A 2025 Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament Primer – Three Dark Horse Teams

Plus, how far will the Boilermakers go?

Well, the field is set and Purdue finds themselves with only a single bye in the 2025 edition of the Big Ten Tournament. After being chosen as the favorite to win the conference in the pre-season a 4th place finish, and 6 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, comes as a disappointment to some. Expectations were high coming into the season and after some early season wins they only got higher, perhaps even unrealistically so? But regardless of how we got here, the 15 teams who made the Big Ten Tournament, that’s a whole other thing that I could argue about forever I hate this aspect of it, will be trekking to Indianapolis to see who brings home the title.

With Purdue at the 6 seed we know that they will play on Thursday at around 9:00 PM on BTN. What we don’t know is who they will play. Purdue will play the winner of the Rutgers vs. USC matchup. In order for Purdue to win this tournament they will have to win four games in four days which is no easy task.

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I think if you take a look at the field as a whole I know it seems simplistic but you have to give the edge to Michigan State. Not only do they get the double bye, thus needing to win only three games in three days, but they’ve been the most consistent team in the Big Ten this season. Tom Izzo has his Spartans playing pretty excellent basketball right now and as the joke goes, January, February, Izzo, April. We are currently in Izzo.

Another team that I think should be a favorite heading into this one is Maryland. Maryland is coming into the tournament winners of their last three and looking very good in the process. They’ve got incredible talent, and Purdue was lucky to play them early in the season while they were still putting things together. Down the stretch of the Big Ten season they’ve looked like one of the best teams in the league.

If I’m looking around and trying to find a dark horse to win this tournament (and I’m defining a dark horse as a team that does NOT get a double bye) I’ll take Illinois. Maybe it’s because Purdue just faced Illinois to end the regular season, but there’s a resiliency to that team and they are finally getting fully healthy. If they had been healthy all through the Big Ten season I think the standings would look quite a bit different. Another team that I think could make some noise, and I truly hate to have to type this out, is Indiana. Yes, they finished the season 10-10 in conference play and they are playing for a lame duck coach, but we’ve seen what IU can do when they are firing on all cylinders. If they somehow click things into place and play like they are capable of…watch out.

If you try and tell me that a true dark horse is a team with a double digit number next to there name I guess I would choose Ohio State. If for no other reason than they took down the Boilermakers at Mackey this year and any team that can do that has a puncher’s chance to take down anyone on a neutral court.

Now, how do I think Purdue will do? I’m not one of those people who thinks that Painter needs to rest the starters and allow the reserves to get the minutes so that Purdue is fresh for the NCAA Tournament. Painter and the team just aren’t going to go for that. These are competitive people that want to win. Should Purdue win their first game a third matchup with Michigan awaits them in their second game. I think that Purdue holds the edge there just based on the two games they’ve played. Purdue outplayed Michigan at home, and I expect this to be a Purdue friendly crowd in Indianapolis. That could propel the Boilermakers to the next round. However, I think that’s where it ends. Purdue may very well have to play a Maryland team that is a bad matchup for the Boilermakers and I think the team would fall there and get those extra couple days of rest. Hopefully that will be enough to send the team into the NCAA Tournament with fresh legs and a renewed purpose.

So those are my thoughts, who is your dark horse? Who is your favorite? How far does Purdue go? Let me know in the comments.