Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor was a late addition to the NBA Combine, but he’ll join Illinois’ Meyers Leonard, Michigan State’s Draymond Green, Ohio State’s William Buford and Jared Sullinger and Purdue’s Robbie Hummel at the event June 6-8 in Chicago (see the full list of players). The combine is a great way for players to make last-minute improvements to their draft stock, and that’s exactly what these guys will try to do. The 2012 NBA Draft is June 28.

The Crossroads Classic, a one-day event featuring a doubleheader between Butler, Indiana, Notre Dame and Purdue’s men’s basketball teams, isn’t going anywhere. On Tuesday, athletic directors of the four schools agreed to a two-year extension to keep one of college basketball’s premier nonconference events at Bankers Life Fieldhouse through 2014.

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.

Monday was a busy day in terms of player activity across the Big Ten. It started with good news, that being Trevor Mbakwe would return to Minnesota for the 2012-13 season. Moments later, Purdue announced John Hart was transferring, followed by Ohio State releasing the same news about J.D. Weatherspoon. Watch one of Weatherspoon’s best highlights as a Buckeye now and read about his and Hart’s decisions to leave in this post.