The 2019 Big Ten men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the Big Ten Conference of the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The tournament returned to its more traditional Midwest roots as it was held at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. The tournament was held from March 13 through March 17, 2019.
Michigan State defeated Michigan 65–60 in the championship game to win the tournament, marking the school's sixth tournament championship. As a result, they received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Seeds All 14 Big Ten schools participated in the tournament. Teams were seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records. The top 10 teams received a first round bye and the top four teams received a double bye. Tiebreaking procedures remain unchanged from the 2018 tournament.
SeedSchoolConf.Tiebreak 1Tiebreak 21Michigan State16–41–1 vs. Purdue2–0 vs. Michigan2Purdue16–41–1 vs. Michigan St0–1 vs. Michigan3Michigan15–54Wisconsin14–65Maryland13–76Iowa10–107Minnesota9–118Ohio State8–121–0 vs. Indiana9Indiana8–120–1 vs. Ohio State10Penn State7–133–1 vs. Illinois/Rutgers11Illinois7–131–2 vs. Penn State/Rutgers1–1 vs. Mich St/Purdue12Rutgers7–131–2 vs. Penn State/Illinois0–3 vs. Mich St/Purdue13Nebraska6–1414Northwestern4–16
Schedule SessionGameTime*Matchup#TelevisionAttendanceScore First round – Wednesday, March 1311 5:30 pmNo. 13 Nebraska vs. No. 12 RutgersBTN16,47368–6128:00 pmNo. 14 Northwestern vs. No. 11 Illinois69–74 (OT) Second round – Thursday, March 142311:30 amNo. 9 Indiana vs. No. 8 Ohio StateBTN16,20775–7942:00 pmNo. 13 Nebraska vs. No. 5 Maryland69–61356:00 pmNo. 10 Penn State vs. No. 7 Minnesota16,53572–77 (OT)68:30 pmNo. 11 Illinois vs. No. 6 Iowa62−83 Quarterfinals – Friday, March 154711:30 amNo. 8 Ohio State vs. No. 1 Michigan StateBTN17,36970−7782:00 pmNo. 13 Nebraska vs. No. 4 Wisconsin62–66596:00 pmNo. 7 Minnesota vs. No. 2 Purdue18,57575–73108:30 pmNo. 6 Iowa vs. No. 3 Michigan53–74 Semifinals – Saturday, March 1661112:00 pmNo. 1 Michigan State vs. No. 4 WisconsinCBS18,46867–55122:30 pmNo. 7 Minnesota vs. No. 3 Michigan49–76 Championship – Sunday, March 177132:30 pmNo. 1 Michigan State vs. No. 3 MichiganCBS18,61565–60 *Game times in Central Time. #Rankings denote tournament seeding.
Bracket
* denotes overtime period
Game summaries
First round
Second round
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Championship
All-Tournament Team Cassius Winston, Michigan State – Big Ten tournament Most Outstanding Player Ignas Brazdeikis, Michigan Zavier Simpson, Michigan Jordan Murphy, Minnesota James Palmer Jr., Nebraska
References