The Anti-Big Ten Team of the Past Decade - A.K.A. A Guide to Self-Hate

Growing up, there wasn't a sport I followed closer than college basketball. Minnesota was the team I grew up following, Iowa was the team I started following, the Big Ten was the conference I rooted for and March Madness is what made me crazy about the sport. And although my college basketball fandom might've peaked one memorable spring week at 702 with Jensen (and the Gilchrist), I still like to try and keep my finger on the pulse of the sport.

The teams I will remember best, though, will be the Big Ten teams that played when I used to follow Minnesota and Iowa basketball closer than I do now. And while I do remember the players it was fun to root for, I find it a better topic to discuss the players that were fun to loathe. So with that being said, I give you the Anti-Big Ten Team of the past decade, heavily weighted towards yesteryear.

PG - Tom Coverdale - Indiana Hoosiers

Tom Coverdale played on the Indiana team that lost to Maryland in one of the ugliest national championship games ever, and no one was more to blame than him. There is a certain type of player that always draws comments like, "You hate to play against him, but you would love to have him on your team," but I believe Coverdale covers that special territory occupied by jackasses that everyone hates to play with or against.

SG - Dane Fife - Indiana Hoosiers

Ok, maybe I just hate d-bags from Indiana. These guys are highly detestable, and nobody outside that state can have any respect for people like this. Luckily, these are probably the same athletes that brought down the Indiana program, so it's not all bad.

SF - Miles Tarver - Minnesota Golden Gophers

I am first and foremost a Gopher fan, which should show how easy Miles Tarver was to hate. He was on some really good teams, too; so it says a lot that I spent most of those games trying to figure out what his IQ was, which was a lot like trying to guess how many fingers someone is hiding behind their back. Equally interesting is performing a Google image search for pictures of the man, because most are grainy or of the back of his head, lifting his status to Sasquatch-territory.

PF - Brian Cardinal - Purdue Boilermakers

Scrappy. Tough. Annoying. Retarded. Those are just some of the adjectives used to describe this All-Big Ten "athlete". Where I like to think nobody would like to play with little Tommy Coverdale, I'm not delusional enough to think that Brian Cardinal wasn't a good teammate. A little known fact is that he is neither left- nor right-handed.

C - Paul Davis - Michigan State Spartans

Expressionless big men are not a unique commodity, but Paul Davis should be their posterchild. Even his name is boring. I've liked most Michigan State teams and players throughout the Izzo Era, but Davis derailed that for a bit. Also annoying was the constant talk of him being good enough for the NBA.

Honorable Mention

Robbie Reid

Evan Eschmeyer

Kent McCausland

Nick Smith

Calvin Booth

Brody Boyd

Rick Rickert

The Crispin brothers

The McQuay brothers

Any other brothers I may have missed