I'm not going to lie, it is weird to do a major conference tournament primer this early. In the years that I've done this, the high major conferences have always had their tournaments in the second week of Championship Week and the Big Ten has bucked that trend this year. The reason is simple enough; the Big Ten wanted Madison Square Garden for their tournament, but the Big East has had their conference tournament there for years. Even after realignment the reduced Big East still plays in the Garden. If the Big Ten wanted to play in New York, they'd have to do it a week early. Some comments could be made about why a formerly Midwestern conference with a geographic center roughly around Chicago would want to go out east anyway, but that's not why I'm here.
The Big 10 has been strong of late as far as conference rankings go. The Big Ten even had two teams in the Final Four in 2015, one of which played for a National Championship. However, the league still doesn't have a national title to its name since 2000 and this year the league has had a down year. Nebraska, who finished fourth in the league and earned a double bye in this tournament, isn't even safe for the NCAA Tournament, even though they won 13 conference games. The reason is simple; the NCAA's new quadrant system left the Big Ten short on quality wins. Even the top team in the league, 28-3 Michigan State, isn't expected to get a #1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament because of the lack of Quadrant 1 wins.
All fourteen teams will play in the Big 10 Tournament over five rounds. The top four teams received a double bye to the quarterfinals and the fifth through tenth seeds received a single bye to the second round. As mentioned before, the tournament will be held in Madison Square Garden.
First Round-Wednesday, February 28th
#14 Rutgers vs #11 Minnesota
#13 Illinois vs. #12 Iowa
Second Round-Thursday, March 1st
#9 Wisconsin vs. #8 Maryland
#12 Iowa vs. #5 Michigan
#10 Northwestern vs. #7 Penn State
#14 Rutgers vs. #6 Indiana
Quarterfinals-Friday, March 2nd
#9 Wisconsin vs. #1 Michigan State
#5 Michigan vs. #4 Nebraska
#7 Penn State vs #2 Ohio State
#6 Indiana vs. #3 Purdue
Semifinals-Saturday, March 3rd
#5 Michigan vs. #1 Michigan State
#7 Penn State vs. #3 Purdue
Finals-Sunday, March 4th
Purdue has had an impressive run during the season where they sandwiched a very long winning streak that saw them rise to #3 in the nation around multi game losing streaks. When they are playing at their best, however, the Boilermakers are one of the hardest teams in the nation to beat and I expect them to go back to their winning ways in the Garden and earn the Big Ten's automatic berth.
Michigan 65, Purdue 70
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