Big Ten Tournament: Conference Parity will Make for Exciting Tournament

The Big Ten Tournament will be an exciting watch

Heading into the season-ending Big Ten Tournament, the parity we’ve seen throughout the conference season should help make the tournament an exciting few days.

Indiana has surprised many on the way to the top seed, and punctuated their hold on the overall No. 1 with an emphatic 80-62 win over Maryland this weekend. The Hoosiers have lost just three games in the conference season to Wisconsin, Penn State and Michigan State, and look tough to take down.

If there’s a team that looks primed to do so, it’s the Michigan State Spartans, who despite having the No. 2 seed in the tournament feel like the best team in the conference. They also feel like one of the best teams in the country, and could be headed for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with a nice showing in the Big Ten Tournament.

The Spartans stumbled a few times in conference play, so we know the can be defeated, but they locked up the No. 2 spot in the conference with a dominating 91-76 win over Ohio State, and are rolling into the tournament. Denzel Valentine is a player of the year candidate and the Spartans will be hard to knock out.

Behind Michigan State, a logjam of 12-6 third-place teams in the conference grab the next four seeds.

Maryland has the three seed after a somewhat disappointing season. The Terrapins were expected to win the conference this year, but it didn’t quite pan out. Still, their roster is loaded with talent, from Melo Trimble and Jake Layman to Rasheed Sulaimon and Diamond Stone, among others.

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Then there’s Purdue in the four seed featuring the dynamic A.J. Hammons as well as a host of big men. They showed they are multi-faceted with an all-around offensive explosion Sunday night against the badges on the way to a win in the season finale.

And speaking of the Badgers, Wisconsin comes in as the six seed in the tournament after that loss to Purdue. The Badgers are as hot as anyone in the country, and have won 11 of their last 13 games.

Wisconsin ran into a Purdue team that was firing literally on all cylinders, but Wisconsin has plenty of impressive conference wins over four of the top five seeds – at home over Michigan State and Indiana and on the road at Maryland and Iowa.

Purdue is the team the Badgers haven’t defeated who is seeded higher than them. Wisconsin couldn’t see Purdue until the Big Ten Championship game.

Iowa has the five seed after coming unglued a bit down the stretch. The Hawkeyes had an easier schedule early in the Big Ten season and started strong, but down the stretch finished 2-5 and limped into the four-way tie for third place. Still, the Hoosiers have Jarrod Uthoff and Peter Jok, and can win on any given night.

With Ohio State and Michigan not far out from the top six teams in the conference, this year’s field is separated by very few games at the top. Eight-seed Michigan is just three games behind two-seed Michigan State.

Next: Badgers Earn Six Seed in Conference Tournament

With so much parity during the regular season, it’s easy to see that this year’s Big Ten Tournament has the potential to be exciting for Big ten fans and college basketball fans in general. it wouldn’t be surprising to see any one of six-eight teams come out with the championship.

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