CHICAGO – The Big Ten has always been a steady contributor to the NBA, and this year is no different with plenty of Big Ten student-athletes officially entering the NBA Draft. BTN will help tell their stories when it airs a special NBA Draft Preview edition of the Big Ten Basketball Report at 9 p.m. ET Friday. The 30-minute special will include interviews with some of the Big Ten’s top draft entrants and also will give viewers an inside look at the draft process.

Many experts have Indiana atop their way-too-early 2012-13 men’s basketball polls. Here’s another accolade for the Hoosiers: ESPN.com ranks the Indiana job as the top position in the Big Ten (see the complete rankings). It’s amazing how fast a program can reclaim its status, isn’t it? What do you think is the best job in the Big Ten? Cast your vote on the poll inside or leave your thoughts in the comment box at the bottom of the post.

As many of our online readers know, we post plenty of video clips throughout the year ranging from our popular “Did You See This?‘ feature to bonus Internet-only footage from shows like “The Journey 2012.” Over the past school year we also beefed up some extra video goodies, including a BTN Video Facebook page and school-specific Twitter accounts powered by a steady streams of BTN video. Or you can just bookmark this BTN video page and watch it all roll on through every day.

ESPN released the pairings for the 2012 ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Monday afternoon. The Big Ten has won the past three events, including a resounding 8-4 victory last season, this after losing each of the first 10 years. The 12-game Challenge will be played Nov. 27-28 this season. Check out all the matchups, get your Challenge history and see BTN.com Brent Yarina’s predictions in this post.

Every year, players who weren’t big-time contributors one season become just that the very next. For example, there was Meyers Leonard last year and Darius Morris two seasons ago. Get BTN.com Brent Yarina’s early top five 2012-13 breakout candidates in this post.