Five bold Big Ten predictions heading into the new year

Big Ten conference play is officially underway.

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With the new year approaching, I came up with five bold Big Ten men's basketball predictions for 2016.

Ready? Here we go.

1. Seven Big Ten teams will make the NCAA tournament, including Northwestern.

2. Indiana will finish in the Top 4 of the conference and will make it to the Elite Eight. My apologies to the Hoosier fans who for some reason don?t want to see that.

3. A.J. Hammons will emerge as the most dominant center in the country and will be the first Big Ten player taken in the 2016 NBA Draft.

4. Maryland will finish Big Ten play as the No. 1 team in the nation.

5. Illinois will be the spoiler in the Big Ten this season. With strong guard play and an ?against all odds? mentality due to injury, the Illini will have too many bad losses to earn an NCAA tourney berth, but they will spoil other Big Ten teams? pursuit.

And don't forget: This Saturday, BTN airs five straight live men's basketball games – call it back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back Big Ten basketball coverage. As with all of our live TV programming, all five games will be live on BTN2Go, too.

Here are the games with links to watch live on BTN2Go (all times ET): Penn State at Michigan, noon; Rutgers at Wisconsin, 2 p.m.; Indiana at Nebraska, 4 p.m.; Iowa at Purdue, 6 p.m.; Maryland at Northwestern, 8 p.m..

Follow BTN on Twitter and Facebook for more information leading up to the #BingeOnBTN Saturday, or check out our Big Ten men's basketball schedule and scoreboard.

Watch our Big Ten men's basketball playlist on YouTube!