The 2003 Big Ten men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

for the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conferen ...

and played between March 13 and March 16, 2003 at

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Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. The championship was won by

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

who defeated

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

in the championship game. As a result, Illinois received the Big Ten's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The win marked Illinois' first tournament championship following two prior championship game appearances.

Seeds

All Big Ten schools played in the tournament. Teams were seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records. Seeding for the tournament was determined at the close of the regular conference season. The top five teams received a first round bye.

Bracket

Honors

All-Tournament Team

* Brian Cook, Illinois – Most Outstanding Player * Roger Powell, Illinois *

Brent Darby Brent Darby (June 6, 1981 – December 6, 2011) was an American professional basketball player. He played at the point guard position. College career Darby played college basketball with the Ohio State Buckeyes, between 1999 and 2003, and was a p ...

, Ohio State * Sean Connolly, Ohio State * Tom Coverdale, Indiana

References

{{2003 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox Big Ten men's basketball tournament

Tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament

Big Ten men's basketball tournament The Big Ten men's basketball tournament is held annually at the end of the men's college basketball regular season. The tournament has been played each year since 1998. The winner of the tournament is designated the Big Ten Tournament Champion, ...