The Big Ten men’s basketball tournament will begin on Wednesday as 14 teams look to earn an automatic appearance in the NCAA tournament. Here are three things to know ahead of this week’s tournament in Indianapolis.
Illinois and Nebraska are hot
In an amusing juxtaposition, two teams that seem like they’re peaking at the right time are the tournament’s #1 seed Illinois Fighting Illini and the #13 seed Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Illinois enters the conference tournament after finishing the regular season with a 4-1 record, including Sunday’s win over Iowa to give them a share of the Big Ten regular-season title.
They also finished strong without the benefit of facing some of the conference’s weaker teams. Of their final five opponents, only Penn State ended this season with a losing record in conference play. They picked up solid road wins at Michigan and Michigan State and their one blemish to end the season came at home against Ohio State.
Unsurprisingly, Illinois has relied on Kofi Cockburn to finish out the season. He got a double-double against Iowa, leading the Fighting Illini in both points and rebounds in their win over the Hawkeyes. He also delivered a strong game in Ann Arbor, scoring 27 points against the Wolverines while making over 70 percent of his field-goal attempts in an efficient day. Cockburn is one of the best big men in the country and Illinois will be counting on him to defend their conference tournament title.
Meanwhile, Nebraska is enjoying its first winning streak since November. Yes, you are reading that right, November.
The Cornhuskers are entering the tournament on a high note, coming off road wins at Penn State, Ohio State and Wisconsin. Sunday’s win over Wisconsin was particularly impressive given that the Badgers are the regular-season co-champions of the conference.
Being the #13 seed in a 14-team tournament is not exactly glamorous but any team that just beat the conference co-champions in their own gym has to be feeling very good about themselves entering the postseason. #5 seed Iowa should certainly take the Cornhuskers seriously if they meet on Thursday.
Michigan State and Ohio State are cold
For a team that prides itself on peaking when we’re getting close to March Madness, Michigan State has ended the year in a very pedestrian manner.
We just saw them beat Maryland on Sunday but even with that victory, the Spartans ended the year with a 2-5 record. They’ve lost by double digits against Iowa, Michigan and Ohio State in a remarkably underwhelming end to the regular season that also included a loss at Penn State.
Their other win was against a strong Purdue team but still, a 2-5 finish to end the regular season feels very unusual for a Tom Izzo squad. For comparison, the 2018-19 and 2019-20 Spartans both went 6-1 to end the regular season. The 2018-19 team reached the Final Four by defeating Zion Williamson’s Duke in the Elite Eight and I think you are familiar with how the 2019-20 season ended for everyone.
It’s certainly possible that MSU can deliver another iconic March performance, but this team is not finishing the season as well as their recent predecessors.
Ohio State also hasn’t exactly provided their fans with confidence as we head to the postseason.
Even without Hunter Dickinson, Michigan was able to beat them in Columbus on Sunday. They also lost to Nebraska at home and were comfortably defeated by Maryland at Xfinity Center. A loss to your biggest rival without their star big man and a pair of defeats against teams with losing records in conference play is not the finish to the regular season you want.
Chris Holtmann is yet to reach the Sweet 16 at Ohio State, which includes last year’s upset against #15 seed Oral Roberts. There will certainly be pressure to deliver results this year and that pressure is only magnified by an underwhelming end to the regular season.
Michigan, Rutgers and Indiana are on the bubble
Michigan is currently projected to make the tournament without needing a play-in game by Joe Lunardi as a #11 seed. Meanwhile, Lunardi projects that Rutgers will make it, but they’ll need to win a play-in game to join the field of 64. Lastly, Indiana is currently on the outside looking in as the first team out of the tournament.
#8 seed Michigan and #9 seed Indiana will be playing each other on Thursday, with the winner being given a juicy chance to boost their resume by facing #1 seed Illinois. Meanwhile, Rutgers has earned a #4 seed, which would mean their first chance to get a win to really boost their resume would come in the semifinals. If the Scarlet Knights beat the #5 seed Hawkeyes in the quarterfinals, their next game could come against #1 seed Fighting Illini.
Of these three schools, Rutgers pretty easily has the most interesting resume.
They have delivered several big wins at home against Illinois, Purdue and Iowa but their resume does include an ugly home loss against a 10-20 Lafeyette team. Also, they’ve lost road games against weaker Big Ten opponents like Minnesota and Northwestern. However, their win at Indiana on Wednesday might have been just what they needed to clinch an NCAA tournament appearance and perhaps even relegate the Hoosiers to the NIT.
BSL Analyst
Rose Katz is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland’s journalism school, where she worked for The Diamondback as the online managing editor and a sports blogger. As a student, she spent almost all of her time on campus in The Diamondback’s newsroom or at Xfinity Center, Ludwig Field and Maryland Stadium. Rose gained intern experience with the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN).