The field is set for the 2025 Big Ten Tournament. Unlike years past, when all conference teams qualified for the tournament, the expansion to 18 teams with the additions of USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon has resulted in a limited field qualifying for the Big Ten Tournament -- only the top-15 teams in the league now head to the conference tournament.
Entering Sunday, 14 of the 15 teams heading to Indianapolis this week were set, and the final spot was down to either Nebraska or Iowa. As fortune would have it, Iowa and Nebraska were scheduled to wrap up the regular season on Sunday in what became a winner-take-all game to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament. Needing a win to keep the season alive, Iowa played one of its best games of the season and easily dispatched Nebraska in Lincoln, 83-68.
While that win secured a spot for Iowa in the tournament field, their exact seed and matchup had to wait for the outcome of the Minnesota-Rutgers game. A Minnesota win would have made Iowa the 13-seed and set up a game against 12-seed Rutgers. A Rutgers win would make Iowa the 15-seed and set up a game against 10-seed Ohio State. Rutgers knocked off Minnesota, 75-67 in OT, locking Iowa in as the 15-seed and setting up a game with Ohio State on Wednesday.
The full bracket is available below:
As the 15-seed, Iowa will face 10-seed Ohio State on Wednesday, March 12. The game will tip off at approximately 5:30 PM CT and will be televised on Peacock. The winner of that game will face 7-seed Illinois on Thursday, March 13 at approximately 5:30 PM CT on BTN. 2-seed Maryland, 3-seed Michigan, and 6-seed Purdue are the other top teams on that half of the bracket.
In a strange coincidence, Iowa will meet Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament for the third consecutive season. In 2023, Iowa, a 5-seed, lost to Ohio State, a 13-seed, 73-69. Last year, 7-seed Iowa also lost to 10-seed Ohio State, 90-78. The Hawkeyes will be hoping that the third time is the charm against the Buckeyes in the Big Ten Tournament.
Iowa played Ohio State once earlier this season, an 82-65 defeat in Columbus. The Buckeyes led 30-26 at halftime and used a big run out of halftime to take command of the game. Ohio State outscored Iowa 52-39 to cruise to the easy win. Drew Thelwell led Iowa with 20 points, but Josh Dix was held scoreless on 0-of-4 shooting in 25 minutes. Seydou Traore had 13 points off the bench. Payton Sandfort also had 13 points, though he was just 3-of-10 from 3-point range.
Although Iowa has been on the wrong side of upsets in the Big Ten Tournament in recent years, the tournament has also been a site of great success for some past Iowa teams. In 2022, 5-seed Iowa won four games in four days to claim a Big Ten Tournament title behind standout play from Keegan and Kris Murray and clutch shot-making from Jordan Bohannon. Payton Sandfort and Riley Mulvey are the only remaining Hawkeyes from that tournament-winning squad.
It will take another barnstorming run like the one Iowa put together in 2022 for Iowa to get back to the NCAA Tournament in 2025. Iowa enters the Big Ten Tournament at 16-15 overall, 67th in KenPom, and 69th in the NET rankings. The Hawkeyes were not close to the NCAA Tournament bubble prior to Sunday's win over Nebraska, so they'll need several wins in Indianapolis to have any hope of garnering consideration from the NCAA Selection Committee.
But the first step was just to make it to the Big Ten Tournament, since even that wasn't guaranteed until Iowa's win over Nebraska in Lincoln. Now that they've made the Big Ten Tournament field, the next step will be seeing how long they can survive and advance in Indianapolis.
NEXT: Iowa will face Ohio State on Wednesday, March 12 at approximately 5:30 PM CT. Peacock will televise the game.
