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The conference has had basketball since the 1905/1906 season (117 seasons complete, 2022/23 is #118). 

I was looking at league titles and it is remarkable to me how clustered they are for most teams.  Here are total league titles:

• 24 Purdue - last in 2019
• 22 Indiana - last in 2016
• 20 Wisconsin - last in 2022
• 20 Ohio State - last in 2012
• 18 Illinois - last in 2022
• 16 Michigan State - last in 2020
• 15 Michigan - last in 2021
• 8 Iowa - last in 1979
• 8 Minnesota - last in 1982
• 6 Chicago - last in 1924
• 2 Northwestern - last in 1933
• 1 Maryland - last in 2020

Purdue, 24 league titles:
The Boilermakers won their first league title in the sport's sixth year, 1911.  In the 30 years from then through 1940 they won 13 titles (nearly half of their total).  That is a rate of nearly one every other year.  then they went 28 years (1941-1968) with no titles at all and 38 years (1941-1978) with just one title.  From 1979 through 2019 they won 10 titles in 41 years, a rate of roughly one every four years.  So overall, they have two great runs:

• In the 71 years from 1911-1940 and 1979-2019 the Boilermakers have 23 titles, a rate of roughly one every three years. 
• In the other 46 years (1906-1910, 1941-1978, and 2020-2022) they have just one title. 

Indiana, 22 league titles:
The Hoosiers didn't win a title in the first 20 years of BigTen Basketball (1906-1925) and their first three (1926, 1928, and 1933) were all shared with Purdue.  As of the end of the 1951/2 season the Hoosiers had only won three titles in 47 years, a rate of just one roughly every 16 years.  Then they won four in six seasons from 1953-1958 but faded back to irrelevance with just one title in 14 seasons from 1959-1972.  Then Bob Knight won his first in 1973 and ended up winning 11 in 21 years from 1973-1993.  That is half of Indiana's total titles and they won them in roughly one-sixth of the time the league has been playing basketball.  Since 1993 they have just three titles in the 29 years from 1994-2022. 

• In the 27 years from 1953-1958 and 1973-1993 the Hoosiers won 15 titles.  That is a rate of better than one every other year. 
• In the other 90 years of BigTen Basketball the Hoosiers have just seven titles, roughly one every 13 years. 

Wisconsin, 20 league titles:
The Badgers split the second league title (1907) with Minnesota and Chicago then proceeded to win 13 more for a total of 14 in the 41 seasons between 1907 and 1947.  That is a little better than one every three years.  Through 1947 they had the most in the league.  Then they went 54 seasons (1948-2001) without a title.  They have won 6 in the last 21 seasons (2002-2022, almost one every three years. 

• In the 62 seasons from 1907-1947 and 2002-2022 the Badgers won 20 titles, roughly one every three years. 
• In the other 55 years of BigTen Basketball the Badgers have zero titles. 

Ohio State, 20 league titles:
Much like the aforementioned teams, the Buckeyes have two great runs and not much else.  The Buckeyes didn't win any league titles until the 20th season of BigTen Basketball (1925) and then they won titles sporadically through 1959.  At that point the Buckeyes had a total of six titles in 54 seasons, a rate of one every nine years.  Then they won seven in 12 years from 1960-1971.  In the 34 seasons from 1972-2005 the Buckeyes won only two league titles (back-to-back in 1991-1992) then came Matta's run:  The Buckeyes won five league titles in the seven years from 2006-2012 and they haven't won one since. 

• In the 19 years from 1960-1971 and 2005-2012 the Buckeyes won 12 titles, better than one every other year. 
• In the other 90* years that the Buckeyes have been in the league they have won eight titles, roughly one every 11 years. 

*The Buckeyes joined for football for the 1913 season so I'm assuming BB was the same academic year, which would be the 1914 BB season. 


Illinois, 18 league titles:
The Illini are the least concentrated of the leaders.  They had a nice run of five titles in eight years from 1998-2005 but for the most part they've just won a title or two here and there for 117 years at a rate of roughly one every 6-7 years. 

Michigan State, 16 league titles:
First, to be fair to the Spartans I would be remiss not to point out that they didn't join until the 1950's.  Their first league title was a split with Indiana in 1957 and since then they are second in the league with 16 titles.  League titles, 1957-2022 (66 years):

• 17 Indiana - roughly one every four years
• 16 Michigan State - roughly one every four years
• 14 Ohio State - roughly one every five years
• 11 Purdue - one every six years
• 10 Michigan - roughly one every seven years
• 8 Illinois - roughly one every eight years
• 6 Wisconsin - one every 11 years
• 3 Iowa - one every 22 years
• 2 Minnesota - one every 33 years
• 1 Maryland - didn't join until recently

The Spartans joined the league for the 1951 season and from then through 1997 they won six titles in 47 years, a rate of roughly one every eight years.  Then Izzo started winning titles.  From 1998 through 2022 they won 10 in 25 years, a rate of one every 2-3 years. 

Michigan, 15 league titles:
The Wolverines didn't win a league title until the 16th year of BigTen BB although, they were out of the league for football for part of that time so I assume they were for BB as well but I don't know.  Although they do have some runs, they seem less clustered then the teams in front of them save for Illinois.  Their notable runs:

• 4 titles in 9 years from 1921-1929
• 3 straight from 1964-1966

That adds up to almost half of Michigan's titles in just 12 total years so they have just eight titles in the other roughly 100 years that they've been in the league.

Didn't Penn St win a share with the Crispen bros?

No, they upset a loaded UNC team (Forte, Haywood, Peppers, Capel) to get to the 2nd weekend of the tourney, but I don't think they sniffed a Big Ten title

Penn State did make it to the BTT CG once:

• Lost 71-60 to #1 Ohio State as the #6 seed in 2011.

Correction: Minnesota has 9 titles, last in 1997.

My 5 years of undergrad lined up with the last 5 years of the Monson administration. I watched a lot of bad basketball at The Barn. 

Correction: Minnesota has 9 titles, last in 1997.

My 5 years of undergrad lined up with the last 5 years of the Monson administration. I watched a lot of bad basketball at The Barn.

*

(Vacated - Big Ten Strips Minnesota of 1997 Title - ABC News (go.com))

Correction: Minnesota has 9 titles, last in 1997.

My 5 years of undergrad lined up with the last 5 years of the Monson administration. I watched a lot of bad basketball at The Barn.

Correction?

*
(Vacated - Big Ten Strips Minnesota of 1997 Title - ABC News (go.com))

I used the official records.

FWIW, if we counted vacated titles:

• The Gophers would move from eight titles which is tied with Iowa for 8th/9th up to nine titles which would be alone in 8th place trailing #7 Michigan by six titles and leading #9 Iowa by one title.
• The Buckeyes would move from 20 titles which is tied for 3rd/4th to 22 titles which would be tied for 2nd/3rd trailing #1 Purdue by two titles, tied with Indiana, and leading #4 Wisconsin by two titles.

These are regular season titles, which are more meaningful.  But, who am I to judge?

I've always felt that way:

• If your team wins the regular season title, they had a great year.
• If your team wins the tournament title, they had a great weekend.