Before the focus fully shifts to the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season, we’re evaluating how this past season went.
With grades for the Big East and ACC already in, we’re moving on to the Big Ten, with our report card for each of the 18 teams below.
Part of this process is straightforward: A good team that played like a good team will earn a strong grade, and one that played like a bad team will not. But it will be complicated for certain teams. Some had championship dreams. Others hoped to win just a few games. Either way, we are judging each squad’s season based on preseason expectations while offering grace on a case-by-case basis for any unfortunate midseason events.
Check back each Wednesday in May as we grade the rest of the power conferences with the Big 12 on May 21 and SEC on May 28.
Note: Teams listed in alphabetical order under each grading tier.
Jump to a team: Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Maryland | Michigan | Michigan State | Minnesota | Nebraska | Northwestern | Ohio State | Oregon | Penn State | Purdue | Rutgers | UCLA | USC | Washington | Wisconsin
A grades
Grade: A
Brad Underwood had to replace the top eight scorers from an Illinois team that made an Elite Eight run in 2024, including Terrence Shannon Jr., a third-team AP All-American who averaged 23.0 points that season — a significant exodus even in the current climate. But Underwood soared with a masterful rebuild in 2024-25, as projected lottery pick Kasparas Jakucionis averaged 15.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists for a squad that reached the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Illini earned 11 wins over top-50 KenPom opponents under challenging circumstances.
Grade: A
After a disappointing 2023-24 campaign that ended without an NCAA tournament berth, Kevin Willard’s squad had one of the best seasons in program history. Derik Queen (16.5 PPG, 9.0 RPG) led a Maryland team that connected on 37% of its 3-point attempts and played top-10 defense. And after preseason projections placed the Terps in the middle of the Big Ten standings, they finished in a tie for second.
Maryland won 27 games in a fabulous season that ended with the team’s first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2016. Willard’s hiring at Villanova was the ultimate testament to the Terps’ success.
Grade: A
Michigan hired former Florida Atlantic coach Dusty May to give the Wolverines a boost after finishing with eight wins in 2023-24, Juwan Howard’s final year in Ann Arbor. May did that and more, returning the program to national prominence in his first season at the helm.
The unorthodox pairing of 7-footers Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin made the Wolverines a difficult matchup for every team in the country. The two led an offense that fueled a second-place finish in the Big Ten, a conference tournament championship and a trip to the Sweet 16. The Wolverines were also one of America’s best defensive teams, finishing 12th in the nation in adjusted efficiency.
Grade: A
Tom Izzo didn’t have a fleet of five-star recruits or seven-figure transfers on his roster, but he still managed to dominate the Big Ten and orchestrate one of the most surprising rallies of his tenure.
Freshman Jase Richardson, the son of Jason Richardson, who played for Izzo when the Spartans won the national title in 2000, emerged as a young star (12.1 PPG, 41% from beyond the arc) and an NBA prospect for a gritty team that also relied on Jaden Akins, Jeremy Fears Jr. and Tre Holloman. With top-five marks in the Big Ten in offensive and defensive efficiency, Michigan State won the conference’s regular-season title by three games, earned a 2-seed in the NCAA tournament and made a run to the Elite Eight in a season that proved the 70-year-old Izzo hasn’t lost his fastball.
Grade: A
Greg Gard tends to do his best work amid doubts about his team. That was certainly true in 2024-25, when his Badgers finished in a tie for third place in the Big Ten and won 27 games after losing three of their top five scorers from the previous season, including Chucky Hepburn, who went on to earn AP All-American honorable mention honors at Louisville.
One media preseason poll picked Wisconsin to finish 12th in the conference standings. But John Tonje emerged as one of the biggest surprises of the college basketball season. Injuries had forced him to miss the bulk of 2023-24 at Missouri before he transferred to Wisconsin, where he earned AP second-team All-America honors (19.6 PPG).
B grades
Grade: B
An unofficial preseason media poll picked Northwestern to finish 16th out of 18 teams. The Wildcats avoided that projection, finishing in a multiteam tie for 12th place, but that’s not the full story: Brooks Barnhizer (17.1 PPG, 8.8 RPG) and Jalen Leach (14.3 PPG), two of the team’s top three scorers, missed 26 games combined because of injury. As a result, the Wildcats struggled in a strong Big Ten but still went 17-16 overall, securing a finish of .500 or better for just the 31st time in the program’s 120-year history. That’s why Chris Collins earned a lengthy extension when the season ended.
Grade: B
Despite losing five straight games over one rocky stretch, Dana Altman’s squad maintained his 15-year streak of 20-win seasons. The Ducks picked up wins over Alabama, Texas A&M, Wisconsin and Maryland on their way to securing a seventh-place finish (tied with Illinois) as well as a 5-seed in the NCAA tournament. Nate Bittle (14.2 PPG) and three other players averaged double figures for a team that advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
It was a strong debut for an Oregon team that battled in one of the most competitive conferences in the country.
Grade: B
For just the second time in college basketball history, a team had to regroup after losing a back-to-back Wooden Award winner. Zach Edey had been the anchor of a Purdue team that reached the national championship game in 2024, but Braden Smith emerged as the new leader of the program, becoming the third straight Boilermaker to win Big Ten Player of the Year. Trey Kaufman-Renn (20.1 PPG, 6.5 RPG) also stood out as one of the nation’s top big men for a 24-win Purdue team that reached the Sweet 16.
Still, the Boilermakers finished in a tie for fourth after opening the season with the highest ranking among Big Ten teams in the AP’s preseason poll (14th) and being picked to win the conference crown in one media poll.
Grade: B
After an early-January home loss to Michigan, Mick Cronin ripped his team in the postgame news conference, saying he had more “passion” than any player on the roster. He criticized his assistants and other staffers, too. But the viral rant marked a turning point for a program that finished 13-7 in its first Big Ten season following a 2-4 start to conference play. The Bruins — with wins over Arizona, Gonzaga, Michigan State and Wisconsin — went on to earn a 7-seed in the NCAA tournament. They also finished top-five in offensive and defensive efficiency in the league.
Still, they entered the season with serious Big Ten championship ambitions that were stalled by the stretch of poor play that prompted Cronin’s rant.
C grades
Grade: C
Most preseason projections placed the Gophers at the bottom of the Big Ten, but Ben Johnson managed to lift them slightly above those expectations, finishing 7-13 and tied for 12th in the conference. They collected wins over three top-30 KenPom teams (Oregon, UCLA and Michigan) along the way, and Dawson Garcia (19.2 PPG) was one of the best players in the conference. The school still decided to fire Johnson, a former Minnesota standout, after the third sub-.500 season of his four-year tenure. But the story of the program is similar to that of other teams: Minnesota’s low-level NIL investment made it challenging to thrive in the current landscape.
Grade: C
After his team ended the regular season on a five-game losing streak, Fred Hoiberg released a statement that said Nebraska “just did not close out games the way [the team] needed to.” At one point, the Huskers — who lost the nucleus of a program that had reached the NCAA tournament the previous year — were 12-2 overall and 2-1 in the Big Ten following a Jan. 4 win over UCLA. But they lost 12 of their next 17 games in a wild collapse that ruined their outside chances of an NCAA tournament berth.
D grades
Grade: D
Mike Woodson understood the stakes as well as anyone when Indiana hired the former Hoosiers star in 2021. “The players are looking for me to get them where they need to go, and I’m looking for them to get Indiana basketball where it needs to go,” he said at his opening news conference that year. Woodson ultimately failed to elevate the program to national contender status, however, leading to the February announcement he would step down at the end of the season — one that started with Big Ten title and Final Four aspirations and ended without an NCAA tournament appearance.
Grade: D
A disastrous season for the Hawkeyes ended in longtime coach Fran McCaffery’s firing. The Hawkeyes had their lowest KenPom ranking in seven years, finishing last in defensive efficiency in league play (58% shooting allowed overall, 38% from 3).
Yes, the Big Ten was a gauntlet with eight teams securing NCAA tournament bids. And Owen Freeman’s season-ending finger injury in early February was significant considering the 6-foot-10 sophomore had averaged 16.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.8 blocks. But the Hawkeyes were never truly competitive, sitting at 13-8 overall and 4-6 in conference play when they lost Freeman, ultimately finishing 7-13 in the Big Ten.
Grade: D
Hopes were high for Jake Diebler’s first official season as Ohio State’s head coach. He had helped the Buckeyes salvage the 2023-24 campaign after he took over on an interim basis following Chris Holtmann’s midseason firing. Then in the offseason, Diebler added top transfers Meechie Johnson Jr. and Micah Parrish. Bruce Thornton (17.7 PPG) returned, too. But Johnson missed the bulk of the season because of personal challenges. And while the Buckeyes secured wins over Texas, Kentucky, Purdue and Maryland, they still fell short of those preseason expectations, finishing 10th in the Big Ten and missing the NCAA tournament.
Grade: D
In their second season under Mike Rhoades, the Nittany Lions were 12-2 in their first 14 games, which included a 2-1 tally in Big Ten play with wins over Purdue and Northwestern. They were led by Ace Baldwin Jr. (14.0 PPG, 7.1 APG, 2.4 SPG), who won his second consecutive Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year award. But the rest of their season was a freefall as they went 4-13 over their last 17 games and failed to even qualify for the conference tournament.
Grade: D
Eric Musselman’s move from Arkansas to USC was part of a shuffle at the top of the men’s college basketball head-coaching hierarchy as big names made moves across the country. The Trojans had endured a disappointing 2023-24 campaign as Bronny James & Co. drew big crowds but won only 15 games. They again struggled to raise the bar in Musselman’s first season, though, with a sub-.500 campaign. Terrence Williams (10.6 PPG) played just seven games because of injury, which impacted their ceiling — but not as much as their shoddy defense (88th in adjusted efficiency), which limited their ability to beat good teams.
F grades
Grade: F
While it’s never easy to win with youth, especially in a sport with contenders that heavily feature fifth- and sixth-year talents, Rutgers didn’t have just any young talent. Coach Steve Pikiell had two of the top recruits in program history: Dylan Harper (19.4 PPG) and Ace Bailey (17.6 PPG, 7.2 RPG) were projected top-three picks in the 2025 NBA draft all season. They were paid millions to change the face of Rutgers basketball, but the Knights instead finished 11th in the Big Ten with an 8-12 record in conference play and a 15-17 record overall, losing to teams like Kennesaw State and Princeton along the way.
It’s difficult to characterize this season as anything but a failure for the program.
Grade: F
According to a document reviewed by ESPN, Great Osobor (14.8 PPG, 8.0 RPG) earned $2 million to follow head coach Danny Sprinkle from Utah State to Washington. But a seven-figure sum for the 2024 Mountain West Player of the Year couldn’t lift the Huskies from the bottom of the Big Ten. They finished last in the conference standings at 4-16 (13-18 overall), losing five games by 20 or more points.
The arrival of Osobor and Sprinkle, the 2024 Mountain West Coach of the Year, magnified the preseason buzz. But the Huskies failed to live up to the hype.
