2006 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament

2006 Big Ten Conference Men's
Basketball Tournament

2006 Tournament logo
Classification Division I
Season 2005–06
Teams 11
Site Conseco Fieldhouse
Indianapolis, Indiana
Champions Iowa Hawkeyes (2nd title)
Winning coach Steve Alford (2nd title)
MVP Jeff Horner Iowa
Post-Big Ten Conference
tournament(s)
2006 NIT, 2006 NCAA
Big Ten Conference Men's
Basketball Tournaments
«2005  2007»

The 2006 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament was played between March 9 and March 12, 2006 at the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. This is the ninth annual Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament. The champion of the tournament were the Iowa Hawkeyes, which received the Big Ten's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Jeff Horner of Iowa was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

Contents

Seeds

All Big Ten schools play in the tournament. Teams are seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records.

Seed School Conference (Overall)
1 Ohio State University 12–4 (23–4)
2 University of Iowa 11–5 (22–8)
3 University of Illinois 11–5 (25–5)
4 University of Wisconsin 9–7 (19–10)
5 Indiana University 9–7 (17–10)
6 Michigan State University 8–8 (20–10)
7 University of Michigan 8–8 (18–9)
8 Penn State University 6–10 (14–13)
9 Northwestern University 6–10 (14–14)
10 University of Minnesota 5–11 (14–13)
11 Purdue University 3–13 (9–17)

Tiebreakers

Notes

Tournament Summary

Storylines

Of course, each team playing in the Big Ten Tournament has the goal of winning the tournament. Many teams have hopes of playing in additional postseason tournaments. These are some of the primary storylines for the teams in the tournament.

Source for estimated RPI rankings: collegerpi.com

Opening round

In the opening round, the higher seeded teams won two of the three games played. In the first game, eighth-seeded Penn State had an easy victory over ninth-seeded Northwestern, handing Northwestern their worst loss of the season in the 60–42 win. The win guarantees a winning season for Penn State, and ends Northwestern's season at 14–15. Penn State moves onto the quarterfinals to play the top seed, Ohio State. The second game featured the only upset of the day, as tenth-seeded Minnesota beat seventh-seeded Michigan 59–55. The loss leaves Michigan on the NCAA Tournament bubble, and sends Minnesota into the quarterfinals to play second-seeded Iowa. The final game of the opening round saw sixth-seeded Michigan State beat the bottom seed, Purdue, 70–58. Michigan State plays third-seeded Illinois in the quarterfinals. Illinois swept Michigan State in the regular season, including a victory at Michigan State the previous weekend.

Schedule and results

All game times EST

Opening Round (March 9, 2006)

Leading scorers, PSU: Geary Claxton 17, NU: Mohamed Hached 16
Leading scorers, Minn: Maurice Hargrow 15, Mich: Dion Harris 16
Leading scorers, MSU: Maurice Ager 20, PU: Gary Ware 20

Quarterfinals (March 10, 2006)

Leading scorers, OSU: Ron Lewis 17, PSU: Jamelle Cornley 18
Leading scorers, Ind: Marco Killingsworth 20, Wisc: Alando Tucker 20
Leading scorers, Iowa: Jeff Horner 26, Minn: Vincent Grier 29
Leading scorers, MSU: Maurice Ager, Paul Davis 16, Ill: James Augustine 16

Semifinals (March 11, 2006)

Leading scorers, Iowa: Jeff Horner 14, MSU: Maurice Ager 21
Leading scorers, OSU: J.J. Sullinger 19, Ind: Roderick Wilmot 16

Championship (March 12, 2006)

Leading scorers, Iowa: Jeff Horner 16, OSU: Jamar Butler 19

All-Tournament Team

References

External links