Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year

The Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year is an award given to the Big Ten Conference's most outstanding player. The award was first given following the 1984–85 season. Only four players have won the award multiple times: Jim Jackson of Ohio State (1991, 1992), Mateen Cleaves of Michigan State (1998, 1999), Luka Garza of Iowa (2020, 2021), and Zach Edey of Purdue (2023, 2024). Ten players who won the Big Ten Player of the Year award were also named the national player of the year by one or more major voting bodies: Jim Jackson (1992), Calbert Cheaney of Indiana (1993), Glenn Robinson of Purdue (1994), Evan Turner of Ohio State (2010), Draymond Green of Michigan State (2012), Trey Burke of Michigan (2013), Frank Kaminsky of Wisconsin (2015), Denzel Valentine of Michigan State (2016), Luka Garza of Iowa (2021), and Zach Edey of Purdue (2023 and 2024).

Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year

Awarded for	the most outstanding basketball player in the Big Ten Conference
Country	United States
History
First award	1985
Most recent	Braden Smith, Purdue

Michigan State has the record for the most winners with nine. Of current Big Ten Conference members, nine schools have never had a winner. Of these, only Northwestern was in the conference since the inception of this award—Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1991, Nebraska joined in 2011, followed by Maryland and Rutgers in 2014, and by Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington in 2024. With Braden Smith winning the 2025 award, the Purdue Boilermakers became the first program to have conference players of the year in three consecutive seasons (2023–2025).

Key

†	Co-Players of the Year
*	Awarded a national player of the year award: UPI College Basketball Player of the Year (1954–55 to 1995–96) Naismith College Player of the Year (1968–69 to present) John R. Wooden Award (1976–77 to present)
Player (X)	Denotes the number of times the player has been awarded the Big Ten Player of the Year award at that point

Winners

Roy Tarpley, Michigan, 1985

Scott Skiles, Michigan State, 1986

Dennis Hopson, Ohio State, 1987

Glen Rice, Michigan, 1989

Jim Jackson, Ohio State, 1991 and 1992

Calbert Cheaney, Indiana, 1993

Glen Rice, Michigan, 1989

Jared Jeffries, Indiana, 2002

Kalin Lucas, Michigan State, 2009

JaJuan Johnson, Purdue, 2011

Trey Burke, Michigan, 2013

Cassius Winston, Michigan State, 2019

Johnny Davis, Wisconsin, 2022

Zach Edey, Purdue, 2023 and 2024

Season	Player	School	Position	Class	Reference
1984–85	Roy Tarpley	Michigan	PF / C	Junior	[1]
1985–86	Scott Skiles	Michigan State	PG	Senior	[2]
1986–87	Dennis Hopson	Ohio State	SF	Senior	[3]
1987–88	Gary Grant	Michigan	PG	Senior	[4]
1988–89†	Jay Edwards	Indiana	SG	Sophomore	[5]
	Glen Rice	Michigan	SG / SF	Senior	[6]
1989–90	Steve Scheffler	Purdue	C	Senior	[7]
1990–91	Jim Jackson	Ohio State	SG	Sophomore	[8]
1991–92	Jim Jackson* (2)	Ohio State	SG	Junior	[9]
1992–93	Calbert Cheaney*	Indiana	SF	Senior	[10]
1993–94	Glenn Robinson*	Purdue	SF	Junior	[11]
1994–95	Shawn Respert	Michigan State	SG	Senior	[12]
1995–96	Brian Evans	Indiana	PF	Senior	[13]
1996–97	Bobby Jackson[a]	Minnesota[a]	PG	Senior	[14]
1997–98	Mateen Cleaves	Michigan State	PG	Sophomore	[15]
1998–99†	Mateen Cleaves (2)	Michigan State	PG	Junior	[16]
	Scoonie Penn	Ohio State	PG	Junior	[16]
1999–00†	A. J. Guyton	Indiana	SG	Senior	[17]
	Morris Peterson	Michigan State	SF	Senior	[17]
2000–01	Frank Williams	Illinois	PG	Sophomore	[18]
2001–02	Jared Jeffries	Indiana	C	Sophomore	[19]
2002–03	Brian Cook	Illinois	PF	Senior	[20]
2003–04	Devin Harris	Wisconsin	PG	Junior	[21]
2004–05	Dee Brown	Illinois	SG	Junior	[22]
2005–06	Terence Dials	Ohio State	PF	Senior	[23]
2006–07	Alando Tucker	Wisconsin	SF	Senior	[24]
2007–08	D. J. White	Indiana	PF	Senior	[25]
2008–09	Kalin Lucas	Michigan State	PG	Sophomore	[26]
2009–10	Evan Turner*	Ohio State	SG	Junior	[27]
2010–11	JaJuan Johnson	Purdue	C	Senior	[28]
2011–12	Draymond Green*	Michigan State	SF	Senior	[29]
2012–13	Trey Burke*	Michigan	PG	Sophomore	[30]
2013–14	Nik Stauskas	Michigan	SG	Sophomore	[31]
2014–15	Frank Kaminsky*	Wisconsin	PF	Senior	[32]
2015–16	Denzel Valentine*	Michigan State	SG	Senior	[33]
2016–17	Caleb Swanigan	Purdue	PF	Sophomore	[34]
2017–18	Keita Bates-Diop	Ohio State	SF	Junior	[35]
2018–19	Cassius Winston	Michigan State	PG	Junior	[36]
2019–20	Luka Garza	Iowa	C	Junior	[37]
2020–21	Luka Garza* (2)	Iowa	C	Senior	[37]
2021–22	Johnny Davis	Wisconsin	SG	Sophomore	[38]
2022–23	Zach Edey*	Purdue	C	Junior	[39]
2023–24	Zach Edey* (2)	Purdue	C	Senior	[40]
2024–25	Braden Smith	Purdue	PG	Junior	[41]

^a Bobby Jackson's selection was later vacated (along with that season's win total and all other accolades) due to an academic fraud scandal that ruled the entire team ineligible.^[42]

Winners by school

School (year joined)	Winners	Years
Michigan State (1953)	9	1986, 1995, 1998, 1999†, 2000†, 2009, 2012, 2016, 2019
Ohio State (1912)	7	1987, 1991, 1992, 1999†, 2006, 2010, 2018
Purdue (1896)	7	1990, 1994, 2011, 2017, 2023, 2024, 2025
Indiana (1900)	6	1989†, 1993, 1996, 2000†, 2002, 2008
Michigan (1896)	5	1985, 1988, 1989†, 2013, 2014
Wisconsin (1896)	4	2004, 2007, 2015, 2022
Illinois (1896)	3	2001, 2003, 2005
Iowa (1900)	2	2020, 2021
Minnesota (1896)	0	1997 vacated[a]
Maryland (2014)	0	—
Nebraska (2011)	0	—
Northwestern (1896)	0	—
Oregon (2024)	0	—
Penn State (1993)	0	—
Rutgers (2014)	0	—
UCLA (2024)	0	—
USC (2024)	0	—
Washington (2024)	0	—