[12] The Los Angeles Athletic Club released its annual preseason John R. Wooden Award watch list on November 13.

The list was composed of 50 student athletes who, based on 2007–08's individual performance and team records, were the early frontrunners for college basketball's most coveted trophy.

[14] On December 18, the Atlanta Tipoff Club released its annual early season Naismith College Player of the Year award watch list.

[23] Minnesota, was successful in the 4-team National Association of Basketball Coaches Classic with a win over Georgia State Panthers in the championship game.

[27] Michigan State's win against Texas gave the Big Ten half of the nation's first six victories over top five teams.

[33][34] Illinois' January 14 victory over Michigan made it the thirteenth team in NCAA Division I history and second (after Indiana) in the Big Ten to achieve 1600 wins.

[35][36] On January 21, Northwestern snapped the third-longest home-court winning streak in the nation when it stopped Michigan State from earning its 29th straight home victory.

[37][39] As January ended, the conference enjoyed its fourth consecutive week as the leader in the RPI strength of schedule.

[40][41] At the midpoint of the conference schedule at the beginning of February, the Big Ten had the highest Sagarin Rating central mean score.

On February 5, the Big Ten became one of six conferences to have multiple players selected as John R. Wooden Award 2008–09 Midseason Top 30 Candidates.

[66] On February 26, Turner became the only Big Ten player selected by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association as a Top 15 finalist for the Oscar Robertson Trophy.

[69][70] Northwestern's Sterling Williams who was a graduate student with a Communication Studies major had a perfect Winter GPA.

[69] These student-athletes were eligible to be named Distinguished Scholar Awardees if they maintained a 3.7 GPA for the entire academic year.

The selection on this list were then eligible for the State Farm Coaches' Division I All-America teams announced at the 2009 NABC Convention in Detroit.

On March 10, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association released its 2008–09 Men's All-District Teams, based on voting from its national membership.

To be nominated, a student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at his/her current institution.

[76] Penn State's Danny Morrissey was a District 2 first-team 2009 Academic All-District Men's Basketball Team selection.

[78] Brett Finkelmeier, IND, Jamal Abu-Shamala, MINN, Sterling Williams, NU, and Mark Wohlford, PUR represented men's basketball as awardees.

[80] Battle, Hummel, and Turner were selected to represent the United States in the 2009 World University Games July 2–11 in Belgrade, Serbia.

John Shurna was named to the United States' team for the 2009 FIBA Under-19 World championship held July 2–12 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Overall, the Big Ten could return 80.5 percent of its offensive production from 2008 to 2009, and no team should lose more than half of its total scoring unit next year.

(NCAA-wide ranking) in parentheses for top 40 performers Source: Fox Sports #3 Purdue defeated #5 Ohio State in the 2009 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament championship game by a 65–61 margin.

[94] The All-Big Ten tournament team honorees were Boilermakers Robbie Hummel (Most Outstanding Player), JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore, Buckeye Evan Turner and Mike Davis of Illinois.

He was joined by teammates Kalin Lucas and Travis Walton on the NCAA tournament All-Midwest Regional team.

The following players were selected in the 2009 NBA draft ^ a: Goran Suton was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 2006.