Let's face it, when you get boat raced by a 7, that gets boat raced by a 6, who gets boat raced by a 1, you probably aren't that great. I think the Big 10 was a good conference, and deserved lots of bids, but with so many fewer non-con data points than a normal season, it was hard to really judge conferences. The NCAA tournament is pretty unpredictable, but there is no way to deny that most people, myself included, dramatically overrated the Big 10.
But when you have 14 team league, with 9 bids that include a 1, 1, 2, 2, and a 4 and you win 8 games total in the tournament, that is a historical level of under-performance. Watching Illinois' guards overwhelm the Big 10 with their athleticism and quickness only to look completely ordinary against a Valley team was pretty eye-opening.