2018–19 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season

The 2018–19 Big Ten men's basketball season began with practices in October 2018, followed by the start of the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season on November 6, 2018. The regular season ended on March 10, 2019.

The 2018–19 season marked the first time in Big Ten history that the teams played a 20-game conference schedule. With a win over Northwestern on March 9, 2019, Purdue won a share of the Big Ten regular season championship, its conference-leading 24th championship. Later that same day, Michigan State defeated Michigan to earn a share of the championship, marking back-to-back championships for the Spartans. Due to tie-breaking rules, Michigan State received the No. 1 seed for the Big Ten tournament.

The Big Ten tournament returned to its more traditional Midwest roots and was held at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. The Tournament was held from March 13 through March 19, 2019. Michigan State won the Big Ten tournament championship, defeating Michigan for the third time on the season in the championship game.

Michigan State guard Cassius Winston was named Big Ten Player of the Year. Winston, Ethan Happ and Carsen Edwards were 2019 consensus All-Americans. Purdue coach Matt Painter was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the fourth time and NABC Coach of the Year.

In addition to Michigan State, who received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, the conference set a conference record by sending eight teams to the Tournament: Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin, Maryland, Iowa, Minnesota, and Ohio State. Michigan State advanced to the Final Four. The conference also sent two schools to the National Invitation Tournament: Indiana and Nebraska.

Following the season, Romeo Langford (14th overall), headlined a class of 6 Big Ten conference athletes that were drafted in the 2019 NBA draft. Michigan had two players drafted.

Coaching changes prior to the season
There were no coaching changes following the 2017–18 season.

Coaches
The following are the preseason coaching summaries for all conference teams entering the 114th season of Big Ten Conference men's basketball. The table includes former NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament champion coach Tom Izzo and former Big Ten Conference champion coaches Izzo, John Beilein and Matt Painter. 10 of the 14 coaches have had NCAA tournament appearances at their current school. Notes:
 * All records, appearances, titles, etc. are from time with current school only.
 * Year at school includes 2018–19 season.
 * Overall and Big Ten records are from time at current school and are through the beginning of the season.
 * Turgeon's ACC conference record excluded since Maryland began Big Ten Conference play in 2014–15.
 * Source:

Preseason
Big Ten players received significant preseason accolades. Carsen Edwards was named Preseason National Player of the Year by the Associated Press (AP) and Ethan Happ joined him on the preseason AP All-American team.

Preseason All-Big Ten
Prior to the conference's annual media day, unofficial awards and a preseason poll were chosen by a panel of 28 writers, two for each team in the conference. Michigan State was the consensus preseason selection to win the conference, receiving 22 of 28 first place votes.

On October 11, 2018, a panel of conference media selected a 10-member preseason All-Big Ten Team and Player of the Year. Junior Edwards who had averaged 18.5 points and tallied 97 three point shots as a sophomore was selected as player of the year. He and Happ were unanimous selections by the Big Ten Conference basketball media to the Preseason All-Big Ten team. Indiana and Michigan State each had two preseason All-Big Ten selections.

Preseason watchlists
Several Big Ten players were selected to notable preseason watchlists. Below is a table of notable preseason watch lists.

Preseason national polls
Five of the fourteen teams had multiple preseason publications name them as preseason top 25 seletions. Michigan and Michigan State were included in every publication that was found to publish a list during this season. Michigan State had several top ten selections. Purdue, Indiana, Nebraska and Maryland also had media support in preseason polls. Michigan's only top 10 selection was The Sporting News, which was also Maryland's only top 25 selection.

Rankings
Weekly sourced rankings can be found at the above article. Several Big Ten teams were among the preseason ranked teams in both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll. Michigan State, Michigan, Purdue and Nebraska were ranked in at least one poll, while Indiana, Maryland and Wisconsin also received votes. After the regular season Michigan State, Michigan (both top 10), Purdue and Wisconsin were in the AP Poll. After the season the final Coaches Poll was published they continued to be ranked as was Maryland and Iowa, Minnesota and Ohio State received votes.

Player of the week
Throughout the conference regular season, the Big Ten offices named one or two players of the week and one or two freshmen of the week each Monday. On December 18, Juwan Morgan earned United States Basketball Writers Association National Player of the Week recognition.



Early season tournaments
11 of the 14 Big Ten teams participated in early season tournaments. Each team's finish is noted below. Indiana, Ohio State, and Rutgers did not participate in a tournament. Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, and Wisconsin participated in the Gavitt Tip-Off Games against Big East Conference teams for a fourth consecutive year. The result was a 5–3 victory for the Big Ten. All Big Ten teams also participated in the ACC–Big Ten Challenge against Atlantic Coast Conference teams, the 20th year for the event. The 2018 results were a 7–7 tie.

Conference matrix
This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play. Each team will play 20 conference games, and at least one game against each opponent. The 2018–19 season marked the first time in Big Ten history that the teams played a 20-game conference schedule. The new schedule included a regional component to increase the frequency of games among teams in similar areas. Over the course of a six-year cycle (12 playing opportunities), in-state rivals will play each other 12 times, regional opponents will play 10 times, and all other teams will play nine times. Three in-state series will be guaranteed home-and-homes: Illinois and Northwestern, Indiana and Purdue, and Michigan and Michigan State will always play twice. The conference opponent list was released on April 19, 2018.

The Big Ten led the nation in average attendance with 12,691 patrons, outpacing the SEC (11,527), ACC (10,912), Big 12 (10,170) and Big East (9,999). Of the 351 schools that host Division I basketball competition, Wisconsin (5th, 17,170), Nebraska (10th, 15,341), Indian (12th, 15,206), Michigan State (13th, 14,797), Purdue (14th, 14,467), Maryland (18th, 14,009), Ohio State (19th, 13,922), Iowa (23rd, 12,869), Michigan (24th, 12,505), and Illinois (25th, 12,456) were all among the top 25 in attendance. It marked the 43rd consecutive season that the Big Ten has led the nation in attendance.

All-Big Ten awards and teams
On March 11, 2019, the Big Ten announced most of its conference awards, with separate slates of awards from the media and the coaches. Cassius Winston was selected as Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year. Winston and Carsen Edwards were unanimous first team All-Big Ten selections by both the coaches and the media. Purdue coach Matt Painter was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the fourth time, which tied him for third most in conference history behind Gene Keady and Bobby Knight, with 7 and 5, respectively.

USBWA
On March 12, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association released its 2018–19 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)
 * Lamar Stevens, Penn State

District V (OH, IN, IL, MI, MN, WI)

Player of the Year Coach of the Year All-District Team
 * Cassius Winston, Michigan State
 * Matt Painter, Purdue
 * Iggy Brazdeikis, Michigan
 * Carsen Edwards, Purdue
 * Ethan Happ, Wisconsin
 * Romeo Langford, Indiana
 * Jordan Murphy, Minnesota
 * Zavier Simpson, Michigan
 * Cassius Winston, Michigan State

District VI (IA, MO, KS, OK, NE, ND, SD)
 * Tyler Cook, Iowa
 * James Palmer Jr., Nebraska

NABC
The National Association of Basketball Coaches announced their Division I All-District teams on March 21, recognizing the nation's best men's collegiate basketball student-athletes. Selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC, the selections on this list were then eligible for NABC Coaches' All-America Honors. The following list represented the District 7 players chosen to the list.


 * First Team
 * Cassius Winston, Michigan State
 * Carsen Edwards, Purdue
 * Ethan Happ, Wisconsin
 * Bruno Fernando, Maryland
 * Jordan Murphy, Minnesota


 * Second Team
 * Zavier Simpson, Michigan
 * Tyler Cook, Iowa
 * Anthony Cowan, Maryland
 * Iggy Brazdeikis, Michigan
 * Lamar Stevens, Penn State

Other awards
Happ, Edwards and Winston were 2019 consensus All-Americans (second team). Brazdeikis was an Associated Press All-American honorable mention selection. Matt Painter was named NABC Coach of the Year.

Big Ten tournament
Michigan State emerged as the champion of the 2019 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament by defeating in-state rival Michigan 65–60 in the championship game. As the top seed, their path included a double bye and victories over Ohio State and Wisconsin.

* denotes overtime period

NCAA tournament
The winner of the Big Ten tournament, Michigan State, received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Eight Big Ten teams received bids to the NCAA tournament, the most of any conference in the tournament and the most in the conference's history. Seven teams reaching the round of 32 established another conference record. Michigan State reached the final four for the 10th time. In the postseason, the Big Ten had a 13–8 record in the NCAA tournament.

National Invitation Tournament
Two Big Ten teams received invitations to the National Invitation Tournament. The conference had a 3–2 record in the NIT tournament.

2019 NBA draft
Six players were drafted from Big Ten teams during the 2019 NBA draft. Two players were drafted from Michigan and two were drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers.

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 below.

Draft-day trades
Draft-day trades were made on June 20, 2019, the day of the draft.

Post-draft trades
The following trades were reportedly agreed prior to and on the day of the draft and were completed at a later date. Due to salary cap reasons, most of these trades were officially announced on July 6, after the NBA moratorium period ended.

Coaching changes following the season
Following the season, Fred Hoiberg was named coach of Nebraska Cornhuskers men's basketball where his grandfather, Jerry Bush, had coached for nine years and in Lincoln, Nebraska where he was born. Following the season, Juwan Howard was named coach of Michigan Wolverines men's basketball where he had been an All-American in 1994 as a player.