The conference hasn’t won an NCAA men’s basketball national championship since 2000, when Michigan State defeated Florida to give coach Tom Izzo his first title.

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The Spartans are the perceived best bet to break that streak with a No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region, and they’ve reached the Final Four five times since that national championship run. Michigan State is coming off a Big Ten Tournament championship last weekend, too.

“We might have played one of the biggest teams that you can could play against in the NCAA (Purdue), and you played a very athletic one in Ohio State, and then maybe as talented a one 1 through 5 as any in Maryland,” Izzo said at his weekly press conference Monday. “We played against different styles. I think we’re as prepared as we can be.”

Those styles of play have led to success in the NCAA Tournament since that 2000 crown. Consider:

— Since 2000, the Big Ten has the most combined Final Four appearances with 14. The ACC and Big East have 11 apiece.

— The Big Ten has put two teams in the Final Four three times, including last year with Wisconsin and Michigan State.

— The Big Ten has seven appearances in the championship game, tied with the ACC for the most. The difference is the Big Ten has had six different schools (Michigan State, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin) make the championship game.

— The other difference is the ACC is 6-1 in the championship game, which includes a 4-0 record against the Big Ten. In fact, the Big Ten’s last six championship game appearances have resulted in losses, a trend that continued with Wisconsin in 2015.

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So the lesson is the Big Ten will probably land a team in the Final Four and maybe in the national championship game. But can any of these teams finish the deal?

Michigan State will be picked by many to do it. This also is the Spartans’ highest-scoring team under Izzo at 79.8 points per game.

Big Ten regular-season champion Indiana got a tough draw — and a tough seed, for that matter — in the East Region. The Hoosiers are in the same eight-team pod as Kentucky and North Carolina. Maryland and Purdue also are equipped to make deep tournament runs despite a lower-than-expected seeding. The Terps won a national championship in the ACC in 2002. 

Wisconsin and Iowa — two teams with contrasting styles — would be long shots to make the Final Four as No. 7 seeds. Michigan rounds out the Big Ten field and will face Tulsa in a First Four game Wednesday night.

It’s a deep group that has a chance to continue the trend of in-tournament success within the conference. In the past four years, Big Ten teams have combined for 13 Sweet 16 appearances, eight Elite Eight appearances, five Final Fours and two national runner-ups.

There’s no question the Big Ten will have some success in the first and second weekends of the tournament.

It’s time for somebody to finish the job.