2011–12 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season

The 2011–12 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2015, followed by the start of the 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. The season marked the first season of participation of the Nebraska Cornhuskers men's basketball team in Big Ten competition. With the addition of Nebraska, all teams will play seven other teams twice and four teams once during the conference schedule, which continues to be 18 games. The season commenced on October 14 when Michigan State and Minnesota celebrated Midnight Madness and three more conference schools hosted events on the 15th. For the fifth consecutive season, all conference games were broadcast nationally with eight aired by CBS Sports, 36 carried by the ESPN Inc. family of networks including ESPN and ESPN2, while 64 games were carried by the Big Ten Network. The conference led the nation in attendance for the 36th consecutive season.

The regular season ended with Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State tied for the league championship. Wisconsin finished in second place.

Michigan State's Draymond Green was named the Conference Player of the Year. Michigan State's Tom Izzo was named conference Coach of the Year. Green and Izzo both won their respective (player and coach) national awards from the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Green and Jared Sullinger were both recognized as 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans. Robbie Hummel was awarded the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. Aaron Craft won the Elite 89 Award. Craft (1st team), Drew Crawford (2nd team) and Zack Novak (3rd team) were named Academic All-America.

Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana hosted the Big Ten tournament from March 8–March 11. Michigan State defeated Ohio State in the championship game to win the tournament championship. Draymond Green was also named tournament MVP. As a result, the Spartans received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Six teams (Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin) received invitations to the NCAA tournament. The conference had an 11–6 record in the Tournament, with Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin reaching the Sweet Sixteen. Ohio State advanced to the Final Four. Three teams (Iowa, Minnesota, and Northwestern) received bids to the National Invitation Tournament. The conference had a 6–3 record with Minnesota losing in the championship game. Meyers Leonard was a lottery selection (11th overall) in the 2012 NBA draft, with Jared Sullinger also being selected in the first round and Draymond Green and Robbie Hummel being chosen in the second round.

Preseason Three teams were ranked in the preseason USA Today/ESPN poll: Ohio State (No. 3), Wisconsin (No. 14) and Michigan (No. 18), while Michigan State and Purdue were also receiving votes. The Big Ten Basketball Media Day for men's and women's basketball was October 27 in Chicago. The men's basketball media day was covered by ESPNU.

Jared Sullinger was named preseason conference player of the year at the conference media day. Other preseason All-Big Ten first team selections were Draymond Green, Trevor Mbakwe, Robbie Hummel, and Jordan Taylor. Ohio State was chosen as the top team, followed by Wisconsin and Michigan State. Sullinger and Taylor were also both preseason Associated Press All-Americans. 5 of the 30 nominees for the men's basketball Lowe's Senior CLASS Award were from the Big Ten: Michigan's Zack Novak, Michigan State's Green, Ohio State's William Buford, Purdue's Hummel and Wisconsin's Taylor.

Preseason watchlists WoodenNaismith Tim Hardaway Jr. UM Draymond Green MSU Trevor Mbakwe MIN John Shurna NU William Buford OSU Aaron Craft OSU Jared Sullinger OSU Robbie Hummel PUR Jordan Taylor WIS

Midseason award lists Trey Burke, Aaron Craft, Tim Frazier, Lewis Jackson and Jordan Taylor are five of the nearly 60 Bob Cousy Award candidates named in December. On January 4, Burke, Craft, and Taylor were included on the list of 20 finalists. On February 2, the finalist list was shortened to 11, including Taylor and Craft. William Buford, Draymond Green, Jared Sullinger, and Cody Zeller were included on the 25-man Wooden Midseason list on January 17. Novak, Green, Buford and Hummel were among the 10 finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award on January 25. On February 6, Green, Sullinger and Zeller were included on the 20-player Oscar Robertson Trophy midseason watch list. On February 15, Zeller was named one of five finalists for the USBWA National Freshman of the Year won the previous year by Sullinger. On March 1, Zeller, Green, Sullinger and Taylor were named to the 30-player midseason Naismith Award watchlist. On March 6, Green and Sullinger were named to the 15-man Wooden Award finalist list. On March 19, Green became one of four finalists for the Naismith Award. Sullinger and Green were among the 10 finalists for the Wooden Award, a designation termed as Wooden All-American.

Regular season For the full season, the Big Ten led the nation in attendance for the 36th consecutive season and posted its 20th consecutive year with two million attendanees. Average attendance of 12,868 was well ahead of other high major conferences: SEC (11,513), Big 12 (11,057), Big East (10,881) and ACC (9,876). The conference has six of the top 25 schools in terms of average attendance: Wisconsin (5th, 17,181), Ohio State (8th, 16,511), Indiana (9th, 16,462), Illinois (14th, 14,986), Michigan State (15th, 14,797) and Purdue (21st, 13,324). No other conference had more than 4 of the top 25. Conference play officially began on Tuesday, December 27 when Illinois hosted Minnesota and Nebraska hosted its first conference game against 11th-ranked Wisconsin.

During the season Big Ten Conference led the nation in Rating percentage index among all conferences. The conference boasted 5 of the top 16 teams: Michigan State (number 3), Ohio State (number 6), Indiana (number 11), Michigan (number 15) and Wisconsin (number 16). All conference members were among the top 160 and the Big Ten was the only conference with exclusively top-180 members. The conference led the nation in both major elements of the index: combined winning percentage and strength of schedule index.

Michigan State's loss in the March 4 regular season finale at home to No. 10 Ohio State meant the Spartans shared the 2011–12 Big Ten regular season championship with Ohio State and Michigan, all of which finished the Big Ten season with a 13–5 conference record. Michigan needed a March 4 victory over Penn State to clinch its share of the Big Ten regular season championship. It was the 13th Big Ten Conference championships for Michigan and Michigan State, while it was the 20th for Ohio State.

Rankings

+ Legend Improvement in ranking Drop in ranking Not ranked previous week RV Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll

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Early-season tournaments Big Ten teams emerged victorious in the following tournaments:

Name Dates No. teams Champion Charleston Classic November 17, 2011 – November 20, 2011 Northwestern Cancún Challenge November 22, 2011 – November 23, 2011 Illinois Chicago Invitational Challenge November 13, 2011 – November 26, 2011 Wisconsin

*Although these tournaments include more teams, only the number listed play for the championship.

ACC–Big Ten Challenge DateTimeACC teamB1G teamScoreLocationTelevisionAttendanceChallengeleaderNov 27 7:15 pm Virginia Tech Iowa 95–79 Cassell Coliseum • Blacksburg, Virginia ESPNU 5,647 ACC (1–0) 7:15 pm Florida State No. 21 Minnesota 77–68 Donald L. Tucker Center • Tallahassee, Florida ESPN2 7,941 Tied (1–1) 7:30 pm No. 18 NC State No. 3 Michigan 79–72 Crisler Center • Ann Arbor, Michigan ESPN 12,693 B1G (2–1) 9:15 pm Wake Forest Nebraska 79–63 LJVM Coliseum • Winston-Salem, North Carolina ESPNU 6,508 B1G (3–1) 9:15 pm Maryland Northwestern 77–57 Welsh-Ryan Arena • Evanston, Illinois ESPN2 6,009 B1G (3–2) 9:30 pm No. 14 North Carolina No. 1 Indiana 83–59 Assembly Hall • Bloomington, Indiana ESPN 17,472 B1G (4–2)Nov 28 7:00 pm Virginia Wisconsin 60–54 Kohl Center • Madison, Wisconsin ESPN2 16,690 B1G (4–3) 7:15 pm Clemson Purdue 73–61 Littlejohn Coliseum • Clemson, South Carolina ESPNU 7,632 B1G (5–3) 7:30 pm Miami No. 13 Michigan State 67–59 BankUnited Center • Coral Gables, Florida ESPN 5,791 B1G (5–4) 9:00 pm Georgia Tech No. 22 Illinois 75–62 Assembly Hall • Champaign, Illinois ESPN2 12,224 B1G (6–4) 9:15 pm Boston College Penn State 73–61 Bryce Jordan Center • University Park, Pennsylvania ESPNU 6,889 B1G (6–5) 9:30 pm No. 2 Duke No. 4 Ohio State 73–68 Cameron Indoor Stadium • Durham, North Carolina ESPN 9,314 Tied (6–6) WINNERS ARE IN BOLD.Game Times in EST. Rankings from AP Poll (Nov. 26).

Composite matrix This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play. (x) indicates games remaining this season. Illinois IndianaIowaMichiganMichigan StMinnesotaNebraskaNorthwesternOhio StatePenn StatePurdueWisconsinvs. Illinois – 1–0 0–1 2–0 0–1 1–1 1–1 1–1 1–1 1–0 2–0 2–0 vs. Indiana0–1 – 1–1 1–1 1–1 1–1 1–0 0–1 1–1 0–2 0–2 1–0 vs. Iowa1–0 1–1 – 0–1 1–0 0–2 1–1 2–0 1–0 1–1 2–0 0–2 vs. Michigan0–2 1–1 1–0 – 1–1 0–1 0–1 0–2 1–1 0–2 1–1 0–1 vs. Michigan St1–0 1–1 0–1 1–1 – 0–2 0–2 1–0 1–1 0–1 0–2 0–2 vs. Minnesota1–1 1–1 2–0 1–0 2–0 – 0–2 1–1 1–0 0–1 1–0 2–0 vs. Nebraska1–1 0–1 1–1 1–0 2–0 2–0 – 1–0 2–0 1–1 1–0 2–0 vs. Northwestern1–1 1–0 0–2 2–0 0–1 1–1 0–1 – 2–0 0–2 2–0 1–0 vs. Ohio State1–1 1–1 0–1 1–1 1–1 0–1 0–2 0–2 – 0–1 0–1 1–1 vs. Penn State0–1 2–0 1–1 2–0 1–0 1–0 1–1 2–0 1–0 – 1–1 2–0 vs. Purdue0–2 2–0 0–2 1–1 2–0 0–1 0–1 0–2 1–0 1–1 – 1–0 vs. Wisconsin0–2 0–1 2–0 1–0 2–0 0–2 0–2 0–1 1–1 0–2 0–1 –Total 6–12 11–7 8–10 13–5 13–5 6–12 4–14 8–10 13–5 4–14 10–8 12–6

Players of the week Throughout the conference regular season, the Big Ten offices named a player of the week each Monday. Week Player of the week Freshman of the week 11-14-11 Victor Oladipo, INDCody Zeller, INDAaron White, IOWA 11-21-11 Drew Crawford, NUCody Zeller (2), IND 11-28-11 Tim Hardaway Jr., MICHTrey Burke, MICH 12-05-11 Meyers Leonard, ILLCody Zeller (3), INDKeith Appling, MSU 12-12-11 Christian Watford, INDTrey Burke (2), MICHDraymond Green, MSU 12-19-11 Deshaun Thomas, OSUCody Zeller (4), IND 12-26-11 Meyers Leonard (2), ILLAaron White (2), IOWA 1-02-12 Trey Burke, MICH Trey Burke (3), MICHKeith Appling (2), MSU 1-09-12 Jared Sullinger, OSUCody Zeller (5), IND 1-16-12 Brandon Paul, ILLJoe Coleman, IND 1-23-12 Jordan Taylor,WIS Trey Burke (4), MICH 1-30-12 Draymond Green (2), MSUBranden Dawson, MSUBrandon Richardson, NEB 2-6-12 John Shurna, NUAaron White (3), IOWAJared Sullinger (2), OSUDave Sobolewski, NU 2-13-12 Draymond Green (3),MSUCody Zeller (6), IND 2-20-12 Draymond Green (4),MSUTrey Burke (5), MICH 2-27-12 Robbie Hummel, PURTrey Burke (6), MICHMatt Gatens, IOWA 3-5-12 Jared Sullinger (3),OSUCody Zeller (7), INDTrey Burke (7), MICH