The 2009–10 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season marked the continuation of competitive basketball among Big Ten Conference members that began in 1904. On October 16, 2009, five schools celebrated Midnight Madness to mark the beginning of the 2009–10 NCAA Division I men's basketball season.

Michigan State, Ohio State, and Purdue ended the season tied for the conference championship with win–loss records of 14–4, followed by Wisconsin at 13–5. In the 2010 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament, Ohio State defeated Minnesota for the championship, and the conference named Evan Turner as the tournament's most outstanding player. The conference earned five bids to the 2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament by the Co-Champions, runner-up and tournament runner-up. Big Ten teams posted a 9–5 overall record including three Sweet Sixteen appearances and one Final Four appearance. Two members of the conference received invitations to play in the 2010 National Invitation Tournament (NIT), in which they posted a 2–2 record.

2010 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year Evan Turner received multiple first team 2010 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans and National Player of the Year recognitions. Trévon Hughes, E'Twaun Moore, Kalin Lucas and Robbie Hummel also received various All-American recognitions. Moore was also recognized as an Academic All-American.

Preseason On October 16, 2009 Illinois, Indiana, Michigan State, Michigan, and Minnesota celebrated Midnight Madness, and several other schools celebrated it in the subsequent days. Michigan State, Purdue and Michigan were ranked in the top 25 by all preseason polls. The entire 2008–09 All-Big Ten Conference first-team returned: Manny Harris MICH; Kalin Lucas MSU; Evan Turner OSU; Talor Battle PSU; and JaJuan Johnson PUR. The 24-member Big Ten media panel selected Lucas as the preseason conference player of the year, and he was joined on the first team preseason All-Big Ten team by Harris, Turner, Battle and Robbie Hummel PUR. The same media panel selected Michigan State as the preseason conference favorite followed by Purdue and Ohio State.

Various publications released their preseason predictions for conference standings and All-Big Ten teams.

Predicted Big-Ten Results Athlon Lindy's Sporting News Blue Ribbon Yearbook Big Ten Media Yahoo! Sports 1. Michigan State Michigan State Michigan State Michigan State Michigan State Michigan State 2. Purdue Purdue Purdue Purdue Purdue Purdue 3. Michigan Michigan Ohio State Minnesota Ohio State Ohio State 4. Ohio State Ohio State Illinois Ohio State Michigan 5. Illinois Illinois Michigan Michigan Illinois 6. Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Illinois Minnesota 7. Wisconsin Wisconsin Northwestern Wisconsin Wisconsin 8. Northwestern Northwestern Wisconsin Penn State Northwestern 9. Penn State Penn State Penn State Northwestern Penn State 10. Indiana Indiana Indiana Indiana Indiana 11. Iowa Iowa Iowa Iowa Iowa Big Ten Media select only the top three teams

Pre-Season All-Big Ten Teams Big Ten Media Athlon Lindy's Sporting News Blue Ribbon Yearbook Yahoo! SportsTalor Battle PSUManny Harris MICHRobbie Hummel PURKalin Lucas MSUEvan Turner OSUTalor Battle PSUManny Harris MICHRobbie Hummel PURKalin Lucas MSUEvan Turner OSUTalor Battle PSUManny Harris MICHKalin Lucas MSUE'Twaun MooreEvan Turner OSUManny Harris MICHRobbie Hummel PURKevin Coble NUKalin Lucas MSUEvan Turner OSUKalin Lucas MSUManny Harris MICHEvan Turner OSURobbie Hummel PURJaJuan Johnson PURKalin Lucas MSUManny Harris MICHEvan Turner OSURobbie Hummel PURJaJuan Johnson PUR

Preseason national polls

Associated Press USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches Athlon Lindy's Sporting News Fox SportsFinal preseason top 25 for 2009-10 , Fox Sports, retrieved 10-22-09 CBS SportsFinal Preseason Top 25 (and one): Distractions don't KO KU from top , CBS Sports, retrieved 10-22-09 SI.comKansas, Michigan State are 1-2 in first Power Rankings of 2009-10 , SI.com, retrieved 10-22-09 Sports IllustratedRivals.com Illinois23 2521182324 Indiana Iowa Michigan15 15 239241619161514 Michigan State22 23343223 Minnesota25 18 2016 Northwestern Ohio State16 17 22191518151613 Penn State Purdue77 467108765 Wisconsin

Preseason watch lists On August 19, 2009, the Wooden Award preseason watch list included eight Big Ten players. The watch list was composed of 50 players who were not transfers, freshmen or medical redshirts. The list will be reduced to a 30-player mid-season watch list in December and a final national ballot of about 20 players in March. On October 29, the Naismith College Player of the Year watch list of 50 players was announced. In late February, a shorter list of the Top 30 was compiled in preparation for a March vote to narrow the list to the four finalists.

WoodenNaismith Talor Battle Manny Harris Robbie Hummel Kalin Lucas E'Twaun Moore Raymar Morgan DeShawn Sims Evan Turner

Player of the week

In season honors

Players of the week Throughout the conference regular season, the Big Ten offices named a player of the week each Monday. Week Player of the week 11–16–09 Manny Harris, MICH Evan Turner, OSU 11–23–09 Evan Turner (2), OSU 11–30–09 John Shurna, NU Evan Turner (3), OSU 12–07–09 Trevon Hughes, WIS 12–14–09 Drew Crawford, NU 12–21–09 Blake Hoffarber, MINN 12–28–09 David Lighty, OSU 01–04–10 John Shurna (2), NU 01–11–10 DeShawn Sims, MICH 01–18–10 Evan Turner (4), OSU 01–25–10 JaJuan Johnson, PUR 02–01–10 Durrell Summers, MSU 02–08–10 Demetri McCamey, ILL Evan Turner (5), OSU 02–15–10 JaJuan Johnson (2), PUR 02–22–10 Evan Turner (6), OSU 03–01–10 Raymar Morgan, MSU Evan Turner (7), OSU 03–08–10 Jon Leuer, WIS

Regular season

November The season opened with the Big Ten Conference holding the leadership with six teams ranked among the preseason top 25 in both the AP Poll and the Coaches' Poll, setting a new conference record for the most teams ranked to open a season. The season also opened with the entire 2008–09 first team All-Big Ten players returning. Both Manny Harris (November 14) and Evan Turner (November 9) recorded triple doubles in the opening week of the season marking the first times a Big Ten player has accomplished the feat since January 13, 2001. Six of the eleven conference teams started at least one freshman. The following week, three schools (Michigan State, Illinois and Iowa) participated in ESPN's Tuesday, November 17 24-hour hoops marathon across its family of networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU & ESPN360). Michigan State's Magic Johnson and Jud Heathcote were inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on November 22. With his 341st victory, Tom Izzo became Michigan State's all-time leader in basketball coaching victories. Turner became the second player in conference history to be named conference player of the week three weeks in a row. On November 28, both Ohio State and Michigan State scored 100 points, marking the first time two conference teams have done so since December 22, 1997.

December For the second time in the season, two teams scored 100 points on the same night on December 5. For the first time in eleven attempts, the Big Ten won the ACC – Big Ten Challenge. In his 275th game, Bo Ryan reached the 200-win milestone with Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball. In the same week, Tom Crean raised his record to 200-–125. The Big Ten entered intraconference play tied with the Big East Conference by having five ranked teams. Northwestern entered conference play on its longest winning streak in 16 years (9), and Purdue reached the 11–0 mark for the second time and had a perfect record at the end of December for the first time since the 1936–37 season.

January Purdue ran its record to 14–0 to start the season, which tied the Glenn Robinson-led 1993–94 Purdue Boilermakers for the best start in school history. Four Big Ten athletes (Talor Battle, Harris, Trevon Hughes and Lucas) were named as finalists for the 2010 Bob Cousy Award to lead all conferences. Harris, Lucas, Robbie Hummel and Turner were also selected Midseason Top 30 finalists for the 2010 John Wooden Award. On January 12, Hummel and Turner became only the third pair of opposing Big Ten players to post 30 points against each other in one night. Michigan State established a new school record by winning its first eight conference games and extended the streak to nine by the end of the month.

February On February 8 Turner recorded his fifth Conference Player of the Week award and eighth of his career surpassing the former conference record held by Glenn Robinson and Jim Jackson, who each had seven career and tied Robinson's single-season record with five. Two weeks later he set the single-season record with his sixth recognition when he averaged 24.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists against two ranked opponents (No. 4 Purdue and at No. 11 Michigan State). Three Big Ten players made the February Top 30 midseason Naismith College Player of the Year watch list: Hummel, Lucas and Turner. Hummel and Turner were selected among the 16 finalists for the 2010 Oscar Robertson Trophy.

March Turner was selected as one of six finalists for the Bob Cousy Award. Lucas, Hummel and Turner were included on the final 26-man ballot for the Wooden Award.

The Big Ten led the nation in average attendance with 12,591. Other top-5 conferences were SEC (11,770), Big 12 (11,214), Big East (11,014) and ACC (10,713). 334 Division I schools competed in basketball and the Big Ten had several of the top schools in attendances: Wisconsin (6th, 17,230), Indiana (11th 15,296), Illinois (12th, 14,870), Michigan State (13th, 15,759), Ohio State (16th, 14,181) and Purdue (20th 13,681).

Rankings

During the season, seven of the Big Ten teams received enough votes to be ranked and an eight team received voted during several weekly polls. Michigan State and Purdue were ranked during every weekly poll during the season.

+ Legend     Improvement in ranking   Drop in ranking   Not ranked previous week RV Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll

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Preconference

Tournaments Big Ten teams emerged victorious in the following tournament: Name Dates Num. teams Champions Paradise Jam tournament Nov. 20–23 *Although these tournaments include more teams, only 4 play for the championship.

ACC–Big Ten Challenge The Big Ten Conference won the 11th annual ACC – Big Ten Challenge for the first time in the challenge's history.