2011–12 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season

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. The season commenced on October 14 when Michigan State and Minnesota celebrated Midnight Madness and three more conference schools hosted events on the 15th. 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. The conference led the nation in attendance for the 36th consecutive season.

The regular season ended with Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State tied for the league championship. Wisconsin finished in second place.

Michigan State's Draymond Green was named the Conference Player of the Year. Michigan State's Tom Izzo was named conference Coach of the Year. Green and Izzo both won their respective (player and coach) national awards from the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Green and Jared Sullinger were both recognized as 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans. Robbie Hummel was awarded the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. Aaron Craft won the Elite 89 Award. Craft (1st team), Drew Crawford (2nd team) and Zack Novak (3rd team) were named Academic All-America.

Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana hosted the Big Ten tournament from March 8–March 11. 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. The Big Ten Basketball Media Day for men's and women's basketball was October 27 in Chicago. The men's basketball media day was covered by ESPNU.

Jared Sullinger was named preseason conference player of the year at the conference media day. Other preseason All-Big Ten first team selections were Draymond Green, Trevor Mbakwe, Robbie Hummel, and Jordan Taylor. Ohio State was chosen as the top team, followed by Wisconsin and Michigan State. Sullinger and Taylor were also both preseason Associated Press All-Americans. 5 of the 30 nominees for the men's basketball Lowe's Senior CLASS Award were from the Big Ten: Michigan's Zack Novak, Michigan State's Green, Ohio State's William Buford, Purdue's Hummel and Wisconsin's Taylor.

Midseason award lists
Trey Burke, Aaron Craft, Tim Frazier, Lewis Jackson and Jordan Taylor are five of the nearly 60 Bob Cousy Award candidates named in December. On January 4, Burke, Craft, and Taylor were included on the list of 20 finalists. On February 2, the finalist list was shortened to 11, including Taylor and Craft. William Buford, Draymond Green, Jared Sullinger, and Cody Zeller were included on the 25-man Wooden Midseason list on January 17. Novak, Green, Buford and Hummel were among the 10 finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award on January 25. On February 6, Green, Sullinger and Zeller were included on the 20-player Oscar Robertson Trophy midseason watch list. On February 15, Zeller was named one of five finalists for the USBWA National Freshman of the Year won the previous year by Sullinger. On March 1, Zeller, Green, Sullinger and Taylor were named to the 30-player midseason Naismith Award watchlist. On March 6, Green and Sullinger were named to the 15-man Wooden Award finalist list. On March 19, Green became one of four finalists for the Naismith Award. Sullinger and Green were among the 10 finalists for the Wooden Award, a designation termed as Wooden All-American.

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 attendence 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. Conference play officially began on Tuesday, December 27 when Illinois hosted Minnesota and Nebraska hosted its first conference game against 11th-ranked Wisconsin.

During the season Big Ten Conference led the nation in Rating percentage index among all conferences. The conference boased 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.

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. Michigan needed a March 4 victory over Penn State to clinch its share of the Big Ten regular season championship. It was the 13th Big Ten Conference championships for Michigan and Michigan State, while it was the 20th for Ohio State.

Early-season tournaments
Big Ten teams emerged victorious in the following tournaments:

*Although these tournaments include more teams, only the number listed play for the championship.

Composite matrix
This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play. (x) indicates games remaining this season.

Players of the week
Throughout the conference regular season, the Big Ten offices named a player of the week each Monday.

On January 17, Brandon Paul was named national player of the week by the United States Basketball Writers Association.

On February 21 Draymond Green was named national player of the week by the USBWA.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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. Since the Big Ten Conference was its own district, this is equivalent to being named All-Big Ten by the NABC.

First Team Second Team
 * Draymond Green Michigan State
 * Jared Sullinger Ohio State
 * Jordan Taylor Wisconsin
 * William Buford Ohio State
 * John Shurna Northwestern
 * Cody Zeller Indiana
 * Robbie Hummel Purdue
 * Tim Frazier Penn State
 * Trey Burke Michigan
 * Brandon Paul Illinois

USBWA
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.

District II (NY, NJ, DE, DC, PA, WV)

None Selected District V (OH, IN, IL, MI, MN, WI)

Player of the Year Coach of the Year All-District Team District VI (IA, MO, KS, OK, NE, ND, SD)
 * Draymond Green, Michigan State
 * Tom Izzo, Michigan State
 * William Buford, Ohio State
 * Trey Burke, Michigan
 * Draymond Green, Michigan State
 * Robbie Hummel, Purdue
 * John Shurna, Northwestern
 * Jared Sullinger, Ohio State
 * Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin
 * Cody Zeller, Indiana

None Selected

National postseason honors
Sullinger and Green were first team 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans by The Sporting News, while Zeller was a member of their All-Freshman team. Green and Sullinger were also first team All-American selections by the United States Basketball Writers Association. On March 20, the NABC chose Green and Sullinger as a first team All-Americans. Sullinger and Green were named first team Associated Press All-Americans, making them unanimous first team selections. Trey Burke, Robbie Hummel, Jordan Taylor, John Shurna, and Cody Zeller were honorable mention selections. Hummel was named the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award winner. Aaron Craft won the Elite 89 Award. Green was named the NABC Player of the Year, while Izzo won his second career NABC Coach of the Year. 41 men's basketball players in their second year or beyond earned Academic All-Big Ten recognition for carrying a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.

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. 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.

Big Ten tournament
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.

NCAA tournament
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.

National Invitation Tournament
All three Big Ten entrants in the 2012 National Invitation Tournament won their opening games and Minnesota reached the championship game before losing.

Other tournaments
The Big Ten did not have any entrants in the other post season tournaments.

2012 NBA draft

 * 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, and he has opted to use it. 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. The deadline for submitting information to the NBA Advisory Committee for a 72-hour response is April 3.


 * The following Big Ten underclassmen have sought the advice of the NBA's undergraduate advisory committee to determine his draft prospects: Trey Burke
 * The following Big Ten underclassmen declared early for the 2011 draft: Jared Sullinger, Meyers Leonard
 * The following Big Ten underclassmen entered their name in the draft but who did not hire agents and opted to return to college:

The following Big Ten players were drafted in the 2012 NBA draft.

Pre-draft trades
Prior to the day of the draft, the following trades were made and resulted in exchanges of draft picks between the teams.