Big Ten Conference (conference rank: 4th)
March 8-12
All games at Washington, D.C.
kPOY: Caleb Swanigan, Purdue
Regular season champ: Purdue (preseason #15 / 4th Big Ten, current #13)
Overachiever: Minnesota (preseason #71, current #32)
Underachiever: Ohio State (preseason #13, current #69)

The Big Ten tournament moves to the Verizon Center in Washington this season and the conference appears to have seven safe bids. The most likely possibility for an eighth bid appears to be Indiana who has about a 1-in-30 chance of winning the four games necessary to claim the automatic bid. Who wouldn’t enjoy the bracketing chaos that would ensue with a bid thief minutes before the selection show?

Michigan is the conference’s hottest team, at least on the offensive end which could draw comparisons to some of the best scoring units that John Beilein has put on the floor. The Wolverines scored at least a point per (estimated) possession in every conference game this season.

But Purdue is the favorite, if not an overwhelming one. The Boilermakers haven’t had a bad loss this season and while their offense isn’t as effective as Michigan’s, it’s a more balanced attack. They made over 40% of their 3’s this season, but with the beefy Caleb Swanigan and Isaac Haas on the floor, one can understand why Matt Painter doesn’t rely on the three-pointer more than he does.

Maryland gets a half-share of home-court here.

                  Rd1  Qtrs Semis Final Champ
 1 Purdue         100   100  64.8  46.8  30.0
 2 Wisconsin      100   100  68.9  41.5  21.6
 3 Maryland       100   100  61.1  30.0  13.4
 4 Minnesota      100   100  61.8  22.0  10.1
 8 Michigan       100  69.5  28.8  18.0   9.9
 6 Northwestern   100  65.7  28.6  12.2   4.8
 5 Michigan St.   100  66.9  29.2   9.0   3.7
10 Indiana        100  57.9  19.7   8.8   3.2
 7 Iowa           100  42.1  11.5   4.3   1.2
 9 Illinois       100  30.5   6.4   2.6   0.9
11 Ohio St.      70.3  27.8   9.2   3.0   0.9
13 Penn St.      56.6  20.1   5.8   1.1   0.3
12 Nebraska      43.4  13.1   3.2   0.5   0.1
14 Rutgers       29.7   6.5   1.1   0.2   0.02