The 2014–15 Big Ten men's basketball season began with practices in October 2014, followed by the start of the 2014–15 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. It marked the first season for Rutgers and Maryland in the Big Ten Conference. Wisconsin won the regular season title and the 2015 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament.
Following the season, eight teams participated in post-season tournaments. Seven teams were invited to participate in the 2015 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, and one team was selected for the 2015 National Invitation Tournament. The conference achieved a 12–7 record in the NCAA tournament and a 12–8 overall postseason record. The postseason was highlighted by Wisconsin's NCAA tournament championship game appearance and Michigan State's final four appearance.
Frank Kaminsky earned several national player of the year awards and was the Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year. He and D'Angelo Russell received 2014 All-American first team recognition and Melo Trimble earned second team recognition. Russell and Trimble were both 2015 USBWA Freshman All-America Team selections. Kaminsky and Russell were the inaugural Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award and Jerry West Award winners, respectively. Shavon Shields and Mike Gesell were Academic All-America selections.
Following the season, the conference had 5 selections in the 2015 NBA draft, including 3 in the first round: Russell (2nd), Kaminsky (9th), Sam Dekker (18th), Aaron White (49th), and Branden Dawson (56th). International player, Caleb Swanigan won a gold medal with Team USA at the 2015 FIBA Under-19 World Championship, while Trimble and Denzel Valentine won bronze medals at the 2015 Pan American Games.
Preseason According to the Big Ten media, Frank Kaminsky was the preseason conference player of the year and he was joined on the All-Big Ten preseason team by Yogi Ferrell, Caris LeVert, Terran Petteway, and Sam Dekker. The Big Ten Network poll came to the same results.
When CBSSports.com named its Preseason All-American team, it included LeVert, Petteway, Kaminsky and Dekker to its second team. NBCSports.com selected LeVert and Dekker to its Preseason All-American first team, Kaminsky to its second team and named Petteway as an honorable mention. Kaminsky was also a Preseason All-American first team selection by the Associated Press. Sporting News included Branden Dawson (1st team), Petteway and Dekker (2nd team), and Kaminsky (3rd team). USA Today selected Dekker to its first team, Dawson to its second team and Kaminsky, LeVert and Petteway to its third team. SB Nation included Kaminsky on its first team, Dekker and LeVert on its second team and Petteway on its third team. Sports Illustrated included Kaminsky on its first team and selected Dekker and LeVert to its second team. Bleacher Report selected Kaminsky and Petteway to its first team and LeVert and Dekker to its second team. Athlon Sports selected Dekker to its first team, LeVert and Kaminsky to its second team and Petteway to its third team. Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook selected Kaminsky as its preseason National Player of the Year and to its first team, while selecting Dekker and LeVert to its second team.
CBS AP TSN USA Today SB Nation Blue Ribbon Athlon Sports Bleacher Report NBC BigTen.org BTN Sports Illustrated Frank Kaminsky 2nd 1st 3rd 3rd 1st 1st 2nd 1st 2nd 1st Yogi Ferrell Caris LeVert 2nd 3rd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 1st 2nd Terran Petteway2nd 2nd 3rd 3rd 3rd 1st Sam Dekker 2nd 2nd 1st 2nd 2nd 1st 2nd 1st 2nd Branden Dawson 1st 2nd
Preseason watchlists Below is a table of notable preseason watch lists.
WoodenNaismithRobertsonCousyOlsonTisdale James Blackmon, Jr. IND Branden Dawson MSU Sam Dekker WIS Yogi Ferrell IND Robert Johnson IND Frank Kaminsky WIS Caris LeVert MICH Terran Petteway NEB D'Angelo Russell OSU Melo Trimble MD Derrick Walton MICH Dez Wells MD Derrick Walton, Ferrell and Melo Trimble were among the 36 athletes on the Bob Cousy Award Preseason Watch List. LeVert, Dawson, Petteway, Dekker and Kaminsky were named to the Lute Olson Award Preseason Watch List. The Oscar Robertson Trophy Watch List included LeVert, Dawson, Petteway, Dekker and Kaminsky. James Blackmon, Jr., Robert Johnson, and D'Angelo Russell made the Wayman Tisdale Award Watch List.
Dawson, Dekker, Ferrell, Kaminsky, LeVert, Petteway and Dez Wells all made the Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 list. When the Naismith Award Top 50 list came out in early December, it included Dawson, Dekker, Ferrell, Kaminsky, LeVert, Petteway and Russell.
Preseason polls
Wisconsin was selected as the unanimous preseason favorite to win the conference championship by the members of the Big Ten Media. Michigan State and Ohio State were predicted to finish second and third in the same poll. The Big Ten Network poll had Wisconsin followed by Ohio State and Michigan State.
Several Preseason polls included Big Ten Teams.
AP Coaches CBS NBC SportingNews SportsIllustrated Blue RibbonYearbook BleacherReport AthlonSportsIllinois Indiana Iowa 25 20 25 Maryland Michigan 24 23 25 23 20 23Michigan State 18 18 18 21 20 14Minnesota Nebraska 21 21 22 24 17 11Northwestern Ohio State 20 20 21 13 15 20Penn State Purdue Rutgers Wisconsin 3 4 3 3 3 2 2
Conference schedules Before the season, it was announced that all 126 conference games would be broadcast nationally by CBS Sports, ESPN Inc. family of networks including ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, and the Big Ten Network. ESPN scheduled a game for every Tuesday and Thursday night of the conference season and CBS scheduled games for Saturday or Sunday afternoons starting January 17, 2015. CBS will carry the semifinals and finals of the 2015 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament, marking the 18th consecutive year that they have covered the Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament. Following the season, the Big Ten was announced as the national attendance leader for the 39th consecutive season with an average attendance of 12,781 for regular season home games and all seven sessions of the Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament. With the addition of Maryland and Rutgers, the Big Ten surpassed 3 million in total attendance for the first time with totals of 3,195,137, including conference tournament games, and 3,076,641, excluding them. A record for intraconference games was also achieved with 1,677,589 total patrons. Eleven of the top thirty-two schools were in the Big Ten: Wisconsin (5th, 17,279), Indiana (8th, 16,288), Nebraska (10th, 15,569), Michigan State (14th, 14,797), Illinois (15th, 14,652), Ohio State (16th, 14,648), Iowa (20th, 14,101), Maryland (25th, 12,695), Michigan (28th, 12,316), Minnesota (29th, 12,188) and Purdue (32nd, 11,523). The 3,195,137 for the 14-team Big Ten was the second highest total in NCAA history only behind the 16-team Big East Conference in the 2006–07 NCAA Division I men's basketball season which recorded 3,259,992 patrons. The Big Ten its rival conferences by over 1000 attendees: ACC (11,368), SEC (10,819), Big 12 (10,181) and Big East (9,853).
2014 ACC–Big Ten Challenge (Big Ten 8–6) DateTimeACC teamB1G teamScoreLocationTelevisionAttendanceChallengeleaderDec 1 7:00 pm Florida State Nebraska 70–65 Donald L. Tucker Center • Tallahassee, Florida ESPN2 6,406 B1G (1–0) 7:00 pm Clemson Rutgers 69–64 Littlejohn Coliseum • Clemson, South Carolina ESPNU 6,285 B1G (2–0)Dec 2 7:00 pm Pittsburgh Indiana 81–69 Assembly Hall • Bloomington, Indiana ESPN2 17,472 B1G (3–0) 7:00 pm Wake Forest Minnesota84–69 LJVM Coliseum • Winston-Salem, North Carolina ESPNU 8,112 B1G (4–0) 7:30 pm Syracuse No. 17 Michigan68–65 Crisler Center • Ann Arbor, Michigan ESPN 12,707 B1G (5–0) 9:00 pm No. 15 Miami No. 24 Illinois70–61 BankUnited Center • Coral Gables, Florida ESPN2 6,086 B1G (5–1) 9:00 pm NC State Purdue 66–61 Mackey Arena • West Lafayette, Indiana ESPNU 12,023 B1G (6–1) 9:30 pm No. 5 Louisville No. 14 Ohio State 64–55 KFC Yum! Center • Louisville, Kentucky ESPN 22,784 B1G (6–2)Dec 3 7:15 pm Notre Dame No. 19 Michigan State 79–78OT Edmund P. Joyce Center • South Bend, Indiana ESPN2 9,149 B1G (6–3) 7:15 pm Virginia Tech Penn State 61–58 Bryce Jordan Center • University Park, Pennsylvania ESPNU 7,326 B1G (7–3) 7:30 pm No. 12 North Carolina Iowa 60–55 Dean Smith Center • Chapel Hill, North Carolina ESPN 18,040 B1G (8–3) 9:15 pm No. 7 Virginia No. 21 Maryland 76–65 Xfinity Center • College Park, Maryland ESPN2 15,371 B1G (8–4) 9:15 pm Georgia Tech Northwestern 66–58 Welsh-Ryan Arena • Evanston, Illinois ESPNU 6,133 B1G (8–5) 9:30 pm No. 4 Duke No. 2 Wisconsin 80–70 Kohl Center • Madison, Wisconsin ESPN 17,279 B1G (8–6)Winners are in boldGame times in EST. Rankings from AP Poll (Dec 1).Challenge expanded to 14 games with the addition of Maryland and Rutgers to the B1G.Rutgers and Louisville made their inaugural appearances in the event.Boston College did not play due to the ACC having one more team than the B1G.First Challenge in which Maryland represented the B1G, as they left the ACC following the 2013–14 season. Source
Rankings
The Big Ten had 6 teams ranked and 2 others receiving votes in the preseason Coaches' Poll and 5 teams ranked and 4 others receiving votes in the preseason AP Poll.
+ Legend Improvement in ranking Drop in ranking Not ranked previous week RV Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll (Italics) Number of first place votes
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Player 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.
Week Player of the week Freshman of the week November 17, 2014 Travis Trice, MSU Vincent Edwards, PUR November 24, 2014 Shannon Scott, OSU James Blackmon, Jr., IND Frank Kaminsky, WIS December 1, 2014 Melo Trimble, MAR Melo Trimble, MAR D. J. Newbill, PSU December 8, 2014 Andre Hollins, MINN D'Angelo Russell, OSU December 15, 2014 Maurice Walker, MINN Melo Trimble (2), MAR Bryant McIntosh, NU December 22, 2014 Jake Layman, MAR Nate Mason, MINN Troy Williams, IND December 29, 2014 Frank Kaminsky (2), WIS D'Angelo Russell (2), OSU January 6, 2015 Jarrod Uthoff, IOWA Vincent Edwards (2), PUR January 12, 2015 Travis Trice (2), MSU James Blackmon, Jr. (2), IND January 19, 2015 Jake Layman (2), MAR D'Angelo Russell (3), OSU January 26, 2015 D'Angelo Russell, OSU D'Angelo Russell (4), OSU February 2, 2015 Malcolm Hill, ILL D'Angelo Russell (5), OSU Branden Dawson, MSU February 9, 2015 D'Angelo Russell (2), OSU D'Angelo Russell (6), OSU February 16, 2015 Dez Wells, MAR Vincent Edwards (3), PUR Frank Kaminsky (3), WIS February 23, 2015 A. J. Hammons, PUR Vic Law, NU March 2, 2015 Aaron White, IOWA Melo Trimble (3), MAR D'Angelo Russell (7), OSU March 9, 2015 Dez Wells (2), MAR Aubrey Dawkins, MICH Frank Kaminsky (4), WIS