Big Ten Tournament 2023: Men's Bracket, TV Schedule, Dates, Live-Stream Info
The Big Ten had one dominant team and a mess beneath in in the regular season.
The Purdue Boilermakers head into the Big Ten tournament as the No. 1 seed and the clear favorite to cut down the nets in Chicago.
Sorting out the list of contenders beneath Purdue is the most difficult task presented by any of the power conference tournaments.
The No. 2 through No. 10 seeds were separated by two losses in the regular-season standings, and a handful of them have motivation to win inside the United Center to get off the NCAA men's basketball tournament bubble.
The Wisconsin Badgers will start the bubble conversation in Chicago on Wednesday. Wisconsin is one of three Big Ten teams that entered Sunday on the "Last Four Byes" and "Last Four In" lines on the latest projection from ESPN's Joe Lunardi.
The Michigan Wolverines are on the outside looking in at the bubble right now, but given the unpredictability of the Big Ten, even they could reel off a few wins and push themselves into the bubble discussion.
Big Ten Tournament Bracket and Schedule
The predictable result in Chicago is for Purdue to win three games and earn the tournament title on Sunday afternoon.
The Boilermakers lost five games in Big Ten play. Three of the losses came on the road against teams that had significant home-court advantages. Only one of the teams that beat them inside Mackey Arena are on their side of the bracket.
Purdue might not get a chance to avenge the January 2 loss to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, who enter Chicago with losses in six of their last eight games.
Michigan beat Rutgers on February 23 and then it went 1-2 in three overtime games to finish the regular season. The Wolverines need to beat Rutgers to set up a clash with the top seed in the quarterfinals.
Juwan Howard's team probably will not beat Purdue, but just getting the chance to beat the Boilermakers would be huge for its NCAA tournament chase.
Wisconsin absolutely must beat the Ohio State Buckeyes on Wednesday to remain on the right side of the bubble. The Badgers need to take down the Iowa Hawkeyes, who they beat twice, to feel much safer about their March Madness prospects.
The Penn State Nittany Lions need to knock off the Illinois Fighting Illini on Thursday to earn a chance of knocking off the second-seeded Northwestern Wildcats on Friday.
Penn State was listed as the last team in on Lunardi's bracket projection from Sunday morning. The Nittany Lions can't afford an early exit from Chicago in their position.
Rutgers' slide over the last three weeks puts it in a precarious spot as well, and the drop in bracket projections could continue with a loss to Michigan.
Purdue, Indiana, Northwestern, Michigan State, Maryland, Iowa and Illinois should all represent the Big Ten in the NCAA tournament.
Purdue will try to fend off the UCLA Bruins' chase for a No. 1 seed by winning the Big Ten tournament, while the other six teams will attempt to improve their seeding in the field of 68.
The No. 1 seed won the Big Ten tournament twice since 2013, but Purdue should avoid any upset attempts. Purdue's only consistent struggles in league play came on the road, and now that the games are at a neutral site, it should thrive on the environment.
None of the other top teams can make a convincing case to dethrone Purdue right now since the other top-four seeds all have multiple losses in the last three weeks and no team has a winning streak of more than two games entering Chicago.
