The 2011–12 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2015, followed by the start of the 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. The season marked the first season of participation of the Nebraska Cornhuskers men's basketball team in Big Ten competition. With the addition of Nebraska, all teams will play seven other teams twice and four teams once during the conference schedule, which continues to be 18 games.[1] The season commenced on October 14 when Michigan State and Minnesota celebrated Midnight Madness and three more conference schools hosted events on the 15th.[2] For the fifth consecutive season, all conference games were broadcast nationally with eight aired by CBS Sports, 36 carried by the ESPN Inc. family of networks including ESPN and ESPN2, while 64 games were carried by the Big Ten Network.[3][4] The conference led the nation in attendance for the 36th consecutive season.[5]
Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana hosted the Big Ten tournament from March 8–March 11.[6] Michigan State defeated Ohio State in the championship game to win the tournament championship. Draymond Green was also named tournament MVP. As a result, the Spartans received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Six teams (Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin) received invitations to the NCAA tournament. The conference had an 11–6 record in the Tournament, with Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin reaching the Sweet Sixteen. Ohio State advanced to the Final Four. Three teams (Iowa, Minnesota, and Northwestern) received bids to the National Invitation Tournament. The conference had a 6–3 record with Minnesota losing in the championship game. Meyers Leonard was a lottery selection (11th overall) in the 2012 NBA draft, with Jared Sullinger also being selected in the first round and Draymond Green and Robbie Hummel being chosen in the second round.
Preseason
Three teams were ranked in the preseason USA Today/ESPN poll: Ohio State (No. 3), Wisconsin (No. 14) and Michigan (No. 18), while Michigan State and Purdue were also receiving votes.[7] The Big Ten Basketball Media Day for men's and women's basketball was October 27 in Chicago.[8] The men's basketball media day was covered by ESPNU.[9]
Trey Burke, Aaron Craft, Tim Frazier, Lewis Jackson and Jordan Taylor are five of the nearly 60 Bob Cousy Award candidates named in December.[11] On January 4, Burke, Craft, and Taylor were included on the list of 20 finalists.[12] On February 2, the finalist list was shortened to 11, including Taylor and Craft.[13]William Buford, Draymond Green, Jared Sullinger, and Cody Zeller were included on the 25-man Wooden Midseason list on January 17.[14] Novak, Green, Buford and Hummel were among the 10 finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award on January 25.[15] On February 6, Green, Sullinger and Zeller were included on the 20-player Oscar Robertson Trophy midseason watch list.[16] On February 15, Zeller was named one of five finalists for the USBWA National Freshman of the Year won the previous year by Sullinger.[17] On March 1, Zeller, Green, Sullinger and Taylor were named to the 30-player midseason Naismith Award watchlist.[18] On March 6, Green and Sullinger were named to the 15-man Wooden Award finalist list.[19] On March 19, Green became one of four finalists for the Naismith Award.[20] Sullinger and Green were among the 10 finalists for the Wooden Award, a designation termed as Wooden All-American.[21]
Regular season
For the full season, the Big Ten led the nation in attendance for the 36th consecutive season and posted its 20th consecutive year with two million attendanees. Average attendance of 12,868 was well ahead of other high major conferences: SEC (11,513), Big 12 (11,057), Big East (10,881) and ACC (9,876). The conference has six of the top 25 schools in terms of average attendance: Wisconsin (5th, 17,181), Ohio State (8th, 16,511), Indiana (9th, 16,462), Illinois (14th, 14,986), Michigan State (15th, 14,797) and Purdue (21st, 13,324). No other conference had more than 4 of the top 25.[22][23][24] Conference play officially began on Tuesday, December 27 when Illinois hosted Minnesota and Nebraska hosted its first conference game against 11th-ranked Wisconsin.[11]
During the season Big Ten Conference led the nation in Rating percentage index among all conferences. The conference boasted 5 of the top 16 teams: Michigan State (number 3), Ohio State (number 6), Indiana (number 11), Michigan (number 15) and Wisconsin (number 16). All conference members were among the top 160 and the Big Ten was the only conference with exclusively top-180 members. The conference led the nation in both major elements of the index: combined winning percentage and strength of schedule index.[25]
Michigan State's loss in the March 4 regular season finale at home to No. 10 Ohio State meant the Spartans shared the 2011–12 Big Ten regular season championship with Ohio State and Michigan, all of which finished the Big Ten season with a 13–5 conference record.[26] Michigan needed a March 4 victory over Penn State to clinch its share of the Big Ten regular season championship.[27] It was the 13th Big Ten Conference championships for Michigan and Michigan State, while it was the 20th for Ohio State.[25]
On February 21 Draymond Green was named national player of the week by the USBWA.[49][50]
Honors and awards
Four players (Novak, Craft, Drew Crawford and Jared Berggren) were named Academic All-District, meaning that they were among the 40 finalists to be named to the 15-man Academic All-America Team.[51] Craft was named to the first team, Crawford to the second team and Novak to the third team, giving the Big Ten three Academic All-Americans, which was more than any other conference.[52][53]
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.[54][55]
The leading scorer for the year was John Shurna with an average of 20.0 and the leading rebounder was Draymond Green with an average of 10.6.[25]
NABC
The National Association of Basketball Coaches announced their Division I All-District teams on March 14, recognizing the nation's best men's collegiate basketball student-athletes. Selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC, 240 student-athletes, from 24 districts were chosen. The selection on this list were then eligible for the State Farm Coaches' Division I All-America teams. The following list represented the Big Ten players chosen to the list.[56] Since the Big Ten Conference was its own district, this is equivalent to being named All-Big Ten by the NABC.[57]
On March 6, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association released its 2011–12 Men's All-District Teams, based upon voting from its national membership. There were nine regions from coast to coast, and a player and coach of the year were selected in each. The following lists all the Big Ten representatives selected within their respective regions.[58]
CBSSports.com used a modified selection process that resulted in Green being named a first team All-American, while Sullinger and Burke were second team selections. The process derided the traditional basketball All-American process of naming the best players and was modelled on the All-Pro or NHL All-Star team formula of choosing the best players by position.[68] Shurna was also selected to participate in the NABC 2012 Reese's Division I All-Star Game at the 2012 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament final four.[69]
Michigan State emerged as the Big Ten Conference tournament champion by defeating Ohio State in the championship game. The team was led by most outstanding player Green. Spartan Brandon Wood, Minnesota's Andre Hollins and Ohio State's Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas were also on the all-tournament team.[25]
The Big Ten had six teams in the 2012 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament: Michigan State earned the automatic bid and a number 1 seed, while Indiana (2 seed), Michigan (4 seed), Ohio State (4 seed), Purdue (4 seed), Wisconsin (10 seed). With 5 top-4-seeded teams, the Big Ten tied the tournament record since seeding began in 1979. The Big Ten matched its conference best and for 2012 national lead with four Sweet Sixteen participants (Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State Wisconsin) and was the only conference with multiple entrants to have half its teams make the Elite Eight round. Ohio State achieved its conference leading 10th final four.[25]
The following current 1st, 2nd & 3rd team All-Big Ten performers were listed as seniors: Draymond Green, Robbie Hummel, John Shurna, Jordan Taylor, Matt Gatens, William Buford. Former All-Big Ten performer and fifth-year Trevor Mbakwe has been granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA,[70] and he has opted to use it.[71] The deadline for entering the NBA draft is April 29, but once one has declared, the deadline for withdrawing the declaration and retaining NCAA eligibility is April 10.[72] The deadline for submitting information to the NBA Advisory Committee for a 72-hour response is April 3.[73]
The following Big Ten underclassmen have sought the advice of the NBA's undergraduate advisory committee to determine his draft prospects: Trey Burke[73]
