The 2021–22 Big Ten men's basketball season was the season for

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

basketball teams that began with practices in October 2021, followed by the start of the

2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 9, 2021 and concluded on March 13, 2022. The 2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament culminated the season and began on March 15 and concluded on April 4 with the c ...

in November 2021. The regular season ended in March 2022. With a win over

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 ...

on March 1, 2022,

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 ...

clinched at least a share of the Big Ten regular season championship.

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 ...

clinched a share of the regular season titled on March 6 when Wisconsin lost its final game to

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

and the Illini held on to beat

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 ...

. It marked the first conference championship for Illinois since

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

. The Big Ten tournament was held March 9 through March 13, 2022 at

Gainbridge Fieldhouse Gainbridge Fieldhouse is an indoor arena located in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It opened in November 1999 to replace Market Square Arena. The arena is the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) ...

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

. Iowa won the tournament, defeating Purdue in the championship game. Wisconsin forward Johnny Davis was named Big Ten Player of the Year. Wisconsin coach

Greg Gard Gregory Glen Gard (born December 3, 1970) is an American college basketball coach for the Wisconsin Badgers. Gard took over on December 15, 2015, after Bo Ryan announced his retirement as head coach of the Badgers. Gard is a native of Cobb, Wisc ...

was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. In addition to Iowa, who received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, the conference's tied the previous year's record with nine teams receiving bids to the tournament: Illinois,

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

, Purdue,

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.

Head coaches

Coaching changes

Indiana

On March 15, 2021,

fired Archie Miller after four years as head basketball coach. Two weeks later, the school named former Indiana player and

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the Na ...

assistant

Mike Woodson Michael Dean Woodson (born March 24, 1958) is an American professional basketball coach and former professional basketball player who is the associate head coach of the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA). With coach ...

as the new head coach.

Minnesota

Following the season,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

fired head coach

Richard Pitino Richard William Pitino (born September 16, 1982) is an American college basketball coach who is the head men's basketball coach at Xavier University. He was previously head coach at Minnesota from 2013 to 2021, and New Mexico from 2021 to 2025. ...

after eight years at the school. On March 23, the school named Minnesota alum and former Minnesota assistant coach Ben Johnson the new head coach.

Penn State

Shortly before the start of the 2020–21 season,

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

head coach Pat Chambers resigned due to allegations of inappropriate conduct. The school named assistant coach Jim Ferry interim coach. Following the season, the school hired

assistant coach Micah Shrewsberry as the new head coach.

Maryland

On December 3, 2021,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

and

Mark Turgeon Mark Leo Turgeon (born February 5, 1965) is an American college basketball coach. Turgeon served as the head men's basketball coach at Jacksonville State University from 1998 to 2000, Wichita State from 2000 to 2007, Texas A&M from 2007 to 2011, ...

agreed to part ways effective immediately. Assistant coach

Danny Manning Danny is a masculine given name. It is related to and short for the male name Daniel.🖾🖾 People *Danny Altmann, British immunologist * Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, director, producer, and writer * Danny Baker (born 1957), English j ...

was named interim coach.

Coaches

''Notes:'' * All records, appearances, titles, etc. are from time with current school only. * Year at school includes 2021–22 season. * Overall and Big Ten records are from time at current school only and are through the beginning of the season. * Turgeon's ACC conference record excluded since Maryland began Big Ten Conference play in 2014–15. Turgeon left Maryland on December 3, 2021. *Source:

Preseason

Preseason Big Ten poll

Prior to the conference's annual media day, unofficial awards and a poll were chosen by a panel of writers.

Preseason All-Big Ten

Prior to the conference's annual media day, unofficial awards and a poll were chosen by a panel of writers.

Preseason watchlists

Below is a table of notable preseason watch lists.

Preseason national polls

Regular season

2021
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 8–6

Source:

2021 Gavitt Tipoff Games (Big East 6–2)

Rankings

* AP does not release a post-tournament poll.

Early season tournaments

Of the 14 Big Ten teams, 10 participated in early season tournaments. All Big Ten teams participated in the

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 ...

against

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

teams, the 21st year for the event. Eight teams participated in the Gavitt Tipoff Games.

Players of the week

Throughout the conference regular season, the Big Ten 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 will play 20 conference games, and at least one game against each opponent. ) The Big Ten Conference led the nation in average attendance. It post-COVID average attendance of 12,520 outpaced the Big 12 (10,602), SEC (10,557), ACC (9,659) and Big East (9,056). Wisconsin (7th, 16,505), Indiana (9th, 15,845), Nebraska (10th, 15,283), Purdue (11th, 14,804), Michigan State (12th, 14,797), Illinois (13th, 14,690), Ohio State (20th, 13,276), Maryland (22nd, 13,052), Iowa (27th, 12,105) and Michigan (28th, 11,953) were among the top 30 of the 350 schools that compete in Division I basketball.

Honors and awards

All-Big Ten awards and teams

On March 8, 2022, the Big Ten announced most of its conference awards.

Postseason

Big Ten tournament

NCAA Tournament

The winner of the Big Ten Tournament, Iowa, received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Nine Big Ten teams received bids to the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year, the most of any conference in the tournament.

2022 NBA draft

Nine Big Ten athletes were selected in the

2022 NBA draft The 2022 NBA draft (branded as the 2022 NBA Draft presented by State Farm for sponsorship reasons), the 76th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft, was held on June 23, 2022, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New ...

, which was the most by any conference, and the most from the Big Ten since the

1990 NBA draft The 1990–91 NBA season, 1990 NBA draft took place on June 27, 1990, in New York City, New York. One of the standouts of this draft is Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Basketball Hall of Famer Gary Payton. He became a nine-time All-Sta ...

Pre-draft trades

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

Draft-night trades

Draft-night trades are made after the draft begins. These trades are usually not confirmed until the next day or after free agency officially begins.

Notes

References

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