Michigan basketball's strong history in the Big Ten Tournament

No. 14 seed Michigan Wolverines basketball will play in the Wednesday opening round of the Big Ten Tournament for the first time since the conference expanded in 2014-15, set to take on No. 11 seed Penn State.

No team that’s played on Wednesday has advanced past the semifinals, and only one — Ohio State in 2023 — has made it that far. The No. 14 seed is 4-9 overall, with three of the victories coming during the Buckeyes’ improbable run last season.

The Maize and Blue, who finished the regular season 8-23 overall and 3-17 in Big Ten play, are unlikely to string together victories in Minneapolis this week, already five-point underdogs to Penn State per Kenpom, but they’ve had an immensely successful history at the event.

Michigan won the inaugural Big Ten Tournament in 1998, beating Iowa, Minnesota and Purdue, before going on a drought that lasted until 2017. That year, the Wolverines’ plane slid off the runway at Willow Run Airport the day before arriving just before tip-off and beating Illinois in their practice jerseys. The storybook weekend culminated with victories over Purdue, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and Michigan cutting down the nets, in Washington D.C.

That year, the Wolverines were the No. 8 seed and still stand as the lowest seed to win the Big Ten Tournament. Due in part to Michigan’s run that season, the eighth seed actually has the seventh-highest winning percentage at the event (.444), sitting ahead of the 4 (.400) and 7 (.444) seeds. Michigan also became the first team to win four consecutive games en route to the title.

Michigan became the third-ever squad to win back-to-back championships in 2018, joining Michigan State (1999-20) and Ohio State (2010-11), winning four consecutive games — over Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan State and Purdue — as the No. 5 seed.

Beyond just having won the third-most championships behind Michigan State (6) and Ohio State (5), Michigan had a long stretch of almost always being in the mix for a deep run. Despite going one-and-done each of the last two seasons, with losses to Indiana in 2022 and Rutgers in 2023, Michigan enjoyed a 14-event streak of winning at least one game. Twelve of those seasons came under John Beilein (2008-19), the winningest head coach in program history.

Beilein had a 21-10 record in the Big Ten Tournament, with that .677 winning percentage ranking fifth-highest among coaches and second-highest among those with 20-plus Big Ten Tournament games under their belt. He’s one of six coaches to win multiple titles.

Beilein didn’t just win championships in back-to-back seasons, but his squads routinely used the Big Ten Tournament to either earn an NCAA Tournament bid or improve their seed for the Big Dance. The best example of the former was a pair of wins in 2016, over Northwestern and Indiana in Indianapolis.

Michigan forward Kam Chatman, who had hit 7 three-pointers entering the game, nailed a right-corner triple at the buzzer to break a tie and beat the top-seeded Hoosiers in front of a sea of their fans. That punched the Maize and Blue’s NCAA Tournament ticket, with the team playing in the First Four in Dayton, where they beat Tulsa.

Michigan reached the semifinals, where it lost to Ohio State, in current head coach Juwan Howard‘s first Big Ten Tournament in 2021 (the tournament was canceled in 2020). The Wolverines have made the semifinals in five of the last seven and eight of the last 12 events, as well as the finals in three of the last six.

Michigan has a .543 winning percentage in the Big Ten Tournament, which ranks fourth among all teams in the conference behind Ohio State (.647), Michigan State (.642) and Illinois (.585). Only one other team — Wisconsin (.553) — has a record better than .500 in the event. Iowa is at .500 with a 22-22 mark.

Here’s a look at Michigan’s Big Ten Tournament results through the years.

Year	How Far Michigan Advanced	Knocked Out By
1998	Championship	Michigan beat Purdue for the title
1999	Quarterfinals	Ohio State
2000	Opening Round	Penn State
2001	Opening Round	Penn State
2002	Quarterfinals	Ohio State
2003	Quarterfinals	Indiana
2004	Semifinals	Illinois
2005	Opening Round	Northwestern
2006	Opening Round	Minnesota
2007	Quarterfinals	Ohio State
2008	Quarterfinals	Wisconsin
2009	Quarterfinals	Illinois
2010	Quarterfinals	Ohio State
2011	Semifinals	Ohio State
2012	Semifinals	Ohio State
2013	Quarterfinals	Wisconsin
2014	Championship	Michigan State
2015	Quarterfinals	Wisconsin
2016	Semifinals	Purdue
2017	Championship	Michigan beat Wisconsin for the title
2018	Championship	Michigan beat Purdue for the title
2019	Championship	Michigan State
2021	Semifinals	Ohio State
2022	Second round (first game after earning bye)	Indiana
2023	Second round (first game after earning bye)	Rutgers