The 2020–21 Big Ten men's basketball season began with practices in October 2020, followed by the start of the

2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 25, 2020, and concluded on March 14, 2021. The 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament culminated the season and began on March 18 and concluded on April 5. Season ...

in November 2020. The regular season ended in March 2021. The Big Ten announced the season schedule on November 18, 2020 with games starting on December 13 and featuring games played on December 25 and 26. The schedule had built-in collapsible byes to attempt to make up for expected

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

issues. The conference played the highest percentage of scheduled conference games in the nation, having only four games that could not be played. With a win over rival

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

on March 4, 2021,

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

won the Big Ten regular season championship based on winning percentage as the Wolverines did not play a full 20-game schedule due to COVID-19 issues. The Big Ten tournament was originally to be held at the

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from March 10–14, 2021. However, on February 9, the conference announced the tournament would be played at

Lucas Oil Stadium Lucas Oil Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in downtown Indianapolis, downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It replaced the RCA Dome as the home field of the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL). It opened on August ...

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to better deal with testing concerns raised by the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

defeated

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

in the championship game to win the Big Ten tournament and receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

big man

Luka Garza Luka H. Garza (born December 27, 1998) is a Bosnian-American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Bosnian and Herzegovinian national team. Garza played college bask ...

was named Big Ten Player of the Year for the second consecutive year. Michigan coach

Juwan Howard Juwan Antonio Howard ( ; born February7, 1973) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He previously served as the head coach ...

was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. Garza and Illinois point guard Ayo Dosunmu were consensus first-team All-Americans. In addition to Illinois, Iowa,

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, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State,

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donat ...

Rutgers Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...

, and

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

received bids to the NCAA tournament. The nine bids to the tournament marked a conference record.

Head coaches

Coaching changes

Penn State

On October 21, 2020, Pat Chambers resigned after an internal investigation by the school into inappropriate conduct by Chambers. It had been reported in July that former player Rasir Bolton had left the program due to comments to him by Chambers. New allegations involving Chambers surfaced after the school's investigation. Assistant coach Jim Ferry served as interim coach for the 2020–21 season.

Coaches

''Notes:'' * All records, appearances, titles, etc. are from time with current school only. * Year at school includes 2020–21 season. * Overall and Big Ten records are from time at current school and are through the beginning of the season. * Turgeon's ACC conference record excluded since Maryland began Big Ten Conference play in 2014–15. * Source:

Preseason

Preseason All-Big Ten

On November 8, 2020, a panel of conference media selected a 10-member preseason All-Big Ten Team and Player of the Year.

Preseason national polls

Regular season

2020
ACC–Big Ten Challenge The ACC–Big Ten Challenge (or Big Ten–ACC Challenge as it was called in alternating years) was an in-season NCAA Division I men's college basketball series that matched up teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the Big Ten Confer ...
(Big Ten 7–5)

Source:

2020 Gavitt Tipoff Games (Cancelled)

Plans announced in May 2020 called for

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...

, Creighton, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Villanova, and Xavier to represent the Big East and

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, and

the Big Ten in the 2020 Gavitt Tipoff Games, which were scheduled for November 16–20, 2020. After the NCAA delayed the start of the 2020–21 season from November 10 to November 25 due to the

, however, the Big East and Big Ten jointly announced on October 28, 2020, that the 2020 Gavitt Tipoff Games were cancelled and the series would be on hiatus for a year. In their statement, the two conferences also announced their intention to resume the games during the 2021–22 season.

Rankings

* AP does not release a post-tournament poll.

Player of the week

Throughout the conference regular season, the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

offices named one or two players of the week and one or two freshmen of the week each Monday.

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play. Each team was scheduled to play 20 conference games, and at least one game against each opponent. However, due to COVID-19 pandemic protocols some games were cancelled, officially declared as "no contest".

Honors and awards

All-Big Ten awards and teams

On March 9, 2021, the Big Ten announced most of its conference awards.

Postseason

Big Ten tournament

NCAA tournament

The winner of the Big Ten tournament, Illinois, received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Nine Big Ten teams received bids to the NCAA tournament, the most of any conference in the tournament and the most in the conference's history.

2021 NBA draft

Seven Big Ten athletes were selected in the

2021 NBA draft The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. The NBA draft returned to Brooklyn after 2020 NBA draft, the pre ...

Pre-draft trades

Prior to the draft, the following trades were made and resulted in exchanges of draft picks between teams.

Notes

References

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