2025 Big Ten men's tournament begins in Indianapolis
With the women's tournament wrapped, the men of the Big Ten are preparing to hit the hardwood at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The big picture: This year's Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament is the first since UCLA, USC, Washington and Oregon joined the fray in 2024.
That shakeup proved to be a foundation breaker on the women's side, with UCLA claiming the tournament crown over USC Sunday afternoon in a battle of the newcomers.
Why it matters: Both Purdue and IU made the cut for the tournament that now only invites the top 15 teams in the conference, giving local hoops fans plenty of reasons to tune in.
State of play: The Boilermakers want to make a strong showing and carry that momentum into a hopeful return to the NCAA Championship Game.
The Hoosiers, meanwhile, will look to take advantage of the tournament to battle from the bottom half of the Big Ten standings and straight into March Madness.
Driving the news: The action kicks off Wednesday afternoon with Northwestern versus Minnesota, Iowa versus Ohio State and USC versus Rutgers.
Indiana plays Oregon at 12pm Thursday.
Purdue faces the winner of USC and Rutgers late Thursday. The game is slated to begin 25 minutes after the 6:30pm game between Illinois and the winner of the Ohio State vs. Iowa game.
Zoom in: Here are some storylines that will define the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.
🚂 Boilers battle back
The Boilermakers fell victim to tiebreakers and ended up the No. 6 seed as they shared fourth place in the conference. But this is the fifth straight year Purdue has finished in the top four.
The backcourt is the big reason for their success this season, and Braden Smith is one of five finalists for the 2025 Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year award.
⛹️ Spartans on the attack
No. 1 seed Michigan State claimed the 2024-25 Big Ten Men's Basketball championship with its 91-84 win at Iowa last week.
This is Michigan State's 17th Big Ten championship and the 11th for head coach Tom Izzo, who is now tied for the most in conference history alongside Indiana legend Bob Knight.
📣 New kids
UCLA claimed the No. 4 seed in its inaugural Big Ten season, closing their regular season with a 90-63 win over rival and fellow Big Ten newbies USC.
The Bruins enter the tournament with the Big Ten's top scoring defense which gives up just 65.1 points per game.
🙏 Hoosier hope
The IU men come into the tournament as a No. 9 seed and a winnable first game against No. 8 Oregon.
They know this will be the final run with coach Mike Woodson calling the shots, so look for them to try to make a statement.
How to watch: First-round games will stream live on Peacock. Second-round and quarterfinal games will be on the Big Ten Network. The semifinals and championship game will air on CBS.
If you go: Tickets to attend every session of the tournament start at $468.
Tickets for IU vs. Oregon start at around $30.
Tickets for Purdue's first game start at around $40.
Tickets for Sunday's final game start at around $80.
Zoom out: The men's Big Ten isn't the only tourney tipping off Wednesday. The 2025 Big East Tournament returns to New York's Madison Square Garden for the 43rd year, and the Butler Bulldogs will be there to do some barking.
The Bulldogs are the No. 9 seed and will play No. 8 seed Providence at 4pm Wednesday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
ICE's go-to charter airline for deportations also flew NCAA teams, Inter Miami and more
Cheers greeted the Memphis men's basketball team as it emerged from an Airbus A320 on the night of March 16. The plane had carried the team from Fort Worth, Texas, to Memphis International Airport, and the flight home was a joyous one. The 16th-ranked Tigers were American Athletic Conference tournament champions and NCAA Tournament-bound. The trophy, topped by a large silver basketball, was buckled into a seat next to head coach Penny Hardaway. On the tarmac, cameras flashed. Hardaway gave well-wishers a thumbs-up. Players high-fived fans. Advertisement Less than 12 hours later, the same Airbus A320 – tail number N281GX – flew from El Paso, Texas, to Tapachula, Mexico. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flight transported 105 men, seven women and one child. Handcuffs, leg irons, and a waist chain likely restrained most adults' wrists and ankles. Guards monitored the cabin. After landing in Tapachula, the sullen passengers filed off the plane, met by Mexican authorities in safety vests. Both flights were operated by Global Crossing Airlines, commonly referred to as GlobalX, a charter company based in Miami. In the last eight months, the company has transported athletic teams from Arkansas, Kentucky, Houston, Kansas, Marquette, Memphis, Miami, North Carolina and St. John's, among others. During March Madness, GlobalX planes carried the Duke men back from the Final Four and the UConn women home after winning the national title. GlobalX also has ferried professional teams, including Inter Miami CF and its star, Lionel Messi. At the same time, GlobalX has operated more than half of ICE deportation flights. The airline regularly shuttles deportees to Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and elsewhere, sometimes on the same planes that only hours or days earlier carried sports teams. The Trump administration's controversial March 15 deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and more than 200 others to El Salvador involved three GlobalX planes. Two of them carried college basketball teams in the weeks prior. Advertisement 'When you get asked to do an NCAA flight, you feel lighter,' said a former GlobalX pilot who spoke on the condition he not be identified. 'If your team wins, you get the honor of transporting the winning team. It's just a feeling of accomplishment. For me doing an ICE flight, I don't want to be dramatic and say it's like a death sentence, but I hated it.' The system of chartered ICE flights – referred to as ICE Air – has operated for more than a decade, spanning presidential administrations, immigration policies and airlines. The flights have long drawn criticism from human rights advocates, raising concerns about mistreatment of detainees, safety and a lack of transparency. Less spotlighted has been the crossover between GlobalX's sports charters and ICE Air, as universities and sports organizations unwittingly support a company deeply involved in and profiting from deportation flights. 'They may not have known, but now they do, so now they have a choice to make,' said Ann Skeet, a senior director at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. 'They need to think about the purpose of their organization and their mission, and whether or not using a charter service that also serves ICE is consistent with their mission.' GlobalX and ICE didn't respond to emailed questions. Only 10 of 20 universities responded to requests for comment from about flights their teams took on GlobalX in recent months. The schools willing to speak about the matter said they were unaware that the planes they were on were also used to deport people. Memphis, for one, said in a statement: 'The University of Memphis uses multiple sources to charter athletic flights and have no knowledge of their customer base.' Many schools and coaches declined to address the issue at all; several feared potential retaliation given the Trump administration's targeting of some universities. Advertisement The first GlobalX revenue flight took off in August 2021. A slogan on the airline's website promised: 'You can't beat the eXperience.' The company soon became a major player in the sports charter business as its fleet expanded to more than a dozen. Past clients include professional basketball and football teams, a national soccer team, a major cricket tournament and an array of college sports teams. 'We do fly some of the biggest stars in professional sports, in soccer and some of the top – I think 10 of the top 20 college basketball teams for this season,' Ryan Goepel, the company's president and chief financial officer, said during an earnings call in March. GlobalX provided four dedicated aircraft for the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments this year as part of a contract worth at least $5 million, continuing a years-long relationship with the NCAA. March Madness travel is organized through the NCAA's charter program. Third-party brokers usually arrange travel for college teams during the regular season. In response to questions from about GlobalX, the NCAA issued a statement that didn't address them: 'The NCAA contracts only with safe and regulated charter plane vendors that maintain specified certifications, high ratings on reliable scales and meet insurance standards. The approval process for vendors is rigorous. We are not aware of any instances of sub-standard service on any charter flights during this championship season.' Advertisement A promotional video for sports charters on the GlobalX website earlier this year featured gourmet snacks, a grinning flight crew and spacious seats, complete with pillows, blankets and Fiji bottled water. A company brochure described its charter flights as 'the ultimate in flexibility, convenience, and luxury' and 'your ticket to wherever you want, whenever you want.' 'They were great flights, they are all excited about playing and having fun,' a second former GlobalX pilot said of the sports charters. 'That was one part of GlobalX's business model. The other part was the deportations.' Tom Cartwright, an immigration advocate who tracks ICE flights, first noted ICE's use of GlobalX in late 2021. GlobalX announced a five-year contract in August 2024 worth $65 million per year as a subcontractor to CSI Aviation for the flights. Cartwright estimates that from March through May of this year, GlobalX operated 64 percent of total ICE Air flights and 62 percent of deportation flights. Most adult passengers are required to be 'fully restrained' with 'handcuffs, waist chains, and leg irons,' according to the ICE Air Operations handbook. Carry-on items like books aren't allowed. Detainees can't wear belts, hats or shoelaces. Advertisement 'They're in conditions that you would see in a POW camp,' said the first former GlobalX pilot. An Airbus A320 with the tail number N291GX joined the GlobalX fleet last year, and its usage in recent months illustrates the disparate worlds the airline straddles. That plane carried San Diego State, Maryland, Kentucky and Auburn during the NCAA Tournament. In the two months preceding March Madness, N291GX flew dozens of times with flight numbers and destinations that match ICE Air routes. The plane traveled from Alexandria, La., to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, then onto Comayagua, Honduras. The Honduran foreign minister tweeted a photo of the aircraft. ICE later announced that 177 detained migrants from Venezuela had been flown from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras, where a Venezuelan plane picked them up. Another trip deported 157 migrants from El Paso, Texas, to Tapachula, Mexico. Local media reported that passengers had been 'handcuffed and shackled from the waist to the feet and hands.' Advertisement The plane flew from El Paso to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, using a flight number associated with ICE Air. The airport is a regular destination for deportation flights. The next day, March 17, the same plane carried the San Diego State men's basketball team to Dayton, Ohio, and on March 19, it flew the Maryland men to Seattle. The plane traveled to San Salvador, El Salvador on another trip using a flight number associated with ICE Air, then, a week later, on April 2, ferried the Auburn men's basketball team to San Antonio International Airport for the Final Four, where a mariachi group and dancers in bright dresses greeted them in a hangar. Another GlobalX plane – tail number N278GX – landed in San Salvador on Jan. 29, according to flight records and local media reports. More than 80 deportees were aboard. A reporter for El Diario de Hoy photographed the red wrists of one of the passengers and wrote they 'show signs of having been handcuffed for hours.' Two days later, the Kansas State men's basketball team flew from Manhattan, Kan., to Des Moines, Iowa, aboard the same plane in advance of a game against Iowa State in Ames, Iowa. (In a statement, Kansas State said it has been 'pleased' with GlobalX's 'aircraft and service.') Advertisement Also on Jan. 29, a different GlobalX plane with the tail number N837VA ferried 40 deportees to San Pedro Sula. 'They brought me in chains from last night until we arrived here. We're not criminals,' one of the passengers, Dagoberto Portillo, told local media. 'I don't understand the treatment of migrants.' Three days later, the Nebraska men's basketball team traveled aboard the same plane from Lincoln, Neb., to Eugene, Ore. The university said in a statement that the school wasn't 'involved in how that plane was received or procured.' Another GlobalX plane with the tail number N276GX landed at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, on Jan. 24 with 88 Brazilian deportees. Someone activated the aircraft's emergency exit slides. Photos and videos recorded a chaotic scene where shackled passengers stood on a wing and others roamed the tarmac. Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs derided 'the use of handcuffs and chains' and 'undignified treatment' on the flight. Advertisement 'The most difficult moment was when the air conditioning broke down in the air, people started to feel sick, some fainted and children were crying,' Kaleb Barbosa, one of the passengers, told the Brazilian media outlet G1. 'The turbines were stopping during the flight; it was desperate, like something out of a movie.' The same plane carried the men's basketball teams from Arkansas and Houston in the previous two months, amid a stream of deportation trips. Those didn't stop. Neither did the sports flights. On May 13, the plane transported the Miami track and field team to the Atlantic Coast Conference outdoor championships in Winston-Salem, N.C. Miami's men's and women's basketball teams and baseball team also have flown GlobalX this year. The university didn't respond to a request for comment. A higher-profile Miami team is featured on GlobalX's Instagram account. The airline shuttled Messi and the rest of Inter Miami CF to preseason matches in Peru and Honduras this year in addition to a match in Kansas City. Inter Miami also didn't respond to a request for comment. Advertisement When Inter Miami arrived at Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport in San Pedro Sula on Feb. 8, fire trucks shot arcs of water over the plane with the tail number N281GX. Photographers snapped pictures of players, including Messi, walking down the passenger stairs. Contrast that with a flight that same plane made into San Pedro Sula on Dec. 4. Deportees, some of them with children, were photographed as they walked the tarmac. Behind them was the plane they traveled on, 'GlobalX' written in giant blue letters across its fuselage. 'On the one hand, you have the low-end flights for people, which are basically shackled in the sky,' said Angelina Godoy, director of the University of Washington's Center for Human Rights and author of a 2022 study about ICE Air, 'and then you have the other end, the very high-end flights, with these corporate logos and everything on the plane and the athletes in there looking great … and it's the same damn (plane).' This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Advertisement Inter Miami CF, MLS, College Football, Men's College Basketball, Soccer, Sports Business, Women's College Basketball, FIFA Club World Cup, A1: Must-Read Stories, Graphics 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
ICE's go-to charter airline for deportations also flew NCAA teams, Inter Miami and more
Cheers greeted the Memphis men's basketball team as it emerged from an Airbus A320 on the night of March 16. The plane had carried the team from Fort Worth, Texas, to Memphis International Airport, and the flight home was a joyous one. The 16th-ranked Tigers were American Athletic Conference tournament champions and NCAA Tournament-bound. The trophy, topped by a large silver basketball, was buckled into a seat next to head coach Penny Hardaway. Advertisement On the tarmac, cameras flashed. Hardaway gave well-wishers a thumbs-up. Players high-fived fans. Less than 12 hours later, the same Airbus A320 – tail number N281GX – flew from El Paso, Texas, to Tapachula, Mexico. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flight transported 105 men, seven women and one child. Handcuffs, leg irons, and a waist chain likely restrained most adults' wrists and ankles. Guards monitored the cabin. After landing in Tapachula, the sullen passengers filed off the plane, met by Mexican authorities in safety vests. Both flights were operated by Global Crossing Airlines, commonly referred to as GlobalX, a charter company based in Miami. In the last eight months, the company has transported athletic teams from Arkansas, Kentucky, Houston, Kansas, Marquette, Memphis, Miami, North Carolina and St. John's, among others. During March Madness, GlobalX planes carried the Duke men back from the Final Four and the UConn women home after winning the national title. GlobalX also has ferried professional teams, including Inter Miami CF and its star, Lionel Messi. At the same time, GlobalX has operated more than half of ICE deportation flights. The airline regularly shuttles deportees to Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and elsewhere, sometimes on the same planes that only hours or days earlier carried sports teams. The Trump administration's controversial March 15 deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and more than 200 others to El Salvador involved three GlobalX planes. Two of them carried college basketball teams in the weeks prior. 'When you get asked to do an NCAA flight, you feel lighter,' said a former GlobalX pilot who spoke on the condition he not be identified. 'If your team wins, you get the honor of transporting the winning team. It's just a feeling of accomplishment. For me doing an ICE flight, I don't want to be dramatic and say it's like a death sentence, but I hated it.' Advertisement The system of chartered ICE flights – referred to as ICE Air – has operated for more than a decade, spanning presidential administrations, immigration policies and airlines. The flights have long drawn criticism from human rights advocates, raising concerns about mistreatment of detainees, safety and a lack of transparency. Less spotlighted has been the crossover between GlobalX's sports charters and ICE Air, as universities and sports organizations unwittingly support a company deeply involved in and profiting from deportation flights. 'They may not have known, but now they do, so now they have a choice to make,' said Ann Skeet, a senior director at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. 'They need to think about the purpose of their organization and their mission, and whether or not using a charter service that also serves ICE is consistent with their mission.' GlobalX and ICE didn't respond to emailed questions. Only 10 of 20 universities responded to requests for comment from The Athletic about flights their teams took on GlobalX in recent months. The schools willing to speak about the matter said they were unaware that the planes they were on were also used to deport people. Memphis, for one, said in a statement: 'The University of Memphis uses multiple sources to charter athletic flights and have no knowledge of their customer base.' Many schools and coaches declined to address the issue at all; several feared potential retaliation given the Trump administration's targeting of some universities. The first GlobalX revenue flight took off in August 2021. A slogan on the airline's website promised: 'You can't beat the eXperience.' The company soon became a major player in the sports charter business as its fleet expanded to more than a dozen. Past clients include professional basketball and football teams, a national soccer team, a major cricket tournament and an array of college sports teams. 'We do fly some of the biggest stars in professional sports, in soccer and some of the top – I think 10 of the top 20 college basketball teams for this season,' Ryan Goepel, the company's president and chief financial officer, said during an earnings call in March. Advertisement GlobalX provided four dedicated aircraft for the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments this year as part of a contract worth at least $5 million, continuing a years-long relationship with the NCAA. March Madness travel is organized through the NCAA's charter program. Third-party brokers usually arrange travel for college teams during the regular season. In response to questions from The Athletic about GlobalX, the NCAA issued a statement that didn't address them: 'The NCAA contracts only with safe and regulated charter plane vendors that maintain specified certifications, high ratings on reliable scales and meet insurance standards. The approval process for vendors is rigorous. We are not aware of any instances of sub-standard service on any charter flights during this championship season.' A promotional video for sports charters on the GlobalX website earlier this year featured gourmet snacks, a grinning flight crew and spacious seats, complete with pillows, blankets and Fiji bottled water. A company brochure described its charter flights as 'the ultimate in flexibility, convenience, and luxury' and 'your ticket to wherever you want, whenever you want.' 'They were great flights, they are all excited about playing and having fun,' a second former GlobalX pilot said of the sports charters. 'That was one part of GlobalX's business model. The other part was the deportations.' Tom Cartwright, an immigration advocate who tracks ICE flights, first noted ICE's use of GlobalX in late 2021. GlobalX announced a five-year contract in August 2024 worth $65 million per year as a subcontractor to CSI Aviation for the flights. Cartwright estimates that from March through May of this year, GlobalX operated 64 percent of total ICE Air flights and 62 percent of deportation flights. Most adult passengers are required to be 'fully restrained' with 'handcuffs, waist chains, and leg irons,' according to the ICE Air Operations handbook. Carry-on items like books aren't allowed. Detainees can't wear belts, hats or shoelaces. 'They're in conditions that you would see in a POW camp,' said the first former GlobalX pilot. Advertisement An Airbus A320 with the tail number N291GX joined the GlobalX fleet last year, and its usage in recent months illustrates the disparate worlds the airline straddles. That plane carried San Diego State, Maryland, Kentucky and Auburn during the NCAA Tournament. In the two months preceding March Madness, N291GX flew dozens of times with flight numbers and destinations that match ICE Air routes. The plane traveled from Alexandria, La., to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, then onto Comayagua, Honduras. The Honduran foreign minister tweeted a photo of the aircraft. ICE later announced that 177 detained migrants from Venezuela had been flown from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras, where a Venezuelan plane picked them up. En un trabajo conjunto, por instrucciones de la Presidenta @XiomaraCastroZ en cooperación con los y la República Bolivariana Venezuela con quienes Honduras tiene relaciones diplomáticas, con la labor de @Sedenahn @riximga @CancilleriaHN se realizan Acciones Humanitarias… — Enrique Reina (@EnriqueReinaHN) February 20, 2025 Another trip deported 157 migrants from El Paso, Texas, to Tapachula, Mexico. Local media reported that passengers had been 'handcuffed and shackled from the waist to the feet and hands.' The plane flew from El Paso to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, using a flight number associated with ICE Air. The airport is a regular destination for deportation flights. The next day, March 17, the same plane carried the San Diego State men's basketball team to Dayton, Ohio, and on March 19, it flew the Maryland men to Seattle. The plane traveled to San Salvador, El Salvador on another trip using a flight number associated with ICE Air, then, a week later, on April 2, ferried the Auburn men's basketball team to San Antonio International Airport for the Final Four, where a mariachi group and dancers in bright dresses greeted them in a hangar. Another GlobalX plane – tail number N278GX – landed in San Salvador on Jan. 29, according to flight records and local media reports. More than 80 deportees were aboard. A reporter for El Diario de Hoy photographed the red wrists of one of the passengers and wrote they 'show signs of having been handcuffed for hours.' Two days later, the Kansas State men's basketball team flew from Manhattan, Kan., to Des Moines, Iowa, aboard the same plane in advance of a game against Iowa State in Ames, Iowa. (In a statement, Kansas State said it has been 'pleased' with GlobalX's 'aircraft and service.') Advertisement Also on Jan. 29, a different GlobalX plane with the tail number N837VA ferried 40 deportees to San Pedro Sula. 'They brought me in chains from last night until we arrived here. We're not criminals,' one of the passengers, Dagoberto Portillo, told local media. 'I don't understand the treatment of migrants.' Three days later, the Nebraska men's basketball team traveled aboard the same plane from Lincoln, Neb., to Eugene, Ore. The university said in a statement that the school wasn't 'involved in how that plane was received or procured.' Another GlobalX plane with the tail number N276GX landed at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, on Jan. 24 with 88 Brazilian deportees. Someone activated the aircraft's emergency exit slides. Photos and videos recorded a chaotic scene where shackled passengers stood on a wing and others roamed the tarmac. Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs derided 'the use of handcuffs and chains' and 'undignified treatment' on the flight. 'The most difficult moment was when the air conditioning broke down in the air, people started to feel sick, some fainted and children were crying,' Kaleb Barbosa, one of the passengers, told the Brazilian media outlet G1. 'The turbines were stopping during the flight; it was desperate, like something out of a movie.' The same plane carried the men's basketball teams from Arkansas and Houston in the previous two months, amid a stream of deportation trips. Those didn't stop. Neither did the sports flights. On May 13, the plane transported the Miami track and field team to the Atlantic Coast Conference outdoor championships in Winston-Salem, N.C. Miami's men's and women's basketball teams and baseball team also have flown GlobalX this year. The university didn't respond to a request for comment. A higher-profile Miami team is featured on GlobalX's Instagram account. The airline shuttled Messi and the rest of Inter Miami CF to preseason matches in Peru and Honduras this year in addition to a match in Kansas City. Inter Miami also didn't respond to a request for comment. Advertisement When Inter Miami arrived at Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport in San Pedro Sula on Feb. 8, fire trucks shot arcs of water over the plane with the tail number N281GX. Photographers snapped pictures of players, including Messi, walking down the passenger stairs. Contrast that with a flight that same plane made into San Pedro Sula on Dec. 4. Deportees, some of them with children, were photographed as they walked the tarmac. Behind them was the plane they traveled on, 'GlobalX' written in giant blue letters across its fuselage. 'On the one hand, you have the low-end flights for people, which are basically shackled in the sky,' said Angelina Godoy, director of the University of Washington's Center for Human Rights and author of a 2022 study about ICE Air, 'and then you have the other end, the very high-end flights, with these corporate logos and everything on the plane and the athletes in there looking great … and it's the same damn (plane).' (Graphics: Drew Jordan / The Athletic) (Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Sarah Stier, Orlando Sierra / Getty Images, Moises Castillo, Larry MacDougal / AP Photo)
Washington Post
6 hours ago
- Washington Post
Zaltos, Mantzouranis go 1-2 in hammer to help Minnesota take lead in NCAA track championships
EUGENE, Ore. — Kostas Zaltos won the NCAA hammer throw and fellow Greek thrower Angelos Mantzouranis was second to help Minnesota take the Day 1 lead at the outdoor track and field championships Wednesday. Zaltos and Mantzouranis are the first teammates to go 1-2 in the NCAA hammer throw since Virginia Tech did it in 2011. Zaltos won with a throw of 256 feet, 2 inches in the fourth round to become the first Minnesota outdoor champion since 2018 and just the third since 1971. Mantzouranis, who finished third as a freshman last year, had a personal-best 252-6.
