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The Big Ten has operated more like the wild west than a major basketball conference this season, but it’s led to some intriguing and exciting results. It should also set things up nicely for the Big Ten Tournament, especially considering how unpredictable play has been for the league’s top teams.
In light of 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 morning of Monday, February 27, 2017. I have taken the liberty of looking at the Big Ten records and using the Big Ten tiebreaker scenarios to see where teams land. Things will certainly move, but it’s interesting to see as of this moment.
2017 Big Ten Tournament Bracket (2/27):
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Thoughts:
After a wild weekend of games, including upset losses for Maryland, Purdue, and Wisconsin, things look pretty wild across the Big Ten standings. And there’s really no telling how the games will unfold this week.
But this bracket does provide an interesting look at how things sit right now.
At the top, nothing changed at the one or two seeds, but Michigan State has now overtaken Maryland and Minnesota based upon tiebreakers. Of course, this situation could change this week as the Spartans will go on the road to face the Terps. Either way, the margin between the three and five seeds is literally razor thin.
The middle of the field is also unbelievably close right now. Michigan and Northwestern are tied in the standings (one game behind the five seed), Iowa is a game back from those two, and Illinois is just one more game back.
Finally, the bottom of the bracket is tight as well. Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Penn State are all tied at 6-10 in the standings and just one game back from Illinois. It’s going to be a dramatic finish to see which of these four can do enough to earn a bye in this year’s Big Ten Tournament. Notably, this could have a huge impact on which of these teams end up in this year’s NCAA Tournament and/or NIT.