and I don't think Illinois is tough enough to get past Yukon, despite being more skilled and a bit better. So I think it will be U.S. in terms of Arizona, Michigan, that's as much of a toss-up as it gets. As you mentioned, Isaiah, back court versus front court. But Michigan has this killer, major killer instinct that they can be down 15 and they'll

still beat you by 30. And I'm not sure if Arizona has that, but Arizona has found ways to go beat Yukon before, beat Florida, get wins in some of the biggest games in this country with some fabulous freshmen. But Michigan has hit their portal hard and they got talent up and down the roster, including maybe the best portal transfer of their all in Yaxel coming. to Michigan. And your guy, by the way, thinks Michigan will win. McKronin went out and said that he picked Michigan over Arizona. So the die bar was the single biggest shifting. That transfer is the most impactful. It's even more than the actual hit him going to Michigan kind of made that a super team.

Obviously getting a number one player in the portal. But a die shifted so much of the balance of power that him leaving UCLA cost them a chance being top 10 all throughout the country. And it just added to that depth being the big 10 defense. a player of the year. And then you can keep going in the post. They've got so much with Michigan, just a little more so than Arizona. Let's go around and officially make our picks on this one. Isaiah, we'll start with you. According to our friends at Fandual, Michigan, a slight favorite of one and a half points, both of these spreads to borrow a football term, because right now I'd much rather think about football than basketball. But I understand that that's the time of year that we've

got. These are sub-field goal spreads. Michigan minus one and a half. a half. Illinois is favored by two and a half. Isaiah, who gets it done in the Wolverines and Wildcats battle? A battle, I would argue, for the letter W supremacy. I'm going to go with Michigan just by this that pretty much by that margin. I just think that they've seen it all throughout the year. Both teams have played a lot of high caliber teams. I think Michigan's been a little bit more battle tested in the late era of the season. And I think that's going to play the big difference. You think Michigan's winning by exactly one and a half points?

That would be revolutionary. They're going to find a way. They find a way otherwise. They're going to find a way to win by one and a next. Yeah, Michigan's 74.5 to 73 over Arizona in the first push in NCAA basketball history on the half point spread. Roman, Michigan or Arizona. Yeah, I got Michigan here. I think they just have too much talent and they can really overwhelm in this sort of game.

Mark, who you got? I want to pick Michigan, but look, it's all about the back court, especially at this, when you get to these games. I think you've got to go Arizona. It's going to go overtime, though. Oh, a little overtime pick. Yeah, that's how the half points come into play. No, they'll play four overtimes, and at the end, they'll start shooting half point free throws. That's what, that's how they'll get to the half point. They'll invent a new rule. Who do you like, Zach? I'm going to go Michigan. Michigan can fall in love with the three and take too many of that times,

despite their interior advantage. But they do shoot it better than I think Arizona does from three overall. So that's where the back court advantage shifts back to Michigan in a sense. I'm going Michigan. I got to stick with what I put in my bracket and ride with Wolverines. I'm taking them by four. And a half. 70 and a half to 66.

six. They get it done. Will Illinois join them? Boy, that would be electric. First, this episode brought to you by our friends at Robin Hood. What if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robin Hood prediction markets changes the game. It's people moving the action. So when momentum shifts, you can move with it. I always knew the game, but never had a dynamic way to apply that knowledge. Now I can actually take part live in a market powered by people. You're no longer just a spectator. Play-by-play,

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college basketball. It's all there. Check them out at fanduil.com. Let's flip to the other side of the bracket to wrap today's Lockdown Big Ten Squad. And someone has to speak for our guy, Sonny Verma, of Lockdown, Aligni, who is not here, unfortunately today of all the shows that he could have shown up for it. You think this would have been the one. But... Jokes on you. Yeah, here we are. So why don't... I volunteer his tribute to serve as the Locked-on Aligni host.

I apologize to Summie for that. Yeah. I'm the first locked on host to ever be affiliated with three programs. And is that enough? Absolutely not. I'm aiming for four.

I'm aiming for five. You got Pac-12. College football, ducks, and now Aligni. Oh, if you're going for past and current shows, yeah, I guess that would be four. So that's four with my new status is locked on Aligni host. So when I look at Illinois, they've got one thing going for them more than anything else.

That Indiana just rode to a national championship. And that's an elite transfer from the California Golden Bears, who is now the star focus of the team. This is a tried and true formula that is batting a thousand and its success rate. I don't see how Illinois could get it done. Zach, why don't you, or how they could not get it done with that. going for them. Why don't you start us off? Yukon or Illinois? Who's your pick and why? I mean, your point was said so eloquently that I don't know how to combat it.

I will say, Yukon is a little tougher. And I think the number is Dan Hurley hasn't lost after the Sweet 16, if I'm not mistaken there. So that's got to be taken into account. He's lost one tournament game in the last three years. And that was to the champion as an eight seed all the way on the East Coast. So I'm going to go. Yukon in this one. Terris Reed is a big factor down low. If Mullins, it's another big three, he's going to be red hot. Caravan can hit shots. Now, Illinois has a much better offense.

They have better shooters. They have one of the best freshman guards in the country, what, 65, 66, and Keaton Wogler. That's a dude that Yukon just doesn't have. They just do not have. They're just not tough enough inside beyond the rebounding. They don't play good enough defense. And Yukon can expose them, even though Illinois is a lot more talented. I'm going to go, you caught i'm offended as the host of locked on alineye that you would pick against my lifelong team mark who are you going with i already said i'm picking yukon just so they can get to the big game to the final game and i don't know when it comes to danny hurley his teams he might not be the guy you want to play for but his players play for him they're mentally tough and i don't know if there's

anything that, you know, Illinois is going to be able to do to kind of get them off their game, especially if it's a tight contest. Roman, are you going to, are you going to take an all big 10 national championship game? I really want to, but I can't. I just think that with what we've seen from Yukon, especially with that massive comeback, they mount against Duke, they're just two battle tests. Dan Hurley, you know, as you said, Spencer lost one game since after the Sweet 16. Like, that's, those are the sorts of things that I just don't think this.

Illinois team has. I don't think they're there yet. I do think they're more talented in almost every facet, but you can't make up for experience in this case. I think this is going to be Yukon, yeah. Isaiah, does nobody here truly believe that Illinois is going to expose Yukon for the complete and utter frauds that that game was lost? Duke gave it to him, you know, kind of literally there. or is Yukon really just a team of destiny here? Listen, Jason Candle just arrived there. I really trust Brett Beelma with all of his ability to just continue to do what he did at Wisconsin and Arkansas. And then, you know, with the fighting align, I know Luke Altmire this year, but still.

I think that, you know, like it's, there's a lot, you know, the Big Ten versus, you know, I just, I just don't know how, how Jason Candle can get it done in your one. Yeah. I tell you what, I'm sure many people know the Big Ten hasn't won a national championship in basketball since 2000. If either Illinois or Michigan are able to finally break that drought, it will be a pretty epic arrival for the league once again to just keep rattling these things off. Is anyone at all concerned about the lore of trying to break a drought like that because I tell you what I watched my mariners try to do it for a long time it takes some serious effort and it takes a lot like eventually they got a breakthrough and win one of

these right so wouldn't they think so I mean the west coast hasn't won one in a while either college basketball say that again mark wouldn't the arizona wildcats kind of qualify as like the Chicago Cubs of college basketball it's been what 97 since they won but the Cubs didn't win for 104 years or something. I mean, that's like three of our lifespans, Mark. Like that's Spencer, myself, and Roman. Like, we haven't seen anybody in the West Coast win. We only watch, like, all the other teams.

Breaking a long streak. It's been since when for the Big Ten, it's been longer for Arizona, as my point. And Arizona is a basketball school. But that's one team versus a league. No. I'm not a league guy, so I'm picking the team. Yeah, we know.

We know. We know. Yeah, all right. I'm, uh, my head wants me to pick Yukon because Dan Hurley is just a complete and utter psychopath. But I think our friends at Fanduil knows something. I'll take Illinois. I'll take Michigan. Give me an all big 10 national championship for us to talk about next week right here on the squad.

Zach Anderson, Yoxheimer, locked on UCLA, Mark Colkin, locked on USC, Roman Tomashoff, locked on huskies, Isaiah Hole, locked on Wolverines. We had Jay Stevens of locked on buck guys as well. I'm Spencer McLaughlin from Lockdown all over the place. I mean, you just, I am, one of these days, I'll be hosting all 67 or however many college channel shows there are. I'll just, I'll make it work somehow. So anyway, all right, appreciate everyone listening. I'll see you next time.

And until that, hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day.