Tournament basketball has arrived for the Big Ten Conference.

Ninth-ranked Ohio State earned the No. 5 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, which is set to begin Wednesday before the Buckeyes take the floor on Thursday against the winner of the previous day’s victor between Minnesota and Northwestern.

Behind Second Team All-Big Ten redshirt-junior guard Marcus Carr of the Golden Gophers and redshirt-sophomore guard Chase Audige of the Wildcats, both potential Buckeyes opponents are conference programs of which have given the Buckeyes fits during the 2020-21 season. Both Northwestern and Minnesota offer several players who have impacted their teams’ performances, and many more have done the same for their respective Big Ten teams through a wider lens.

Unanimous All-Big Ten First Team selections senior center Luka Garza of Iowa and junior guard Ayo Dosunmu of Illinois have powered their respective ballclubs to high seeds for the conference tournament, and are undoubtedly players to watch as March Madness gets underway.

Big Ten Freshman of the Year center Hunter Dickinson of top-seeded Michigan represents another impact player who could help the Wolverines win their third Big Ten Tournament in the last five seasons, and it’s clear Indiana sophomore forward and All-Big Ten First Team by the media Trayce Jackson-Davis and Rutgers junior forward and Third Team All-Big Ten Ron Harper Jr. will channel next-level determination to propel an upset as the bracket unfolds.

MORE: Surprises, snubs and takeaways from the All-Big Ten awards

BuckeyeGrove took a look at each of the 14 rosters and chose three players to keep an eye on come time to tip-off the Big Ten Tournament.

Ohio State fans know all too well that even as a freshman, Purdue guard Jaden Ivey has developed a penchant for ripping out the still-beating hearts of Big Ten opponents with regularity.

That’s exactly what the South Bend, Indiana, native did to the Buckeyes in his second meeting with the Scarlet and Gray this season, coming off the bench to put up 15 points, including a stepback 3 from the top of the arc with five seconds remaining that proved to be the game-winner for the Boilermakers.

That Jan. 19 shot showed gusto and poise beyond his years, and Ivey has been inserted into Matt Painter’s starting lineup ever since.

Ivey added 7.2 points per game to the Purdue scoring total when coming off the bench for the first 11 games, but since becoming a starter, that’s nearly doubled to 13.2 in the last 10 contests.

It’s what he’s been doing during Purdue’s current five-game win streak that earns him a place on this list though, as the class of 2020’s No. 79 overall prospect is putting up 15 points per game with vastly improved percentages from both inside the 3-point line and out.

Just a 39.2 percent shooter from the floor this season, Ivey’s hitting at 48.1 percent in the last five games. From 3-point range, Ivey has upped his season percentage of 22.1 to 30.4. Even his free throw shooting has seen a marked uptick, improving from .738 to .857 over this stretch.

In his first 16 games, Ivey had never put together more than two double-digit scoring performances in a row. In the past five games, he’s notched double figures every time out.

The second gear that Ivey has hit heading into postseason play makes him an easy pick for a “players to watch” list, and especially for the Buckeyes. If Ohio State makes it past its opening test on Thursday, Ivey and the Boilermakers will be waiting in the wings for a third matchup with the Scarlet and Gray this season.

As Duane Washington Jr. goes, so does Ohio State.

The high-volume, high-scoring junior guard has been an enigma over the course of his career in Columbus. At his best, Washington can carry the Buckeyes to victory with his polished skills and microwave-like tendencies.

Unfortunately, the flip side of that is often true as well-- Washington has more than proven himself capable of trying to do a little too much in close games, as Ohio State fans have surely been reminded this season.

The Michigan native, recently named Third Team All-Big Ten, is averaging 15.3 points and 2.8 assists per game this season. Despite shooting less than 40 percent from the field, Washington has connected on 71 3-pointers (No. 2 in the Big Ten) at a 36.5 percent clip through 26 games.

For better or worse, Washington always leaves his mark.

He scored 30 in Ohio State's top-5 battle with Michigan, strung together a series of 3-pointers to keep his side alive in what would become a massive victory over Rutgers, and made two huge shots to keep the Buckeyes from sleepwalking into a loss against Penn State.

On the flip side, the 6-foot-3 guard also turned the ball over five times in a loss to Purdue, shot 0-for-5 in the final four minutes against Illinois in Ohio State's final regular season game, and has posted seven Big Ten games with a field goal percentage of 30 or lower.

To put it simply, you never truly know what you're going to get with Duane Washington, but when the games matter most, you know you're going to get something.

For the sake of Chris Holtmann's health, hopefully that "something" is a positive this postseason.

Talk about a midseason turnaround.

Entering Feb. 3, the Michigan State Spartans were 8-7 and on a four-game losing streak, in dire need for a boost.

Junior forward Aaron Henry had scored 24 points during the Spartans' 84-78 loss on Feb. 2, and followed with 16- and 20-point performances in the next two games to set Michigan State on track to win seven of their final 11 games - including wins over No. 2 Michigan, No. 4 Ohio State and No. 5 Illinois.

Henry will enter the Big Ten Tournament averaging a conference eighth-best 15.5 points per game on the heels of an 18-point, 5-rebound regular-season finale upset over the second-ranked Wolverines.

The Indianapolis native will also bring a 13-game streak of double-digit scoring to the conference tournament, shooting 46.5% in that span.

The Spartans' co-captain was also named Big Ten Conference Player of the Week on Monday, and was named to the Third Team All-Big Ten on Tuesday in addition to earning a selection to the All-Defensive Team.

Perhaps no team other than Michigan State enters the conference tournament with more momentum. Twenty-sixth-year head coach Tom Izzo is plenty familiar with the Big Ten Tournament, having won four in the last nine seasons, including most-recently in 2019.

Henry's recent production has helped garner the Spartans into the NCAA Tournament conversation, and a strong performance in the Big Ten bracket could turn heads.