Tom Izzo believes Big Ten Tournament in 2025 will be 'one of the best ever'

Tom Izzo thinks this could be an all-time field for the Big Ten Tournament.

Izzo spoke on the competition in this year’s conference tournament with the media on Monday. He thinks it’ll be a very difficult bracket considering the bottom three teams in the standings are eliminated beforehand while the remaining 15 will all have their chances at positioning and trying to make the NCAA Tournament.

“I think it will be one of the best ever because the number of good teams,” said Izzo. “Everybody will be playing for something. Now that we only have, how many, 15 of the 18? I mean, there’s a good chance that, you know, 12 or 13 of them could be playing for an NCAA berth in a lot of ways – maybe more the way it’s going right now.”

Because of that, Izzo wouldn’t be surprised by an upset or two once they’re all out of conference play and into the bracket in Indianapolis.

“Ours? Somebody is going to come out, you know, because I’ve really never looked at, this year, who got the break in the schedule, you know. I really am not sure who did and who played once, who played twice. Other years, it was more defineable. This is not, to me,” Izzo explained. “So you’re going to go in there and someones going to beat somebody and everybody’s going to question it. Illinois is the best example right now. They just won big the other night and, what do they got, six, seven losses in our league?”

Per their latest updates, On3’s James Fletcher and ESPN’s Joe Lunardi each have 10 teams from the Big Ten making it, let alone being top seeds, into March Madness. That doesn’t even include teams like Indiana, Rutgers, Iowa, or Northwestern who are all at .500 or better overall by record but will need to make something happen that weekend in order to make it into the bracket due to being anywhere from three to five games under .500 in the league.

That quality in the Big Ten is only comparable to what’s happening right now in the SEC. Izzo agreed while also noting the improvement as well in the West Coast Conference

“I think a lot of these conference tournaments are going to be big. But I think in the Big Ten and the SEC? Those tournaments are going to be off the chart,” said Izzo.

There should be several great conference tournaments across college basketball following the end of the regular season. That includes the one in the Big Ten once they tip things off in Gainbridge Fieldhouse on March 12th.

“So, yeah, I think it’ll be a hell of a tournament for you guys, for the fans,” smiled Izzo.