Who Will Cut Down the Nets in Indianapolis?

**Gainbridge Fieldhouse- Indianapolis, IN**

The Big Ten has a new look for this year’s basketball tournaments. Given the acquisition of the 4 former Pac 12 schools, the bottom 3 do not make the cut to Big Ten dance for the first time in the modern era. Falling short on the men’s side this year were Washington, Penn State and Nebraska with only Washington being the only conference team to finish with an overall losing record.

Single-session tickets for the 2025 TIAA Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament at @GainbridgeFH are on sale NOW!

Get your tickets here: https://t.co/fS9jDWQSva pic.twitter.com/j4dwcZczMQ

— Big Ten Men’s Basketball (@B1GMBBall) March 10, 2025

Moving on to the finalized bracket that begins Wednesday at 3:30pm with Northwestern and Minnesota kicking it off, we take a look at potential upsets and if there is an at-large bid among the non-Power 4, who may suffer if the top few teams do not come away with the tournament crown.

Of all the matchups, none of the 6 teams playing Wednesday really pose a threat. Minnesota has certainly played better the final 3-4 weeks of the season in comparison to Northwestern, but those two along with Iowa/OSU and USC/Rutgers have not shown much sustained success to instill confidence of winning 5-straight. One or two could steal a Thursday second-round matchup but not much beyond that point. As for the single bye teams, Illinois and Purdue perhaps could reach a semifinal game as Illinois would play Maryland in their quarterfinal and Purdue vs Michigan in their portion. These are great matchups and, in my opinion, is the more competitive half of the bracket. Regardless, MSU has not lost to any of those 4 schools this year going 6-0 with a pair of wins each against Michigan and Illinois.

MSU’s coaching staff has already been hard at work cutting up tape for both IU and Oregon as they are set to face the winner of that matchup on Thursday. Oregon was dispatched after an extremely cold first half at home while Indiana might be the team the Spartan Dawgs want to see for some potential revenge. As it stands, that is the last team to defeat MSU and the ONLY conference team to win at the Breslin Center this year. Should MSU take care of business on Friday, it would almost assuredly be another revenge game in the semifinal against UCLA who finished 4th and came on strong after a tough stretch to start conference play (0-4) to end 11-3 in their final 14 conference games including wins over Oregon and MSU, falling to Illinois, Minnesota and Purdue.

Sunday, prior to the selection announcements, MSU would most likely face Michigan or Maryland. Illinois declined and showed inconsistency in the final month with quality wins over Michigan, Purdue and UCLA but paired with some questionable loses to Nebraska, Rutgers and being blown out by Duke, Wisconsin and Maryland. While they have some moment, this is a team that lacks defensive stopping power as they’ve held only 2 teams to under 70 points in conference play (PSU and Indiana). Purdue on the other hand, without Zach Edey, have shown their own struggles including suddenly not having such a rebounding prowess anymore. Early on, Purdue notched quality wins against Alabama and ranked Ole Miss but fell to Marquette, Texas A&M and was torched by Auburn. While they started very hot in conference play, it came during the easiest stretch and when it came down to the final 7 games and in the hunt, the Boilermakers would finish 2-5 losing to Michigan, Wisconsin, MSU, Indiana and Illinois mixing in wins vs UCLA and Rutgers while only holding 1 team to under 70 points in that stretch as well. They accomplished that mark in 7 of their first 8 league games.

In the end, my prediction is MSU vs the winner of Maryland/Purdue as Michigan has proven to be a 2-man show and also dropped 4 of their final 6 games scoring only 70+ points in 2 of those contests. They are vulnerable to either Illinois, Maryland or Purdue having gone 0-3 combined. Purdue has better guards than Michigan and are more experienced as only a handful of players returned from Juwan Howard’s final year as Coach May brought in recruits and transfers playing for the first time together. Maryland has the edge over Purdue but would still be a great semi-final matchup.

Will another trophy be enough for MSU to secure a final #1 seed for March? The numbers show it, but the SEC love seems a bit overwhelming and media coverage certainly comes into play. In respect, the SEC was the toughest conference with the Big Ten being second. I don’t believe there’s an argument with the ACC and Big 12 as those two were largely top heavy. After Duke and Clemson, only Louisville showed life and improved greatly while NC State lost their previous year’s Final Four magic and parted ways with their head coach after they failed to qualify for the ACC Tournament. Houston was the newest member while Iowa State was tripped up over the final month, Baylor faded away and Kansas limped to the finish line, looking like nothing close to the perennial contender Coach Self is used to in his several years prior. The jousting will largely rely on what happens with Auburn, Alabama, Florida and mix in Clemson and Houston to determine their final seeding fate. If they sweep their 3 games to finish 29-5 and 15 Quad 1 wins, that will be a VERY tough explanation to give in holding out a double championship, Power 4 winner, over a 2nd place SEC team who may only win one trophy, should it not be Auburn.

January, February, IZZO. Congratulations to the 2024-2025 Big Ten Champions, Michigan State. Oh, and with no “*” either.