The Big Ten is tied for the nation’s lead with four teams ranked in both the Associated Press’ and USA Today Coaches’ poll Top 25 rankings.
The Big Ten is one of three conferences that features all of its men’s basketball teams inside the top 120 of the Massey College Basketball Rankings Composite (released on Monday, Jan. 22). The Big Ten is also one of four conferences where all of its men’s basketball programs rank inside the top 150 of the current KPI rankings. Teams in 11th to 14th place in the current standings all own wins against Top 60 RPI teams this season, including three on neutral courts.
Big Ten Conference men’s basketball programs played the most non-conference games against teams in the AP Top 25 and USA Today Top 25 polls in the country. Big Ten teams played, collectively, 22 games against non-conference opposition ranked in the polls this season.
The 2018 Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament will be held from Feb. 28-March 4 at Madison Square Garden in New York City for the first time in history. All 14 teams will advance to the tournament, with two first-round games slated for Wednesday, Feb. 28. The top four teams will receive first and second round byes and advance to the quarterfinals on Friday, March 2. The Big Ten Tournament will return to Chicago in 2019 and 2021 and Indianapolis in 2020 and 2022.
The 2017-18 Big Ten Men’s Basketball schedule is unlike any other in conference history. Moving the 2018 Tournament up one week, meant 18 conference games would be scheduled in a nine-week window. Historically, the Big Ten has been able to deliver the fewest one-day preps of any other conference. The 2017-18 conference schedule has 34 instances of one-day prep, with 20 occurring after the early-December games. That represents about 8 percent of the schedule in January and February, but the Big Ten had only one instance of single-day prep over the past two conference seasons.
Four Big Ten teams are in the latest Associated Press (AP) and USA Today Coaches' Top 25 polls for the second week in a row. Purdue tops all teams at No. 3/3 (AP/USA Today) and one first-place vote in each poll. No. 6/6 Michigan State remained in the Top 10 this week while No. 13/13 Ohio State improved nine spots and No. 25/25 Michigan remained in the Top 25 this week.
Five Big Ten teams rank inside the top 30 in scoring defense this season, led by Rutgers (62.1 ppg allowed) at ninth in the country. Four teams rank in the top 25 in scoring margin with Purdue (22.6) and Michigan State (21.6) leading the country. The Big Ten features five teams in the top 30 of total assists this year with Michigan State (1st, 426), Iowa (2nd, 390) and Purdue (4th, 384) in the top five. Nine Big Ten teams rank in the top 32 in total blocks, with Michigan State leading the country at 159 blocks. Minnesota tops the nation in total rebounds with 896 as the Big Ten features five teams inside the top 30 (through games of Jan. 21).