BTPowerhouse's 1/29 Big Ten Tournament Bracketology: Indiana Hoosiers Take The Lead

This has undoubtedly been one of the better weeks of conference play and to no surprise, it has some pretty significant impacts on the standings as well. Some teams like Michigan State and Wisconsin continue to climb while others like Minnesota and Rutgers struggle.

With that, let's take a look at the Big Ten Tournament bracket.

The concept of the bracket is pretty simple. Each time, BTP will breakdown how the Big Ten Tournament projects as of that moment. For instance, today's bracket will be set as of the night of Friday, January 29, 2016. I have taken the liberty of looking at the Big Ten records and using the Big Ten tiebreaker scenarios to see where teams will land. Things will certainly move, but it is still interesting to see as of this moment. Let's take a look.

2016 Big Ten Tournament Bracket (1/29):

Thoughts:

Things appeared to be spacing out last week, but it looks like everything is right back where it started after a pretty wild week. A total of six teams are tied for the conference lead or within two games of the lead. Additionally, eight teams are tied with at least one other team in the standings.

In short, things are still going to be a battle.

At the top of the standings, Indiana regains the No. 1 spot due to the tiebreaker. Nonetheless, Iowa is sitting pretty right now. The Hawkeyes are not only tied for the conference lead, but also have the vast majority of the team's difficult games in the books. If Iowa plays anywhere close to how it has over the next few weeks, it should be No. 1 before too long. Behind these two, Maryland and Michigan sit with two losses.

The middle group continues to get more interesting with the emergence of Michigan State and Wisconsin. Both teams are clearly playing well and look like they could make a run. Expect a ton of movement in these spots in the next few weeks, especially with these teams playing each other.

At the bottom, Northwestern hung onto the bye, but is only up a half game over Illinois and Penn State. The battle for the No. 10 seed is going to be a fierce one, especially considering there won't be a huge difference between the No. 11 and No. 12 seeds this year given the way Minnesota and Rutgers are playing.

We'll have to see how next week impacts things, but it looks like an exciting race in the Big Ten.