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