I don't know if the B1G has a final 4 team or can compete with the Duke, Carolina or Gonzaga but it's definitely proven in the 1st 2 days to be more than capable as being the best conference in basketball from top to bottom.
As far as RU is concerned, it played Michigan State, Ohio State, Minnesota, Iowa twice and Purdue (road), Michigan (home) Wisconsin (road) and Maryland (home).
I believe if Indiana was healthier with Phinisee at PG most of the B1G schedule, it would be 9 B1G teams in the NCAAs who RU played this season.
RU went 4-10 against the B1G NCAA caliber opponents, if you consider Indiana NCAA caliber or capable of winning 1 game in the tournament.
RU went 3-4 against the B1G opponents Penn State (twice), Nebraska (twice), Northwestern (twice), Illinois (road OT loss) While it would be argued that RU needs to improve its performance against the "winnable" teams that didn't make the NCAAS or NIT, KenPom actually accounted for that in some ways.
The 14 B1G teams today are all in the Top 81, with Illinois at 81, RU 74th and others ahead in Kenpom. So the difference between non NCAA teams and NCAA teams is much wider than the rankings may appear.
It takes another 3 rotational players that can play 15 to 20 quality minutes at any time to keep up with the rest of the conference. RU loses Doorson and Thiam, but gains Jacob Young and Paul Mulcahy who both expect to be B1G level players immediately. Adding a 3rd or 4th player with now 2 spots open, should solidify the roster to compete most nights next year.
The B1G NCAA wins and production ( to me) adds to the evidence beyond what RU did on their own with 7 B1G wins (& easily could have been 8 or 9), that RU made more progress than the overall record would indicate. It would be 1 thing if RU had 6 of their 7 wins against the bottom 6 teams of the league, but they were spread out.
The missing next step is doing better against the similar opponents that may also not be NCAA caliber and finding a win against a Top 5 B1G team like Maryland Purdue, Wisconsin or Indiana, Michigan or Michigan State.
