1998 Big Ten men's basketball tournament

The 1998 Big Ten men's basketball tournament was the inaugural postseason men's basketball tournament for the Big Ten Conference and was played from March 5 through March 8, 1998 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. The championship was won by Michigan who defeated Purdue in the championship game.^[1] As a result, Michigan received the Big Ten's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

1998 Big Ten men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1997–98
Teams	11
Site	United Center Chicago, Illinois
Champions	Michigan (Vacated) (1st title)
Winning coach	Brian Ellerbe (1st title)
MVP	Robert Traylor (Michigan)
Big Ten men's basketball tournaments 1999 →

1997–98 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No.  16 Michigan State	13	–	3		.813			22	–	8		.733
No. 22 Illinois	13	–	3		.813			23	–	10		.697
No. 11 Purdue	12	–	4		.750			28	–	8		.778
Iowa	9	–	7		.563			20	–	11		.645
Indiana	9	–	7		.563			20	–	12		.625
Penn State	8	–	8		.500			19	–	13		.594
Northwestern	3	–	13		.188			10	–	17		.370
Wisconsin	3	–	13		.188			12	–	19		.387
Ohio State	1	–	15		.063			8	–	22		.267
No. 12 Michigan* †	0	–	5		.000			0	–	8		.000
Minnesota**	0	–	10		.000			0	–	15		.000
† 1998 Big Ten tournament winner Rankings from AP poll *Michigan: 24 reg. season games including Big Ten Tourn. Champ.; 2 NCAA Tourn. games vacated due to sanctions against the program **Minnesota: 15 games including 5 NIT games and championship vacated due to sanctions against the program Disputed records: Michigan 25–9, 11–5; Minnesota 20–15, 6–10

Due to the Michigan basketball scandal, Michigan has vacated the records from this tournament.^[2] Similarly, due to the Minnesota academic scandal, Minnesota's appearance in this tournament was vacated.^[3]

Seeds

All 11 Big Ten schools participated in the tournament. Teams were seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records. Seeding for the tournament was determined at the close of the regular conference season. The top five teams received a first round bye.

Seed	School	Conference	1st Tiebreaker	2nd Tiebreaker
1	Michigan State	13–3	1–1 vs. Ill.	1–1 vs. Pur
2	Illinois	13–3	1–1 vs. MSU	0–2 vs. Pur
3	Purdue	12–4
4	Michigan	11–5
5	Iowa	9–7	2–0 vs. Ind
6	Indiana	9–7	0–2 vs. Iowa
7	Penn State	8–8
8	Minnesota	6–10
9	Northwestern	3–13	1–1 vs. Wisc	0–1 vs. MSU
10	Wisconsin	3–13	1–1 vs. NW	0–2 vs. MSU
11	Ohio State	1–15

Bracket

	Opening round March 5					Quarterfinals March 6					Semifinals March 7					Championship March 8
						1	#12 Michigan State	73
						8	Minnesota	76
	8	Minnesota	64
	9	Northwestern	56
											8	Minnesota	69
											4	#17 Michigan	85
						4	#17 Michigan	77
						5	Iowa	66
																4	#17 Michigan	76
																3	#9 Purdue	67
						2	#18 Illinois	66
						10	Wisconsin	61
	7	Penn State	51
	10	Wisconsin	52
											2	#18 Illinois	47
											3	#9 Purdue	68
						3	#9 Purdue	76
						6	Indiana	71
	6	Indiana	78
	11	Ohio State	71

Source:^[4]

All-Tournament Team

• Robert Traylor, Michigan – Big Ten tournament Most Outstanding Player (Vacated)
• Jerod Ward, Michigan
• Quincy Lewis, Minnesota
• Brad Miller, Purdue
• Mike Robinson, Purdue