1999 Big Ten men's basketball tournament

The 1999 Big Ten men's basketball tournament was the second annual postseason men's basketball tournament for the Big Ten Conference and was played from March 4 through March 7, 1999, at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. The championship was won by Michigan State who defeated Illinois in the championship game.^[2] As a result, Michigan State received the Big Ten's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

1999 Big Ten men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1998–99
Teams	11
Site	United Center Chicago, Illinois
Champions	Michigan State (1st title)
Winning coach	Tom Izzo (1st title)
MVP	Mateen Cleaves (Michigan State)
Big Ten men's basketball tournaments ← 1998 2000 →

1998–99 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 2 Michigan State†	15	–	1		.938			33	–	5		.868
No. 19 Indiana	9	–	7		.563			23	–	11		.676
No. 18 Wisconsin	9	–	7		.563			22	–	10		.688
No. 21 Iowa	9	–	7		.563			20	–	10		.667
Purdue	7	–	9		.438			21	–	13		.618
Northwestern	6	–	10		.375			15	–	14		.517
Penn State	5	–	11		.313			13	–	14		.481
Illinois	3	–	13		.188			14	–	18		.438
No. 14 Ohio State**	1	–	1		.500			1	–	1		.500
Minnesota***	0	–	8		.000			0	–	11		.000
Michigan*	0	–	11		.000			0	–	19		.000
† 1999 Big Ten tournament winner Rankings from AP poll *Michigan: 12 games vacated due to sanctions against the program **Ohio State: 34 games including 5 NCAA Tourn. games vacated due to sanctions against the program[1] *** Minnesota vacated 17 games including 1 NCAA Tourn. game due to sanctions against the program Disputed records: Michigan: 12–19, 5–11; Ohio State: 27–9, 12–4; Minnesota: 17–11, 8–8

Due to Michigan basketball scandal, Michigan has vacated the records from this tournament.^[3] Similarly, due to the Minnesota academic scandal, Minnesota's appearance in this tournament was vacated.^[4] Ohio State also vacated its appearance in the tournament due to NCAA Sanctions.^[5]

Seeds

All 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	15–1
2	Ohio State	12–4
3	Indiana	9–7
4	Wisconsin	9–7
5	Iowa	9–7
6	Minnesota	8–8
7	Purdue	7–9
8	Northwestern	6–10
9	Penn State	5–11
10	Michigan	5–11
11	Illinois	3–13

Bracket

^[6]

	Opening round March 4					Quarterfinals March 5					Semifinals March 6					Championship March 7
						1	#2 Michigan State	61
						8	Northwestern	59
	8	Northwestern	54
	9	Penn State	44
											1	#2 Michigan State	56
											4	#19 Wisconsin	41
						4	#19 Wisconsin	74
						5	#20 Iowa	60
																1	#2 Michigan State	67
																11	Illinois	50
						2	#11 Ohio State	87
						10	Michigan	69
	7	Purdue	73
	10	Michigan	79
											2	#11 Ohio State	77
											11	Illinois	79
						3	#17 Indiana	66
						11	Illinois	82
	6	#23 Minnesota	64
	11	Illinois	67

All-Tournament Team

• Mateen Cleaves, Michigan State – Big Ten tournament Most Outstanding Player
• Cory Bradford, Illinois
• Antonio Smith, Michigan State
• Evan Eschmeyer, Northwestern
• Michael Redd, Ohio State

Source^[7]