The 2021 Big Ten men's basketball tournament was a postseason men's basketball tournament for the Big Ten Conference of the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season which took place March 10–14, 2021. The tournament was originally to be held at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. However, on February 9, the tournament was moved to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana to better deal with testing concerns raised by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Illinois defeated Ohio State 91–88 in overtime in the championship game to win the tournament. As a result, they received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Seeds All 14 Big Ten schools participated in the tournament. Teams were seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records. The top 10 teams received a first round bye and the top four teams received a double bye. Tiebreaking procedures remained unchanged from the 2020 tournament.
SeedSchoolConferenceTiebreak 11Michigan14–32Illinois16–43Iowa14–64Purdue13–65Ohio State12–86Wisconsin10–101–0 vs. Rutgers7Rutgers10–100–1 vs. Wisconsin8Maryland9–111–0 vs. Michigan State9Michigan State9–110–1 vs. Maryland10Indiana7–121–0 vs. Penn State11Penn State7–120–1 vs. Indiana12Northwestern6–1313Minnesota6–1414Nebraska3–16
Schedule SessionGameTime*Matchup#TelevisionAttendanceScore First round – Wednesday, March 1011 6:30 pmNo. 13 Minnesota vs. No. 12 NorthwesternBTN5,90951–4629:00 pmNo. 14 Nebraska vs. No. 11 Penn State66–72 Second round – Thursday, March 112311:30 amNo. 9 Michigan State vs. No. 8 MarylandBTN6,20657–6842:00 pmNo. 13 Minnesota vs. No. 5 Ohio State75–79356:30 pmNo. 10 Indiana vs. No. 7 Rutgers6,76950–6169:00 pmNo. 11 Penn State vs. No. 6 Wisconsin74–75 Quarterfinals – Friday, March 124711:30 amNo. 8 Maryland vs. No. 1 MichiganBTN7,63466–7982:00 pmNo. 5 Ohio State vs. No. 4 Purdue87–78OT596:30 pmNo. 7 Rutgers vs. No. 2 Illinois7,73568–90109:00 pmNo. 6 Wisconsin vs. No. 3 Iowa57–62 Semifinals – Saturday, March 136111:00 pmNo. 1 Michigan vs. No. 5 Ohio StateCBS8,00067–68123:50 pmNo. 2 Illinois vs. No. 3 Iowa82–71 Championship – Sunday, March 147133:30 pmNo. 5 Ohio State vs. No. 2 IllinoisCBS8,00088–91OT *Game times in Eastern Time. #Rankings denote tournament seeding.
Bracket
* denotes overtime period
Game summaries
First round
Second round
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Championship
All-Tournament Team Ayo Dosunmu, Illinois – Big Ten tournament Most Outstanding Player Kofi Cockburn, Illinois Luka Garza, Iowa EJ Liddell, Ohio State Duane Washington Jr., Ohio State Big Ten Media Guide 2022-23
References