Head coach Tom Izzo during the first half of the game on Feb. 28, 2016 at the Breslin Center. The Spartans defeated the Nittany Lions 88-57.
The Big Ten Council of Presidents voted to adopt a postseason tournament in December 1996 and the Big Ten Tournament began in Chicago in March 1998. The first Big Ten Tournament Championship was won by University of Michigan, and the win was later vacated because of NCAA sanctions.
The first four Big Ten Tournaments were played at the United Center in Chicago and the location has since alternated between Chicago and Indianapolis, with this year's tournament to be held in Indianapolis. The tournament will be in Washington D.C. in 2017 and in New York City at Madison Square Garden in 2018.
MSU was the first team to win back-to-back Big Ten Tournament titles, winning in both 1999 and 2000. The only other team to win back-to-back championships is Ohio State University, which won in 2010 and 2011.
With the start of the Big Ten Tournament looming, here are 10 fun statistics about the tournament through the years.
0 - The number of times this year's regular-season champion Indiana has won the Big Ten Tournament. Indiana has only been the No. 1 seed once before this season, which was in 2013. The team lost in a semifinal game against Wisconsin. Indiana has only made it to the championship game once, losing to Iowa in 2001.
.63 - MSU head coach Tom Izzo's all-time winning percentage in the Big Ten Tournament. Izzo has most wins with 24 and the third-highest winning percentage all-time of coaches who coached in at least 10 tournament games. He is only behind Ohio State coach Thad Matta, who has .759, and former Iowa coach Steve Alford, who has .684.
.676 - All-time winning percentage of No. 2 seeds in the Big Ten Tournament with a record of 23-11. The No. 2 seed has won four championships, not including a championship that was vacated by Ohio State in 2002.
1 - The number of times a team seeded lower than three has won the tournament.No. 6 seed Iowa won the the title in 2001. The No. 6 seed has the third-highest win percentage by a seed in the tournament with an all-time record of 28-16.
2 - The number of championships MSU has won when the tournament was played in Indianapolis. MSU has won the last two Big Ten Tournaments that were played in Indianapolis.
3 - The number of times MSU has been to the championship game in the past four years. MSU is 2-1 during that stretch, beating Ohio State in 2012 and U-M in 2014 and losing to Wisconsin in 2015.
4 - The number of tournament championships both MSU and Ohio State have won, which is also tied for the most tournament championships won. MSU's most recent championship was in 2014 and Ohio State's was in 2013. Ohio State has a fifth, 2002, which was vacated as part of NCAA sanctions.
6 - The number of different teams that have won the championship. Ohio State and MSU won 4, Wisconsin won 3, Illinois and Iowa won 2, Purdue won 1. The numbers don't include U-M's 1998 vacated championship or Ohio State's 2002 vacated championship.
12 - Seasons between MSU making a trip to the tournament championship game. MSU won the Big Ten Tournament in both 1999 and 2000, but did not make it back to the final game until 2012, when Draymond Green helped lead No. 1 seed MSU to a win over Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game.
12.1 - Average margin of victory in the previous 18 Big Ten Tournament championship games.
