Quick Recap

We had a lot of blowouts to start the week, with the first 5 games being decided by 20+ points each.

Northwestern gave Purdue all they had, but a big CJ Cox shooting night helped the Boilermakers win. However, Purdue lost in Mackey once again as Wisconsin had one of those games where they simply couldn't miss. Both offenses were ELITE, and both defenses were BAD, but Wisconsin was the team able to get the win.

Michigan rounded out its Big Ten season with 2 more wins, going 19-1 in Big Ten play. They snuck out a close one at Iowa before beating in-state rival Michigan State at home.

After dominating Oregon, Illinois had a much closer than anticipated game on the road at Maryland, but ultimately were able to get the win.

Ohio State seems to have potentially locked up a tourney bid with their 32 point win over Penn State, followed up with a 13 point home win over Indiana. Indiana went 1-1 on the week, beating Minnesota, but they find themselves squarely on the bubble.

Nebraska and Iowa gave us an overtime thriller to end the regular season, a game in which the Cornhuskers were able to pull ahead in the extra period.

Score recap (Away Team - Home Team)

Oregon 54 - Illinois 80

Nebraska 52 - UCLA 72

Minnesota 47 - Indiana 77

Ohio State 94 - Penn State 62

Maryland 45 - Wisconsin 78

Purdue 70 - Northwestern 66

USC 72 - Washington 91

Michigan 71 - Iowa 68

Rutgers 87 - Michigan State 91

Wisconsin 97 - Purdue 93

Indiana 78 - Ohio State 91

Northwestern 66 - Minnesota 67

UCLA 89 - USC 68

Washington 79 - Oregon 85

Penn State 62 - Rutgers 74

Illinois 78 - Maryland 72

Michigan State 80 - Michigan 90

Iowa 75 - Nebraska 84 (OT)

1.) Michigan's dominant season

I think I've typed variations of Michigan being dominant nearly every other week, but the fact remains.

Michigan just had one of the most dominant Big Ten seasons of the last 25+ years. They're the first Big Ten team ever to get to 19 wins, and they're the first team since Ohio State in 2007 to finish conference play with a singular loss. (If Wisconsin didn't have one of their insanely good shooting variance games, we'd potentially be talking about 20-0 Michigan.)

Michigan beat five (5) AP Top 10 teams during Big Ten play, with three of them being on the road.

Michigan has the third-highest point differential during Big Ten play at 301.

Anyway you want to slice it, the Wolverines were elite. And now that the regular season is over, they'll be one of the favorites to cut down the nets in Indy. Can they continue on what has been an incredibly impressive season?

2.) Big Ten Awards

The regular season has ended, so I'd figure why not give some Big Ten awards.

NOTE - These are just my personal choices, not a reflection of Basket Under Review as an entity. So don't go yelling to Trilly when your favorite player isn't where you think they should be.

1st Team All-Big Ten

  • Player of the Year - Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan
  • Keaton Wagler, Illinois
  • Jeremy Fears Jr, Michigan State
  • Braden Smith, Purdue
  • Bennett Stirtz, Iowa

2nd Team All-Big Ten

  • Nick Boyd, Wisconsin
  • Hannes Steinbach, Washington
  • Bruce Thornton, Ohio State
  • Nick Martinelli, Northwestern
  • Aday Mara, Michigan

3rd Team All-Big Ten

  • Morez Johnson Jr, Michigan
  • Pryce Sandfort, Nebraska
  • Lamar Wilkerson, Indiana
  • Donovan Dent, UCLA
  • Cade Tyson, Minnesota

Honorable Mention

This is basically because I just didn't realize how many great players there were this year and I want to shoutout some other players.

  • Kylan Boswell, Illinois
  • Tyler Bilodeau, UCLA
  • Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue
  • John Blackwell, Wisconsin
  • Nolan Winter, Wisconsin
  • Zoom Diallo, Washington
  • Rienk Mast, Nebraska
  • Sam Hoiberg, Nebraska
  • Jaxon Kohler, Michigan State

All-Defense Team

  • Defensive Player of the Year - Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan
  • Aday Mara, Michigan
  • Sam Hoiberg, Nebraska
  • Carson Cooper, Michigan State
  • Zvonimir Ivisic, Illinois

All-Freshman Team

  • Freshman of the Year - Keaton Wagler, Illinois
  • Hannes Steinbach, Washington
  • David Mirkovic, Illinois
  • Kayden Mingo, Penn State
  • A'mare Bynum, Ohio State

All-Transfer Team

  • Transfer of the Year - Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan
  • Aday Mara, Michigan
  • Bennett Stirtz, Iowa
  • Nick Boyd, Wisconsin
  • Pryce Sandfort, Nebraska

Coach of the Year

  • Dusty May, Michigan
  • Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska

Ranked Way Too Low Award

For anyone that has read my writing at Feed The Post, you're aware that I watch film on every single newcomer to the Big Ten each off season. With that, there always seems to be an incoming freshman ranked way too low by national recruiting circuits. Thus, I created this award, and it's surprisingly done pretty well. Listed rankings are from 247Sports Composite.

2026 How Are You Ranked That Low Award - Keaton Wagler, Illinois

2025-26 Season

  • Season winner - Keaton Wagler, Illinois
  • Preseason winner - Keaton Wagler, Illinois (ranked #261)

2024-25 Season

  • Season winner - CJ Cox, Purdue
  • Preseason winners - CJ Cox, Purdue (#272) - KJ Windham, Northwestern (#202)

2023-24 Season

  • Season winner - John Blackwell, Wisconsin
  • Preseason winner - John Blackwell, Wisconsin (#211)

2022-23 Season

  • Season winner - Braden Smith, Purdue
  • Preseason winner - Braden Smith, Purdue (#198)

3.) Big Ten Tournament

2026 Big Ten Tournament Schedule

The Big Ten Tournament is here! Well, I'm not sure exactly what the excitement level is for this tournament actually, but it's Big Ten hoops so I won't complain.

This year it's at the United Center in Chicago. All 18 teams are in the tournament for the first time ever, which means that the first set of games actually starts on Tuesday. If Northwestern, Oregon, Maryland, or Penn State want to make the NCAA Tourney, they'll have to win 6 games in 6 days in order to do so.

Iowa takes on the winner of Oregon/Maryland to kickoff Wednesday, an 11 AM Central Time start. We'll see two west coast teams face off between USC and Washington, with the winner taking on Wisconsin in the following round. Indiana will face the winner of Penn State/Northwestern, and Rutgers/Minnesota will be the nightcap on Wednesday.

Michigan and Illinois have the triple byes in the top part of the bracket while Nebraska and Michigan State have them in the bottom part of the bracket.

If things go according to seeding, there could be some fun rematches.

  • Wisconsin would take on Illinois if they're able to beat USC/Washington. The Badgers beat Illinois 92-90 on the road in a thrilling overtime game. They'd also presumably play Michigan if Wisconsin wins their first two. They were the only Big Ten team to beat Michigan this season.
  • Purdue vs IU part 3 is looming if Indiana is able to beat Northwestern/Penn State winner. I don't think either fanbase really wants this, as the two teams are 3-9 in their last combined 12 games. Indiana did lost at home to Northwestern just a couple weeks ago. If Purdue is able to win their first matchup, they'd take on Nebraska in a rematch of their overtime game in which Purdue won on the road.
  • If Ohio State is able to win their first matchup, they'd get a 3rd game against Michigan this season, another chance for Colin White to face the Wolverines after claiming they'd beat them twice this season (Ohio State went 0-2 and lost by a combined 33 points in the two games).
  • UCLA is 4-1 in their last 5. Their only loss was to Minnesota. If Minnesota is able to beat Rutgers, it'd be an interesting rematch between the Bruins and Gophers. If Minnesota wins their first two games, they get Michigan State again, a team they beat at home this season.

Winner Prediction - Michigan

Super Longshot - Minnesota

4.) Big Ten Bracketology

With the regular season complete, there seem to be 10 teams having the chance to make the NCAA Tournament, barring any miraculous run in the Big Ten Tournament.

7 teams seem to be pretty surely locked into the tournament.

  • Michigan
  • Michigan State
  • Illinois
  • Nebraska
  • Purdue
  • Wisconsin
  • UCLA

Iowa probably should be included in that top 7 as it would take Iowa losing their first Big Ten Tournament game AND probably some bid stealers to make Iowa even have to really sweat on Selection Sunday.

Ohio State seems to be comfortably on the right side of the bubble, although winning their first game of the Big Ten Tournament should pretty much shore up any ease.

After the Big Ten got no bubble teams in last season, Indiana currently is the only Big Ten team right on the bubble, and they seem to be just slightly on the outside looking in.

It's worth mentioning that USC is probably the only other team that may not have to win the BTT to get a bid, although they probably still have to make the finals. I wouldn't bet on that happening.

Below is where bracket matrix and Torvik has current Big Ten teams, at the time of writing.

Note - The first number is the current seed on bracketmatrix.com. The second number is based on barttorvik.com TourneyCast, updated through 3/8, which focuses more on predicting final bracket, not saying what it'd be if it ended today. It runs 10,000 simulations based on the projections to average out the seed for each team. Included next to each team's name and seed will be their WAB, Wins Above Bubble.

  • Michigan - 1 Seed - 1 Seed - #1 WAB
  • Illinois - 2 Seed - 2 Seed - #10 WAB
  • Michigan State - 2 seed - 2 Seed - #7 WAB
  • Purdue - 3 Seed - 3 Seed - #13 WAB
  • Nebraska - 3 Seed - 4 Seed - #8 WAB
  • Wisconsin - 6 Seed - 6 Seed - #23 WAB
  • UCLA - 8 Seed - 7 Seed - #31 WAB
  • Iowa - 9 Seed - 7 Seed - #37 WAB
  • Ohio State - 10 seed - 9 Seed - #34 WAB
  • Indiana - 11 Seed (Last team in) - 11 Seed (3rd to last in) - #46 WAB