The Big Ten is tied for nation’s lead with four teams ranked in both the Associated Press’ and USA Today Coaches’ poll Top 25 rankings and is the only conference with three teams inside the Top 10 of both rankings.
The Big Ten is one of four conferences that features all of its men’s basketball teams in the top 135 of the College Basketball Power Index (BPI). Teams in 10th to 14th place in the current standings all own wins against Top 65 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 with one team receiving votes. Michigan State tops all teams at No. 1 in the USA Today poll (17 first-place votes) and No. 2 in the AP poll (21 first-place votes). Purdue is at No. 6/7 while No. 8/9 Ohio State jumped into the top 10 for the first time this season. No. 22/21 Michigan remained in the poll while Nebraska received 15 votes in the AP Poll and 18 votes in the USA Today poll.
Only four teams in the nation rank inside the top 30 of the KenPom offensive and defensive adjusted efficiency rankings, and three hail from the Big Ten Conference: Purdue (No. 3, 123.5; No. 13, 94.5), Michigan State (No. 10, 120.1; No. 9, 93.6) and Ohio State (No. 26, 116.6; No. 12, 94.1).
Five Big Ten teams rank in the top 15 in total blocks with Michigan State leading the country at 212 blocks. Five Big Ten teams rank in the top 25 in assist-turnover ratio, led by Purdue (1.65) at fourth in the country. Four Big Ten teams rank inside the top 30 in scoring defense this season, led by Michigan (63.7 ppg allowed) at 13th in the country. Four teams rank in the top 30 in field-goal percentage defense led by the second-ranked Michigan State (36.3). Purdue (18.2) and Michigan State (17.0) are currently second and third in the country, respectively, in scoring margin. The Big Ten features three teams in the top five of total assists this year: Michigan State (1st, 545), Iowa (2nd, 497) and Purdue (4th, 481) (through games of Feb. 11).