April 21, 2006

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NIT Run: Michigan wrapped up the 2005-06 season falling to South Carolina, 76-64, in the championship game of the National Invitation Tournament. The Wolverines, who defeated UTEP, Notre Dame, Miami (Fla.) and Old Dominion before taking on the Gamecocks, advanced to the championship game of the NIT for the second time in the last three years. It also marked the 11th time that a Big Ten program competed for the NIT title. Michigan leads all Big Ten teams, advancing to the NIT Championship game three times in school history (1984, 2004 and 2006), winning the 1984 and 2004 crowns.

Nine Teams in Postseason: Nine of the 11 Big Ten schools earned postseason berths this season with Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin taking part in the 2006 NCAA Championship and Michigan, Minnesota and Penn State competing for the NIT title.  The conference officially sent nine programs to the postseason for the first time in league history, although the Big Ten did advance nine teams to postseason play in both 2001 and 1993 before appearances were later vacated by Ohio State and Michigan, respectively. The league's six representatives in the NCAA Championship were officially the most since the 2001 event, when Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Penn State and Wisconsin competed for the national title. The Big Ten sent an official league record of seven teams to the NCAA Championship in 1990.

Everybody's All-Americans: Illinois' Dee Brown was named a consensus second-team All-American following the 2005-06 season. Brown collected second-team accolades from the Associated Press, U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). It marked the second consecutive year that Brown earned All-America honors. Indiana's Marco Killingsworth, Iowa's Jeff Horner, Michigan State's Maurice Ager and Paul Davis and Ohio State's Terence Dials also collected All-America honorable mention accolades from the AP. 

Wooden Award All-American: Illinois' Dee Brown was  named to the 2006 John R. Wooden Award All-America Team for the second consecutive year. The senior point guard joined Duke's J.J. Redick as the only repeat members on this year's Wooden All-America Team.

Brown Claims Cousy Award: Illinois' Dee Brown was named the winner of the 2006 Bob Cousy Award, becoming the first Big Ten standout to earn this honor. The Cousy Award is presented by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in conjunction with The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. and is presented annually to the nation's top collegiate point guard. The first recipient was St. Joseph's Jameer Nelson in 2004, followed by North Carolina's Raymond Felton in 2005.

Playing Smart Basketball: Iowa's Greg Brunner and Adam Haluska were named to the 2006 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America third team. Iowa is the only Division I program in the nation to have two players selected for Academic All-America honors. To be nominated, student-athletes must be a starter or important reserve and carry a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or higher. Minnesota's Adam Boone joined Brunner and Haluska on the Academic All-District teams.

On the Big Ten Sidelines: The Big Ten welcomes new head coach Kelvin Sampson, who takes over the Indiana program after spending the last 12 seasons at the helm of Oklahoma. He brings impressive credentials with him to Bloomington, including a 455-257 (.639) overall record and a 279-109 (.719) ledger at OU. Sampson amassed 111 regular season Big 12 victories, the most in league history, while also collecting three conference tournament titles and a share of the 2004-05 regular-season crown. He also led the Sooners to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances, including a showing in the 2002 Final Four. Prior to his stay at Oklahoma, Sampson spent seven years (1987-94) as the head coach and two years as the assistant coach (1985-87) at Washington State and four years (1981-85) as the head coach at Montana Tech.

In the RPI Rankings: During the 2005-06 campaign, the RPI Report rated the Big Ten No. 1 in 13 of the final 15 weeks, while Sagarin had the conference ranked as the top league 11 times during that stretch. The Big Ten concluded the 2005-06 season ranked No. 2 in the RPI Report, while finishing third in the Sagarin ratings. It marks the highest finish for the conference since 2000-01  when the league ended the season ranked No. 1 in the RPI Report and No. 2 in the Sagarin ratings. 

Non-Conference Success: The Big Ten posted the best out-of-league winning percentage in over six years at .767 (115-35). During the 1998-99 season, the conference recorded a non-league mark of 102-26 (.797), which does not include vacated records from Michigan or Minnesota. The Big Ten's .767 winning percentage was an improvement of more than 10 percent over the 2004-05 non-league mark of 109-47 (.669). With 115 wins in 2005-06, the Big Ten also posted the most non-conference victories since the 2000-01 season when the Big Ten tallied a 116-40 (.744) mark.

Basketball Times Rankings: The Big Ten led the nation with all 11 teams ranked in the final Basketball Times Regular Season Schedule Rankings. The Big East followed with nine teams, while the ACC had 7 teams in the top 35. Indiana finished in second place (157.8) and Michigan State ranked third (155.6). Rounding out the Big Ten contingent were Iowa (14th-145.2), Michigan (15th-144.4), Purdue (16th-144.1), Minnesota (18th-143.2), Penn State (20th-142.8), Wisconsin (23rd-140.9), Illinois (27th-139.0), Ohio State (33rd-136.4) and Northwestern (35th-134.4).

Iowa Wins Second Big Ten Tournament Crown: Second-seeded Iowa captured a 67-60 victory over top seed Ohio State to claim the Hawkeyes' second Big Ten Tournament crown in program history. Iowa knocked off Minnesota in the quarterfinals before edging Michigan State in the semifinals to set up a rematch of the 2002 final, won by the Buckeyes in the first Big Ten Tournament held in Indianapolis. Jeff Horner would pour in 14 points in the second half to boost Iowa to the victory, its first tourney title since 2001. The Hawkeyes join Illinois and Michigan State as the only two-time winners of the Big Ten Tournament.

Buckeyes Win Outright Big Ten Title: Ohio State won the Big Ten title for the first time since the 2001-02 season with a 12-4 record in league action. The Buckeyes captured the title outright with a win over Purdue on the last day of the regular season on March 5, the school's first outright title since 1992. OSU has now won 18 titles for the third-highest total in league annals behind Purdue (21) and Indiana (20).

Early Success For Matta: In his second season in Columbus, Ohio State head coach Thad Matta became the third active coach to win a Big Ten title in his first two seasons in the league. Illinois' Bruce Weber claimed outright crowns in both 2004 and 2005, his first two years in Champaign. Wisconsin's Bo Ryan also topped the conference in each of his first two years (2002-03).

Big Ten's Grand Company: The league's group of 1,000-point scorers more than doubled from the start of the season as 19 standouts finished above that scoring plateau, including three teams with three players. It marks the second consecutive year that the conference has produced more than 15 1,000-point producers. Last year, the Big Ten concluded the season with 17 members of this grand club. Eight Big Ten seniors began the season on the 1,000-point list in Illinois' Dee Brown (1,812), Indiana's Marco Killingsworth (1,572), Iowa's Greg Brunner (1,516) and Jeff Horner (1,502), Michigan's Daniel Horton (1,614), Michigan State's Paul Davis (1,718), Northwestern's Vedran Vukusic (1,581) and Ohio State's Terence Dials (1,566). 11 more players joined the list this season in Illinois' James Augustine (1,383), Indiana's Marshall Strickland (1,106), Iowa's Adam Haluska (1,225), Michigan's Dion Harris (1,130), Michigan State's Maurice Ager (1,554) and Shannon Brown (1,183), Minnesota's Vincent Grier (1,118) and Maurice Hargrow (1,021), Ohio State's Ron Lewis (1,236) and J.J. Sullinger (1,208) and Wisconsin's Alando Tucker (1,501). The Big Ten's "Grand Company" list appears above.

Big Ten Attendance Records: The Big Ten reached two attendance landmarks this season as the conference broke the two-million mark in all games for the 14th straight season, while also reaching the one-million plateau for league games only for the 29th consecutive season. In 2006, 2,186,322 patrons passed through the turnstiles for 176 games for an average attendance of 12,422. In league contests, 1,191,079 fans flocked to conference arenas for 88 games for an average of 13,535 per outing, the highest since the 2001-02 campaign (13,790).  In 2004-05, the conference led the nation in total attendance for the 29th-straight season with 2,255,332 total patrons and led the way with an average attendance of 12,530 per game/session.

Movin' Up: Michigan State's head coach Tom Izzo is making his mark in the league's coaching records as he continues to climb up the Big Ten's career list for most victories. He concluded the 2005-06 season with 125 triumphs, tying him with Iowa's Tom Davis (1986-99) for 13th place. In his 11 years in East Lansing, the Spartan mentor has tallied an overall mark of 255-109 and a 125-55 record in league action.

Big Ten Hosting 2007 NCAA First/Second Round: In 2007, the Big Ten will host the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship First and Second Rounds on Friday and Sunday, March 16 and 18, at the United Center in Chicago. It marks the third time in league history that the conference has played host to the NCAA Tourmament as the Big Ten welcomed eight teams to the United Center in both 1998 and 2002. Ohio State will also host first and second rounds (March 16 and 18) next year at the Nationwide Arena in downtown Columbus.