Big Ten Tournament 2015: Bracket, schedule and scores

Is it Wisconsin and everyone else in the Big Ten? That’s not typical for this conference, which tends to be ultra-competitive, but it’s competitive in a different way. While the Badgers essentially breezed through the conference, the next group of five teams behind them has been inconsistent all season. So the biggest question heading into Wednesday is who gets hot and challenges Wisconsin.

Maryland is the only Big Ten team to beat the Badgers at full strength, but the Terrapins haven’t always looked great. They’ve been extremely lucky in close games -- 10-0 this season -- and have blowout losses to Iowa and Ohio State. The next group of four teams -- Iowa, Ohio State, Michigan State and Purdue -- all finished 12-6 in conference, showing flashes of looking like the second best team in the conference and other flashes of showing major issues. Beneath that group is Indiana and Illinois, both of whom have played their way into needing to sweat out Selection Sunday.

So now the question becomes: who can challenge Wisconsin? Maryland hasn’t lost since being blown out at Iowa in early February, but other than the win over the Badgers, the Terrapins have played a lot of close games against Big Ten bottom-feeders. Iowa is also on a hot streak, winning six in a row, but has to beat Purdue and (likely) Wisconsin -- two teams it’s 0-3 against -- to get to the title game. On the other side of the bracket, will Tom Izzo’s team make a run in March once again? Can Ohio State turn things on?

There are more questions than answers, but right now, it’s Wisconsin and everyone else. And the battle for who gets to give the Badgers their best shot should be very interesting to watch.

Since the Big Ten expanded to 14 teams, the conference tournament will now have five games. The 11-through-14 seeds will play opening round games on Wednesday. The 5-through-10 seeds get byes and will open on Thursday, while the 1-through-4 seeds get double byes and begin play in the quarterfinals on Friday.

The Big Ten Network, ESPN and ESPN2 will have the first three rounds, while CBS will have the semifinals and finals.

SB Nation presents: Teams that should be nervous entering tournament season

Wednesday, March 11 (First Round)
No. 13 Penn State 68, No. 12 Nebraska 65 (Game reaction at our Penn State blog and Nebraska blog)
No. 11 Minnesota 80, No. 14 Rutgers 68 (Game reaction at our Minnesota blog and Rutgers blog)

Thursday, March 12 (Second Round)
No. 9 Michigan 73, No. 8 Illinois 55 (Game reaction from our Michigan blog and Illinois blog)
No. 13 Penn State 67, No. Iowa 58 (Game reaction from our Penn State blog and Iowa blog)
No. 7 Indiana 71, No. 10 Northwestern 56 (Game reaction from our Indiana blog and Northwestern blog)
No. 6 Ohio State 79, vs. No. 11 Minnesota 73 (Game reaction from our Ohio State blog and Minnesota blog)

Friday, March 13 (Quarterfinals)
No. 1 Wisconsin 71, No. 9 Michigan 60
No. 4 Purdue 64, No. 13 Penn State 59
No. 2 Maryland 75, No. 7 Indiana, 69
No. 3 Michigan State 76, No. 6 Ohio State 67

Saturday, March 14 (Semifinals)
No. 1 Wisconsin 71, No. 4 Purdue 51
No. No. 3 Michigan State 62, No. 2 Maryland 58