This year's Big Ten Conference Tournament begins on Thursday afternoon with the first round of games. Only the bottom eight seeds in the bracket will be playing, as the top four seeds get a bye into the second round, which will be played out on Friday.
Here's a list of the four first round games to be played on Thursday:
- 11:30 a.m. EST: No. 8 Iowa vs. No. 9 Illinois
- 2:00 p.m. EST: No. 5 Indiana vs. No. 12 Penn State
- 5:30 p.m. EST: No. 7 Northwestern vs. No. 10 Minnesota
- 8:00 p.m. EST: No. 6 Purdue vs. No. 11 Nebraska
The four teams that received byes into the second round are Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin. The winner of Iowa-Illinois will go on to play Michigan State, the winner of Indiana-Penn State will go on to play Wisconsin, the winner of Northwestern-Minnesota will go on to play Michigan and the winner of Purdue-Nebraska will go on to play Ohio State.
A complete bracket of the 2012 Big Ten Tournament can be found here. For more, stay with SB Nation Chicago. News and notes on college hoops teams around the country can be found at SB Nation's college basketball news hub.
