ESPN Men's Basketball

This time there will be urgency. This time things could be quite interesting.

Since the Big Ten began holding a conference tournament in 1998, the event has usually featured four or five teams safely in the NCAA tournament, one or two teams on the bubble, and the rest with virtually no chance.

When this week's event begins Thursday at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, things are significantly different.

While regular-season champion Illinois, Michigan State and Wisconsin are safely in the NCAA Tournament, the rest of the field has significant work to do. Could a team like Iowa or Michigan or Purdue earn an at-large berth to the tournament if they reach the championship game of the Big Ten tournament? There is a slight chance.

And even though the Big Ten has never received fewer than five bids since the tournament expanded to 64 (now 65) teams, even the league coaches are beginning to acknowledge that this season could be a new low for the Big Ten. Instead of insisting that they're safe, the coaches in the middle of the league standings are at least acknowledging that they have work to do.

"If we win two, we'll be sitting there watching (Selection Sunday)," Purdue coach Gene Keady said. "Less than that and I'm not sure, kind of 'I don't want to watch.' I know there aren't that many better teams, but I don't know how they'll look at how we've finished."

The Boilermakers' finish certainly wasn't good. A month ago Purdue looked to be in pretty good shape, but that was before they lost eight of 11 to close the regular season. And it was before the Boilermakers' RPI plummeted into the 90s. While Purdue does have victories over Seton Hall and Duke, those games took place in November, and at a time when Chris Booker was still on the team.

Purdue's problems aren't that different from those of the Hawkeyes and the Wolverines. While their place in the Big Ten standings often translates into a NCAA Tournament berth, a closer look at the three schools and it doesn't as good.

"I think our conference, in my opinion, deserves more than three," Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said. "We're .500, we have 17 overall wins and we're in fifth place in the conference. We're a team that in my opinion could do some damage."

But at the same time, the Wolverines are No. 58 in ESPN.com's InsideRPI and Amaker's team is a less-than-stellar 4-9 against teams in the RPI top 100.

Despite finishing alone in fourth place in the league, Iowa's situation isn't solid either. The Hawkeyes have a RPI of 80 and are 1-6 against the RPI top 50. Like Purdue, Iowa's best victory -- an overtime win over Louisville -- came very early in the season.

"We went through the Big Ten season with no losses against teams with losing records," Iowa coach Steve Alford said. "The flip side is we didn't beat any of the teams that finished ahead of us."

Alford is quick to remind people that the fourth-place team in the Big Ten has never missed the tournament since it expanded. However, teams that have finished 9-7 in league play have twice been left out in recent years. It happened to the Hawkeyes in 1998 and Minnesota two seasons ago.

Friday's quarterfinal game between Iowa and Michigan is essentially an elimination game with the loser bound for the National Invitation Tournament.

"We know it's a must-win, and I'm sure Michigan feels the same way,'' Alford said. "At no time in the history of the Big Ten has the fourth-place team been left out of the field, but our league has gotten hammered publicly all year about being down. So we know we have to take care of business Friday."

If there's something that the Big Ten bubble teams have going for them is that winning the tournament doesn't seem impossible. This, after all, is the Big Ten, a league that's been panned all year.

"There's been more parity in our league than any other year I've been here," said Alford, whose Hawkeyes won four games in four days to capture the 2001 tournament. "I think that makes for the hype of the Big Ten tournament to be very exciting, because I think anybody can win it.

"I know Illinois did a tremendous job of running the table the last several games to get them a championship, and that is an incredible feat in our league. Even with that being said, the last game of the Big Ten season, they win by one at Ohio State, who is the ninth seed. Anything can happen when you get on a neutral setting."

Of the three teams, Purdue has the most difficult road to winning the automatic berth. First, the Boilermakers' loss to Iowa on Saturday meant that Purdue will play in Thursday's first round and would have to win four games in four days. While the Boilermakers will be favored in their first-round game against Minnesota, they will be underdogs the rest of the way.

If Purdue is going to win the tournament, it's possible that they would have to beat Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Illinois on consecutive days.

"We won four games in a week earlier this year," Keady said. "But we've got to win one first."

Still several Big Ten coaches don't understand why the Big Ten may only get three teams when other conferences, such as Conference USA, will receive more bids.

"People who sit there and act like we're stepchildren to some of these leagues is ridiculous," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.

Unlike in the Big Ten, the Big 12 schools aren't trying to get more teams into the NCAA Tournament. The question at this weekend's tournament in Dallas is who is going to get in.

Can Missouri win a game or two to solidify a berth? Can Colorado avoid a quarterfinal loss to Texas Tech that might bump the Buffaloes out? Can Oklahoma, playing without Jabahri Brown, do enough to get in?

Even after an up-and-down season, Missouri's late-season surge made it look like the Tigers were safely in. But have back-to-back losses moved Missouri back to the bubble? After a first-round game against Texas A&M, the Tigers will get another chance at Kansas. If Quin Snyder's team can avenge Sunday's loss to the Jayhawks, Missouri should be in.

"If you look at our numbers (RPI and strength of schedule) they are sound, based on what the committee says" Snyder said. "I think we're right there. Obviously, we need to play well and show well.

"The big thing for us is getting focused on winning the (Big 12) tournament. That's the focus I want, not trying to play our way into anything. Go down (to Dallas) to win games and be playing on Sunday."

One good thing for Missouri is that big man Arthur Johnson is rolling. His 37 points against Kansas on Sunday was the most by a Big 12 player this season. Over the past eight games, he's averaging 21 points and 8.1 rebounds per game.

After winning 10 conference games in Big 12 play and finishing fourth in the league, Colorado coach Ricardo Patton is very confident with his team's status.

"We finished fourth in the Big 12," Patton said. "If that's not good enough, we've done our part. Unless they're going to take three teams, we should be in."

After losing four consecutive games in February, Oklahoma was able to get back to 8-8 in the Big 12 with a late surge. Still, the Sooners (who lost big man Kevin Bookout with 13 games to play in the regular season) probably need to win two games in the tournament to get in. That means beating Nebraska in the first round and Texas in the quarterfinals.

"The good thing is that we control our destiny, that's all we can ask for," Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said. "Now without Jabahri, things got a little tougher. But like I told the kids, 'What a great story to write, what an opportunity for us.' We're not thinking much about the NCAA Tournament. That will take care of itself if we win."

If Valparaiso is anything, it is consistent. The Crusaders advanced to their 10th consecutive Mid-Continent tournament title game by beating Missouri-Kansas City in the semifinals. There, Valpo will play IUPUI for the third consecutive season.

Since 1995, Valpo is 23-2 in the Mid-Con tournament and it will be going for its eighth title in the past decade. To reach the NCAA Tournament, the Crusaders will have to oust the defending tournament champs from IUPUI.

Because while Valpo has been good in the Mid-Con tournament, the Jaguars have been impressive as well. IUPUI enters the league title game 8-2 all-time in the Mid-Con tournament.

The matchup also guarantees that the state of Indiana won't go unrepresented in the NCAA tournament. The state has had at least on team in the tournament every season since 1974, but with Notre Dame on the NCAA bubble and Purdue and Indiana thinking that winning the Big Ten tournament is needed, it was possible that the state would get shut out.

With its double-overtime victory over SMS, Northern Iowa returns to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1990. Will the Panthers be able to make the same kind of splash. In 1990, UNI defeated a highly favored Missouri team in the first round before losing to an eventual Elite Eight Minnesota team in the second round.

It appears as if Southern Illinois forward Brad Korn will be all right after a nasty collision with SMS's Tamarr Maclin in the Valley semifinals. Unconscious for about 20 seconds, Korn suffered a mild concussion. He is, however, expected to return to practice later this week.

As good as the Illinois program has historically been (the Illini have won 17 Big Ten titles), Sunday's victory at Ohio State gave the Illini their first outright conference title in more than 50 years. Despite winning at least a share of three of the past four Big Ten titles, Illinois hadn't won an outright title since 1952.

The regular season title also makes Bruce Weber the third Big Ten coach in four years to win the league title in his first year on the job. Former Illinois and current Kansas coach Bill self accomplished the feat in 2001 while Wisconsin's Bo Ryan did it in 2002.

Minnesota freshman Kris Humphries simply knew the Big Ten scoring race was going to be close. But in the end, he scored just enough points to make history. After Wisconsin's Devin Harris scored 26 points in Saturday afternoon's victory over Indiana, he finished with 20.875 points per game in league play. That meant Humphries needed 24 points to become the first Big Ten freshman to lead the conference in scoring and rebounding.

Humphries scored 25 against Penn State, including the final two on an impressive reverse layup. That gave him a conference scoring average of 21.0 points per game.

He is the first freshman to lead the league in scoring since former Ohio State and current Milwaukee Bucks guard Michael Redd in 1998. For the season, Humphries is averaging a league-best 22.1 points per game. He is also the first freshman to lead the conference in rebounding since former Michigan and current Sacramento Kings forward Chris Webber in 1992. Humphries finished league play with an average of 9.5 rebounds per game.

Here's a hint for whoever draws Kansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament: Keep the score under 70 and you have a chance. This season Kansas -- which has now won at least 20 games in 15 consecutive seasons -- is 19-0 when scoring 70 or more points. The Jayhawks, however, are 1-7 when scoring less than 70.

One coach who deserves a lot of credit this season is Baylor's Scott Drew. Despite extremely limited depth (Baylor eneded the season with seven active scholarship players and five walk-ons), the Bears were much more competitive than most people would've expected. Baylor finished the season 8-21 overall and 3-13 in the Big 12. In addition, the Bears finished ahead of Texas A&M in the league standings. Baylor's season could've even been better, but the Bears went 1-6 in games decided by five or fewer poitnts.

It's difficult to believe that Texas A&M coach Melvin Watkins can survive a winless Big 12 season. With an 0-16 conference record, A&M went without a league victory for the first time since going 0-12 in the old Southwest Conference in 1944. In the eight seasons since the formation of the Big 12, Texas A&M is a combined 25-102. In that span, the Aggies have never finished higher than tied for seventh.

Jeff Shelman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (www.startribune.com) is a regular contributor to ESPN.com