Big Ten Weekly Men's Basketball Central - March 28-April 1

WEEKLY RELEASE - MARCH 27

2025 BIG TEN MEN'S BASKETBALL POSTSEASON CENTRAL

Big Ten. Big News.

The Big Ten went a perfect 8-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the best record for any conference in the history of the first round. The conference improved to 12-4 after the second round with four Big Ten teams securing spots in this week’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue. This marks the first time since 2013 that four Big Ten Teams have advanced to the Sweet 16, when Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State competed in the regional semifinal round. That season, Michigan faced Louisville in the National Championship game.
More than 10.1 million fans watched Michigan’s victory over Texas A&M on Saturday, while just shy of 10 million watched Illinois square off against Kentucky on Sunday. The games were the two most viewed contests in the second round.
Purdue’s Braden Smith has been named one of the four finalists for the 2025 Naismith Trophy, given to the nation’s top college basketball player. Smith, a consensus First Team All-American and the 2025 Big Ten Player of the Year, averages 16.0 points, 8.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game, but saw his averages increase to 17.4 points, 8.9 assists and 4.6 rebounds during Big Ten play. This marks the third consecutive year a Boilermaker has been named a finalist for the award Zach Edey won the award following both the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Maryland freshman Derik Queen’s buzzer-beating jumper gave the Terps a 72-71 win over 12th-seeded Colorado on Sunday night and sent Maryland to the Sweet 16 for the 15th time in program history and first time since 2016. Maryland will play No. 1 seed Florida in the Sweet 16 on March 27 at Chase Center in San Francisco, California. The game will tip at 7:39 PM ET from Chase Center in San Francisco.
Michigan overcame a 10-point second half deficit in its 91-79 win over No. 4 seed Texas A&M on Saturday, sending the Wolverines to their 19th Sweet 16 appearance. After failing to advance to the regional semifinal round from 1995-2012, Michigan will make its eighth appearance since 2013, including in each of its last six NCAA Tournaments. The Wolverines will face the South Region’s No. 1 seed Auburn on Saturday at 9:30 p.m. in Alanta.
Michigan State will make its 16th Sweet 16 appearance under head coach Tom Izzo and 18th since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 when the Spartans take the court against No. 6 seed Ole Miss on Friday at 7:09 p.m. ET in Atlanta. Senior Jaden Akins led the Spartans with 16 points in their 71-63 win over New Mexico in Sunday’s second round match-up.
Purdue will make its 13th Sweet 16 appearance, including six in its last eight tournaments, when the Boilermakers take on Houston on Saturday night in Indianapolis. Purdue moved into the Sweet 16 after Saturday’s 76-62 second round in over McNeese, a game that saw Trey Kaufman-Renn paired 22 points and 15 rebounds to lead four players in double-figure scoring.
Two Big Ten teams, Nebraska and USC, have been selected to play in the inaugural College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas. Nebraska and USC will compete in the single-elimination 16-team contest, which takes place Monday, March 31 to Sunday, April 6.
Nebraska, who will compete in the postseason in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, will open tournament play on Monday, March 31, when the Huskers take on Arizona State in the third of four first-round games that day. Tipoff from the MGM Grand Garden Arena is set for 8:30 p.m. ET and will be televised on FS1. Nebraska is averaging 75.4 points per game entering the postseason. It is on pace to be NU’s second-highest scoring average since joining the Big Ten in 2011-12.
USC will make its 27th postseason appearance on Tuesday night, when it faces Tulane in the first round of the College Basketball Crown. Tip is slated for 11 p.m. ET at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and will be broadcast on FS1. All-Big Ten honorable mention recipient and NABC All-Pacific District performer Desmond Claude leads the Trojans with 16.3 points per game, 11th in the league, and 4.3 assists, good for ninth in the Big Ten, as USC looks to earn its first postseason win since 2021.
Darian DeVries has been tabbed as the 31st head coach of the Indiana men’s basketball team. DeVries moves to Bloomington with 24 years of Division I coaching experience, including the last seven as a highly-successful head coach at Drake (2019-24) and West Virginia (2025). His Drake and West Virginia teams went a combined 169-68 (71.3%) overall and 89-43 (67.4%) in conference play, and won three conference championships (one regular season, two postseason) along the way.
Iowa has named Ben McCollum as its new head basketball coach. McCollum, an Iowa native, heads to Iowa City with a sterling resume that includes four NCAA Division II national championships (2017, 2019, 2021, 2022) at Northwest Missouri State University. In his first season in NCAA Division I, McCollum guided Drake to a school-record 31 wins, the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament titles, and to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Minnesota alum Niko Medved has been selected as the 19th head men’s basketball coach at Minnesota. Medved, who earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Minnesota, returns to his alma mater after a seven-year head coaching stint at Colorado State. It marks the second time Medved has been a coach at Minnesota, as he was an assistant coach during the 2006-07 season. Medved started his collegiate basketball career at Williams Arena when he served as a student manager under former Gopher coach Clem Haskins. Medev owns a 222-172 career record, including 143-85 at Colorado State. The Roseville, Minn., native completed a historic run at Colorado State, as the Rams competed in the NCAA Tournament three of the last four years. Earlier this month, Medved led Colorado State to a Mountain West tournament championship and automatic NCAA Tournament berth, where they advanced to the Round of 32 with a first round win over Memphis.
Purdue’s Braden Smith and Wisconsin’s John Tonje have been named consensus First and Second Team All-Americans, respectively, after collecting honors from the Associated Press (AP), National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), Sporting News, and US Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). Smith, who ranks second on the Boilermakers with 16.1 points, while his 8.7 assists per game are good for second in the country, was named to the First Team by all four entities, while Tonje was named to the AP, NABC, and Sporting News Second Teams after leading the Badgers with 19.2 points per contest. Maryland’s Derik Queen, Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn, and Rutgers’ Dylan Harper also received Honorable Mention from the AP. This marks the 16th consecutive season the Big Ten has boasted at least one consensus All-America honoree.
Milestone Watch... Congratulations to Maryland’s Julian Reese, who grabbed his 1,000th career rebound in Sunday’s win over Colorado State. Reese becomes just the second player in Maryland history and the 16th active player in Division I to reach the plateau...
The Michigan Wolverines claimed the 2025 TIAA Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament title with a 59-53 win over Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind. The win marked the third tournament championship for the Wolverines, joining crowns in 2017 and 2018. Tre Donaldson and Vladislav Goldin led Michigan with 11 points each, while a trio of Wolverines added eight points, including Danny Wolf, who grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. Goldin was named the Jim and Kitty Delaney Most Outstanding Player and was joined by Wolf, Wisconsin’s John Blackwell and John Tonje, and Maryland’s Derik Queen on the All-Tournament Team.
The 2025 TIAA Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament championship game between Michigan and Wisconsin delivered CBS Sports its largest audience for the Big Ten championship since 2014, averaging 4.53 million viewers, with a peak audience of 5.82 million viewers. The Big Ten was incorporated in CBS Sports’ two most-watched regular season games this season on any network, Illinois-Arkansas drew 5.174 million viewers on Thanksgiving and the Big Ten Championship.
Michigan State claimed the 2024-25 Big Ten Men’s Basketball championship, closing the regular season with a 17-3 record in Big Ten play. This marks Michigan State’s 17th Big Ten championship and its first since claiming a share of the 2020 title. This is also the 11th Big Ten crown for Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, tied for the most in conference history.
On March 11, the Big Ten announced its 2025 All-Big Ten Teams and Awards. Purdue’s Braden Smith was named Big Ten Player of the Year by both the coaches and media panel, marking the third consecutive year a Boiler maker has been named Player of the Year. Penn State’s Ace Baldwin Jr. claimed his second consecutive Defensive Player of the Year honor, while Maryland’s Derik Queen was named Freshman of the Year. Illinois’ Will Riley claimed Sixth Man of the Year accolades. Michigan State’s head coach Tom Izzo and associate head coach Doug Wojcik collected the league’s coaching awards, as Izzo was named Coach of the Year for the fourth time, with Wojcik earning the Howard Moore Assistant Coach of the Year honor.
Eight B1G teams were ranked or received votes in the Associated Press and/or USA Today Coaches Top 25 polls released on March 17. Michigan State leads the way at No. 8 in the AP poll, followed by No. 11 Maryland, No. 13 Wisconsin, No. 14 Michigan, No. 22 Purdue, and No. 25 Oregon. The coaches listed Michigan State at No. 7, followed by the Badgers at No. 10, the Terps at No. 12, the Wolverines at 15, and the Boilermakers at 22. Illinois, Oregon, and UCLA also received votes in one or both polls.
The Big Ten collected 112 wins against Quad 1 opponents, second most of any conference, and 204 victories against Quad 1 and 2 teams combined. Michigan State leads the league with 13 Quad 1 wins, tied for second most in the country, one more than Michigan and three more UCLA. The Spartans’ and Wisconsin have combined 18 Quad 1 and 2 wins, good for fifth in the nation. Michigan, Oregon, and Purdue own 16 such victories, one more than Illinois.
Nine Big Ten teams were ranked in the top 45 and 15 in the top 70 in the NET Rankings through games on March 16. Maryland leads the way at No. 10, followed by No. 11 Michigan State, No. 15 Wisconsin, No. 17 Illinois, No. 19 Pudue, No. 23 Michigan, No. 27 UCLA, No. 29 Oregon, and No. 41 Ohio State. Northwestern, Indiana, Nebraska, Iowa, Penn State, and USC also hold spots in the top 70. Only the SEC has more teams in the top 40, with 12.
The Big Ten finished its nonconference schedule with a 159-38 record, besting last season’ 144 nonconference victories. Among those wins, the Big Ten was 122-7 (.946) at home. The Big Ten’s 160 wins and .812 nonconference win percentage sit behind only the SEC’s 185 wins and .889 (185-23) win percentage.
More than 6.2 million fans watched Big Ten basketball games during the 2024-25 season, including 3.3 million in our 18 home venues. Seven teams rank among the top 20 programs in total attendance. Indiana leads the league with 296,046 fans, sixth nationally. Illinois (256,543 fans), Wisconsin (255,109), and Maryland (253,972) list 11th, 12th, and 13th in the country. Nebraska (239,426), Purdue (238,016), and Michigan State (236,752) also earned spots in the top 20.
The Big Ten boasts some of the nation’s highest octane offenses. The conference leads the nation with 46,429 points scored this season, as its 77.12 points per game rank fourth. The Big Ten’s 18 teams shoot 46.22 percent from the field, second nationally, and 73.81 percent from the free throw line, fourth among all conferences. The league also gets significant contributions from its reserves, as the 18 bench units have combined for 12,420 points, second in the country. The Big Ten also leads the nation in total rebounds (21,238) and ranks second in blocked shots (2,165), while its 3,883 steals are good for third.

Big Ten Weekly Men's Basketball Central - March 28-April 1

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