2020 Big Ten men's basketball tournament

The 2020 Big Ten men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the Big Ten Conference of the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The tournament remained in its more traditional Midwest roots as it was held at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.

2020 Big Ten men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2019–20
Teams	14
Site	Bankers Life Fieldhouse Indianapolis, Indiana
Television	BTN, CBS
Big Ten men's basketball tournaments

2019–20 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 17 Wisconsin	14	–	6		.700			21	–	10		.677
No. 9 Michigan State	14	–	6		.700			22	–	9		.710
No. 12 Maryland	14	–	6		.700			24	–	7		.774
No. 21 Illinois	13	–	7		.650			21	–	10		.677
No. 25 Iowa	11	–	9		.550			20	–	11		.645
Penn State	11	–	9		.550			21	–	10		.677
No. 19 Ohio State	11	–	9		.550			21	–	10		.677
Rutgers	11	–	9		.550			20	–	11		.645
Michigan	10	–	10		.500			19	–	12		.613
Purdue	9	–	11		.450			16	–	15		.516
Indiana	9	–	11		.450			20	–	12		.625
Minnesota	8	–	12		.400			15	–	16		.484
Northwestern	3	–	17		.150			8	–	23		.258
Nebraska	2	–	18		.100			7	–	25		.219
Note: The 2020 Big Ten tournament was canceled prior to the second round due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rankings from AP poll

The first round games on March 11 were played with spectators in attendance. Later on March 11, the Big Ten conference announced that the remainder of the Big Ten tournament would proceed as scheduled but with no spectators in attendance due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also on March 11, the NCAA announced that no fans would be able to attend the men's and women's 2020 NCAA tournament games due to concerns about the outbreak of COVID-19. A number of college conferences followed suit by either cancelling their basketball tournaments entirely or limiting spectator attendance.

On March 12, the Big Ten announced the cancellation of the remainder of the tournament.

The NCAA further announced that all remaining winter and spring championships for both men's and women's sports were canceled due to the pandemic.

Seeds

All 14 Big Ten schools were scheduled to participate 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 2019 tournament.

Seed	School	Conf.	Tiebreak 1	Tiebreak 2
1	Wisconsin	14–6	2–1 vs. Michigan State/Maryland
2	Michigan State	14–6	2–2 vs. Wisconsin/Maryland
3	Maryland	14–6	1–2 vs. Wisconsin/Michigan State
4	Illinois	13–7
5	Iowa	11–9	3–1 vs. Ohio State/Penn State/Rutgers
6	Penn State	11–9	3–3 vs. Iowa/Ohio State/Rutgers	2–2 vs. Wisconsin/Michigan State/Maryland
7	Ohio State	11–9	2–2 vs. Iowa/Penn State/Rutgers	1–4 vs. Wisconsin/Michigan State/Maryland
8	Rutgers	11–9	1–3 vs. Iowa/Penn State/Ohio State
9	Michigan	10–10
10	Purdue	9–11	2–0 vs. Indiana
11	Indiana	9–11	0–2 vs. Purdue
12	Minnesota	8–12
13	Northwestern	3–17
14	Nebraska	2–18

Schedule

Session	Game	Time*	Matchup#	Television	Attendance	Score
First round – Wednesday, March 11
1	1	6:00 pm	No. 13 Northwestern vs. No. 12 Minnesota	BTN		57–74
	2	8:30 pm	No. 14 Nebraska vs. No. 11 Indiana			64–89
Second round – Thursday, March 12
2	3	12:00 pm	No. 9 Michigan vs. No. 8 Rutgers	BTN	Cancelled
	4	2:30 pm	No. 12 Minnesota vs. No. 5 Iowa
3	5	6:30 pm	No. 10 Purdue vs. No. 7 Ohio State
	6	9:00 pm	No. 11 Indiana vs. No. 6 Penn State
Quarterfinals – Friday, March 13
4	7	12:00 pm	Game 3 winner vs. No. 1 Wisconsin	BTN	Cancelled
	8	2:30 pm	Game 4 winner vs. No. 4 Illinois
5	9	6:30 pm	Game 5 winner vs. No. 2 Michigan State
	10	9:00 pm	Game 6 winner vs. No. 3 Maryland
Semifinals – Saturday, March 14
6	11	1:00 pm	Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner	CBS	Cancelled
	12	3:30 pm	Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner
Championship – Sunday, March 15
7	13	3:30 pm	Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner	CBS	Cancelled

*Game times in Eastern Time. #Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

	First round Wednesday, March 11 BTN					Second round Thursday, March 12 BTN					Quarterfinals Friday, March 13 BTN					Semifinals Saturday, March 14 CBS					Championship Sunday, March 15 CBS
											1	Wisconsin
						8	Rutgers
						9	Michigan
											4	Illinois
						5	Iowa
	12	Minnesota	72			12	Minnesota
	13	Northwestern	57
											2	Michigan State
						7	Ohio State
						10	Purdue
											3	Maryland
						6	Penn State
	11	Indiana	89			11	Indiana
	14	Nebraska	64

Game summaries

First round

BTN

March 11 6:00 pm

No. 12 Minnesota 74, No. 13 Northwestern 57
Scoring by half: 29-31, 45-26
Pts: D. Oturu 24 Rebs: A. Demir 8, D. Oturu 8 Asts: M. Carr 5		Pts: P. Nance 15 Rebs: R. Young 8 Asts: P. Nance 3, R. Spencer 3

Bankers Life Fieldhouse Indianapolis, IN

BTN

March 11 8:30 pm

No. 11 Indiana 89, No. 14 Nebraska 64
Scoring by half: 43-34, 46-30
Pts: A. Franklin 13 Rebs: T. Jackson-Davis 17 Asts: R. Phinisee 7		Pts: K. Cross 23 Rebs: K. Cross 9 Asts: J. Green 4

Bankers Life Fieldhouse Indianapolis, IN

See also

2020 Big Ten Conference women's basketball tournament