A portion of Big Ten history comes to a close in Minneapolis this week, as the league ends its 14-team era.

UCLA, USC, Washington and Oregon join soon, forever changing the landscape of the B1G as the league expands to 18. It’ll bring changes to the Big Ten Tournament, namely that only 15 of the conference’s 18 teams will be invited starting next season. So perhaps that’ll make this tourney one to remember.

Let’s take a look at 7 big predictions for the last-of-its-kind Big Ten Tournament:

Thursday’s early game … will be the Tournament’s best

The most intriguing game of the tournament’s first 2 days is the morning tip-off on Thursday in Minneapolis, pinning hometown Minnesota, the 9-seed, vs. 8th-seeded Michigan State. A lot is at stake. The Gophers have taken a huge leap forward this season under coach Ben Johnson, but are short of the necessary marquee wins to be in consideration for the NCAA Tournament, particularly after a home loss to Indiana in the 2nd-to-last game of the season helped to prevent them from finishing .500 in the league.

Now, Minnesota will likely need a deep Big Ten Tournament run to be part of the conversation on Selection Sunday, not only beating Michigan State but likely Purdue on Friday, then whoever it’ll face on Saturday. Even then, the Gophers might be forced to just win the whole thing for the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA.

But the Spartans will put up a fight on Thursday, for sure. Michigan State, at 18-13 overall, 10-10 in the conference, is likely still on the right side of the bubble, but a win might help lessen their Selection Sunday nerves. The Spartans have put themselves in this position, a rarity under Coach Tom Izzo, who has guided them to 25 straight NCAA Tournament appearances, by losing 4 of 5 in the past 3 weeks.

This could turn out to be the game of the Tournament.

Welcome to the Keisei Show

Keisei Tominaga might be heating up at the right time for Nebraska.

The senior guard is certainly a showman and will love the spotlight of this week’s Big Ten Tournament. Plus, the second-team All-Big Ten performance is coming off a big-time game in Nebraska’s season-finale at Michigan, when he scored 30 points on 12-of-17 shooting, including 5-of-8 from 3-point range.

If Tominaga stays hot this month — he’s averaging 24 in Nebraska’s 2 games in March — then opponents watch out. Look for him to keep it going in the Twin Cities, where the Huskers are +700 to start the week at DraftKings).

Howard survives

Michigan (8-23, 3-17) is likely to get booted from the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday, ending what has been one of the worst seasons in program history.

UM, which will play Penn State in Wednesday’s late game, finished dead last in the Big Ten this season, only 2 years after a Sweet 16 run and 3 years after an Elite Eight appearance. It’s left Juwan Howard’s job status in doubt, although indications are the former Fab Five star will get to hang around another year, allowing him to prove that this season was an anomaly. But was it? Michigan has been on a downward turn the past 4 years, from 23 wins to 19 to 18 to 8.

If Howard doesn’t turn the Wolverines around in ’24-25, and in a big way, then he’ll be out the door.

Quiet Wednesday

Double-digit seeds have made noise in past Big Ten Tournaments, perhaps most notably Illinois’ run as the 11-seed (after it finished last in the Big Ten regular-season with only 3 wins) in 1999 or Penn State’s march to the championship last season as the 10-seed.

The gassed Fighting Illini couldn’t finish off the miraculous finish in ’99, losing by 17 to Michigan State in the title game in Chicago, while the Nittany Lions very nearly completed the upset run, losing only by 2 to Purdue to tourney MVP Zach Edey and the Boilermakers last season, also in Chicago’s United Center.

No one from Wednesday’s slate of games — Rutgers-Maryland and Michigan-Penn State — is poised to do anything noteworthy in Minneapolis this week. Maybe only 10 seed Ohio State, which is on a heater of late, can punch out a team or 2. Speaking of …

Run Buckeyes, run

Ohio State is playing like many thought it would all season long. All it took to get the Buckeyes rolling was a coaching change, as they’ve won 5 of 6 since Jake Diebler took over as the interim head coach when Chris Holtmann was fired.

The results since have been a near-180, with Ohio State pushing its way back onto the NCAA Tournament bubble. It’s not as if the Buckeyes have beaten a string of nobodies since Diebler took over, with the string of victories including wins over Purdue, Michigan State and Nebraska. Now, OSU’s record sits at 19-12 overall, 9-11 in the Big Ten — Holtmann was fired after the Buckeyes had lost 9 of their 1st 11 conference games, struggling in the league for a 2nd consecutive year — with a Net Ranking of 55 and 5 wins over Quad 1 and 2 opponents.

But the Buckeyes probably need more, and will get it by scoring upsets over Iowa and Illinois on Thursday and Friday, respectively. It’ll only be a short drive to Dayton for the First Four.

And, if you like the chances of the Buckeyes, fans can find Ohio State at +3500 odds to cut down the nets at DraftKings Ohio. Those looking to get in on the action can utilize Tradition’s Ohio sports betting apps to get started.

Purdue wins it

The Boilermakers have been the best team in the conference — by far — all season, winning the Big Ten by 3 games over 2nd-place Illinois and by 5 games over fellow tournament double-byes Nebraska and Northwestern.

It stands to reason Purdue will win its 2nd straight Big Ten Tournament, completing the sweep of both titles this season and last. It won’t be a cakewalk. If the Boilermakers get Northwestern on Saturday in the semis, then they’ll be taking on the opponent that gave them the most trouble this season, as Purdue lost in Evanston in overtime before beating the Wildcats, again in OT, in West Lafayette. But the injury-riddled NU squad might not be able to put up as quality a fight for Round 3.

If Ohio State can make a run all the way to Sunday — and why not? — then the Buckeyes will have the confidence of knowing they knocked off the Boilermakers in their only regular-season matchup. But Purdue is playing to erase the demons of the past, and will be the one holding the trophy in Minneapolis minutes before the start of Selection Sunday.

Final Four-bound

In 7 years previously, the Big Ten Tournament champion has been in the Final Four a month later.

This season, Purdue will join the ranks of Michigan State (1999, 2000 and 2019), Illinois (2005), Ohio State (2007), Wisconsin (2015) and Michigan (2018). Of course, the Spartans are the last Big Ten national champions, as the Mateen Cleaves-led MSU squad won it all in 2000.