[1] The season commenced on October 14 when Michigan State and Minnesota celebrated Midnight Madness and three more conference schools hosted events on the 15th.

Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana hosted the Big Ten tournament from March 8–March 11.

Three teams (Iowa, Minnesota, and Northwestern) received bids to the National Invitation Tournament.

Other preseason All-Big Ten first team selections were Draymond Green, Trevor Mbakwe, Robbie Hummel, and Jordan Taylor.

[1] 5 of the 30 nominees for the men's basketball Lowe's Senior CLASS Award were from the Big Ten: Michigan's Zack Novak, Michigan State's Green, Ohio State's William Buford, Purdue's Hummel and Wisconsin's Taylor.

[1] Trey Burke, Aaron Craft, Tim Frazier, Lewis Jackson and Jordan Taylor are five of the nearly 60 Bob Cousy Award candidates named in December.

[13] William Buford, Draymond Green, Jared Sullinger, and Cody Zeller were included on the 25-man Wooden Midseason list on January 17.

[14] Novak, Green, Buford and Hummel were among the 10 finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award on January 25.

[15] On February 6, Green, Sullinger and Zeller were included on the 20-player Oscar Robertson Trophy midseason watch list.

[17] On March 1, Zeller, Green, Sullinger and Taylor were named to the 30-player midseason Naismith Award watchlist.

[26] Michigan needed a March 4 victory over Penn State to clinch its share of the Big Ten regular season championship.

Throughout the conference regular season, the Big Ten offices named a player of the week each Monday.

On January 17, Brandon Paul was named national player of the week by the United States Basketball Writers Association.

The selection on this list were then eligible for the State Farm Coaches' Division I All-America teams.

On March 6, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association released its 2011–12 Men's All-District Teams, based upon voting from its national membership.

[59] Green and Sullinger were also first team All-American selections by the United States Basketball Writers Association.

Trey Burke, Robbie Hummel, Jordan Taylor, John Shurna, and Cody Zeller were honorable mention selections.

[66] 41 men's basketball players in their second year or beyond earned Academic All-Big Ten recognition for carrying a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.

Spartan Brandon Wood, Minnesota's Andre Hollins and Ohio State's Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas were also on the all-tournament team.

The Big Ten matched its conference best and for 2012 national lead with four Sweet Sixteen participants (Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State Wisconsin) and was the only conference with multiple entrants to have half its teams make the Elite Eight round.