The 2010–11 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season marked the continuation of the annual tradition of competitive basketball among Big Ten Conference members that began in 1904. The non-conference portion of the 2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 8, 2010. Conference play began on December 27, 2010. Ohio state won the regular season Big Ten title. Following conference play, Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis hosted the 2011 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament from Thursday, March 10 through Sunday, March 13, which was also won by Ohio State. The Big Ten Conference hosted second and third round games of the 2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament at the United Center in Chicago March 18 and 20, 2011.
The Big Ten had seven teams invited to the 68-team 2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament (NCAA tournament) and one team invited to the 2011 National Invitation Tournament (NIT). Ohio State was a number one seed and along with Wisconsin survived until the Sweet Sixteen round. No Big Ten teams made the elite eight and the Big Ten finished with a 7–7 record in the tournament. Northwestern made the elite eight round of the 32-team NIT before being eliminated.
JaJuan Johnson was the regular season MVP and Jared Sullinger was the 2011 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament MVP. Both earned first team recognition as 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans and Sullinger earned numerous National Freshman of the Year Awards, including the USBWA National Freshman of the Year. Blake Hoffarber earned 2nd team Academic All-America recognition. The conference led the nation in attendance for the 35th straight season with a 12,826 overall average and 7 of the top 25 schools.
Following the season several athletes represented the Big Ten as members of USA Basketball team USA honorees: Keith Appling, Meyers Leonard and Tim Hardaway Jr. were on Team USA for the 2011 FIBA Under-19 World Championship, while Trevor Mbakwe and Draymond Green were on Team USA for the 2011 Summer Universiade coached by Matt Painter. Five Big Ten athletes were drafted in the 2011 NBA draft with JaJuan Johnson (27th overall) and four additional selections (Jon Leuer, Darius Morris, Jon Diebler and E'Twaun Moore) in the second round.
Preseason Seventeen members of the 2009-10 All-Conference teams returned, including five players who earned first-team honors over the prior two seasons and a previous Big Ten Player of the Year. Eight career 1,000-points scorers, including two 1,500-point scorers returned. Fourteen of the conference's top scorers and rebounders in all games played from last season, including five of the top 10 of each category returned. Eight players that led the conference in a statistical category last season for all games played also returned.
The Big Ten media panel announced that they selected Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue as the preseason media day selections. They also announced the 2010–11 All-Big Ten Conference first-team selections: Kalin Lucas MSU, Demetri McCamey ILL, E'Twaun Moore PUR, Jon Leuer WIS, and JaJuan Johnson PUR. Lucas repeated as the preseason conference player of the year.
Preseason watchlists On October 4, 2010, the Wooden Award preseason watch list included eight Big Ten players. The watchlist was composed of 50 players who were not transfers, freshmen or medical redshirts. The list will be reduced to a 30-player mid-season watchlist in December and a final national ballot of about 20 players in March. The Naismith College Player of the Year watchlist of 50 players was announced on November 16, 2010. In late February, a shorter list of the Top 30 will be compiled in preparation for a March vote to narrow the list to the four finalists.
Wooden2010-2011 Men's Preseason Top 50 Candidates , WoodenAward.com, November 4, 2010NaismithDUKE UNIVERSITY LEADS A DIVERSE PACK ON THE NAISMITH PRESEASON WATCH LIST , MSL Atlanta, November 16, 2010 Talor BattlePSU William BufordOSU Robbie HummelPUR JaJuan JohnsonPUR Jon LeuerWIS Kalin LucasMSU Demetri McCameyILL E'Twaun MoorePUR John ShurnaNU Jared SullingerOSU Durrell SummersMSU
Lauer, Moore, Minnesota's Blake Hoffarber, and Ohio State's David Lighty were named as candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.
Rankings
The Big Ten Conference entered the season with five teams ranked in the USA Today/ESPN Preseason Top 25 Men's Basketball Coaches' Poll.
+ Legend Improvement in ranking Drop in ranking Not ranked previous week RV Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll
Pre Wk1 Wk2 Wk3 Wk4 Wk5 Wk6 Wk7 Wk8 Wk9 Wk10 Wk11 Wk12 Wk13 Wk14 Wk15 Wk16 Wk17 FinalIllinois AP 13 13 19 20 16 12 21 23 20 16 23 20 RV RV C 16 16 19 21 17 14 21 25 20 16 22 21 24 RV RVIndiana AP C Iowa AP C Michigan AP C RVMichigan State AP 2 (8) 2 (7) 2 (6) 6 7 14 12 20 18 RV 17 25 C 2 (2) 2 (2) 2 (2) 6 8 15 12 19 19 24 18 RV Minnesota AP RV RV 15 15 22 21 17 14 RV RV 15 16 18 RV C RV RV 17 13 20 20 16 13 21 25 19 18 20 25 Northwestern AP RV RV RV RV C RV RV RV RV RV RV RV RV Ohio State AP 4 4 3 2 2 2 2 (1) 2 2 2 1 (49) 1 (63) 1 (65) 1 (65) 2 (14) 2 (10) 1 (45) 1 (52) C 5 5 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 (28) 1 (31) 1 (31) 1 (31) 3 (3) 3 (4) 1 (17) 1 (25) 5 (1)Penn State AP RV RV C Purdue AP 14 14 10 22 19 19 14 12 11 8 14 12 11 14 11 8 6 9 C 8 9 8 18 18 17 13 11 10 8 13 12 10 12 11 8 6 9 17Wisconsin AP RV RV RV RV RV RV RV 20 18 17 19 13 10 12 10 13 C 24 25 RV RV RV RV RV 24 RV 21 17 15 18 14 10 12 10 13 15
Preconference schedules
Tournaments Big Ten teams emerged victorious in the following tournament: Name Dates Num. teams Champions Puerto Rico Tip-Off Nov. 18–21
ACC–Big Ten Challenge The 12th annual ACC–Big Ten Challenge matchups were announced on May 12, 2010. The November 29—December 1 schedule with game times and locations was set on August 9, 2010.
DateTimeACC TeamBig Ten TeamLocationTelevisionAttendanceWinnerChallengeLeader Mon., Nov 29 7:00PM Virginia#13 Minnesota Williams Arena • Minneapolis, MN ESPN2 Virginia (87-79) Tue., Nov 30 7:00PM Wake Forest Iowa LJVM Coliseum • Winston-Salem, NC ESPNU Wake Forest (76-73) 7:00PM Georgia Tech Northwestern Welsh-Ryan Arena • Evanston, IL ESPN2 Northwestern (91-71) 7:30PM Florida State #2 Ohio State Donald L. Tucker Center • Tallahassee, FL ESPN Ohio State (58-44) 9:00PM Clemson Michigan Littlejohn Coliseum • Clemson, SC ESPN2 Michigan (69-61) 9:30PM North Carolina #21 Illinois Assembly Hall • Champaign, IL ESPN Illinois (79-67) Wed., Dec 1 7:15PM Boston College Indiana Conte Forum • Chestnut Hill, MA ESPNU Boston College (88-76) 7:15PM NC State Wisconsin Kohl Center • Madison, WI ESPN2 Wisconsin (87-48) 7:30PM Virginia Tech #18 Purdue Cassell Coliseum • Blacksburg, VA ESPN Purdue (58-55 OT) 9:15PM Maryland Penn State Bryce Jordan Center • University Park, PA ESPN2 Maryland (62-39) 9:30PM #1 Duke #6 Michigan State Cameron Indoor Stadium • Durham, NC ESPN Duke (84-79) Game Times in EST. Rankings from ESPN Coaches Poll (11/29). Miami did not play due to its last place finish in the ACC during the 2009–2010 season.
Season The non-conference portion of the 2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 8, 2010, with Illinois defeating UC Irvine in the opening round of the 2010 Coaches Vs. Cancer Classic. Conference play began on December 27, 2010, with Penn State traveling to play Indiana in Bloomington, Indiana.
On December 17, 2010, the Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany announced that Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo would serve a one-game suspension for what the National Collegiate Athletic Association determined was a "inadvertent secondary recruiting violation".
On March 1, Jon Diebler tied the Big Ten record with 10 made three-point shots as Ohio State clinched a share of the Big Ten championship in a victory over Penn State. On March 6, they clinched the title outright in a victory over Wisconsin. Ohio State achieved 34 victories, marking the highest total by a conference member since the 2006–07 Buckeyes went 35–4 and the 34–3 record was the conference's highest winning percentage (.919) since the 2004–05 Illinois Fighting Illini went 37–2 (.948).
The Big Ten's 12,826-fans average attendance led the nation the 35th consecutive season by more than 1,500 fans more than the next-closest conference. It was the 19th consecutive year the Big Ten achieved two million attendanees. Its seven top 25 average attendance schools surpassed all other conferences by at least three. The following schools were among the top 25 Wisconsin (7th, 17,230), Illinois (10th, 15,851), Indiana (12th, 15,259), Ohio State (13th, 15,125), Michigan State (15th, 14,797), Purdue (17th, 13,916), Minnesota (24th, 13,241). Other top-5 conferences were Big East (11,323), SEC (11,187), Big 12 (10,716), and ACC (10,266).
Player of the week 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 Freshman of the week 11-15-10 John Shurna, NU Jared Sullinger, OSU 11-22-10 Trevor Mbakwe, MINN Jared Sullinger (2), OSUJared Sullinger, OSU 11-29-10 Kalin Lucas, MSU Deshaun Thomas, OSU 12-06-10 Jon Leuer, WIS Jared Sullinger (3), OSU 12-13-10 Jared Sullinger (2), OSU Jared Sullinger (4), OSU 12-20-10 John Shurna (2), NU Jared Sullinger (5), OSU 12-27-10 Darius Morris, MICH Jared Sullinger (6), OSU 01-03-11 Demetri McCamey, ILL Jared Sullinger (7), OSUE'Twaun Moore, PUR 01-10-11 Jared Sullinger (3), OSU Jared Sullinger (8), OSURyne Smith, PUR 01-17-11 Draymond Green, MSU Aaron Craft, OSU 01-24-11 Jared Sullinger (4), OSU Jared Sullinger (9), OSU 01-31-11 Darius Morris (2), MICH Jared Sullinger (10), OSUTalor Battle, PSU 02-07-11 Jon Leuer (2), WIS Jared Sullinger (11), OSU 02-14-11 Jordan Taylor, WIS Tim Hardaway Jr., MICH 02-22-11 E'Twaun Moore (2), PUR Tim Hardaway Jr. (2), MICH 02-28-11 JaJuan Johnson, PUR Tim Hardaway Jr. (3), MICH 03-07-11 Jon Diebler, OSU Jared Sullinger (12), OSU
Honors and accolades On February 3, 2011, Michigan's Zack Novak (District 4), Northwestern's Drew Crawford (District 5) and Minnesota's Blake Hoffarber (District 5) were selected by CoSIDA as among the forty Academic All-District players, making them finalists for fifteen Academic All-American selections later in the month. Hoffarber was named as a second team Academic All-American. The conference also had 37 Academic All-Conference Team selections.
Jared Sullinger and JaJuan Johnson were among the ten finalists for the Oscar Robertson Trophy. Demetri McCamey, Sullinger, Johnson E'Twaun Moore and Jon Leuer were Naismith Award Midseason Top 30 List selections. McCamey and Jordan Taylor are Bob Cousy Award finalists. Sullinger was among the five finalists for the Wayman Tisdale Award. Moore, Leuer and David Lighty were selected among the ten Lowe's Senior CLASS Award finalists.
Conference honors Two sets of conference award winners were recognized by the Big Ten - one selected by league coaches and one selected by the media.