Hot take: Is this really that improbable in the NIL era? They have a top 30 (maybe higher) paid roster in the country and are being funded by a billionaire and their large alumni base. Cignetti is still a hell of a coach so props to him but I find George Mason or Loyola making the Final Four...
Wouldn't say it's that hard for a Big Ten schedule. 4 tough games, and they lost 3 of them. The rest of the way isn't very difficult. I guess the quality of 2 of those losses is top 2 teams in the country but they'll have far tougher Big Ten schedules in the future.