The Indiana Pacers are located in the heart of Big Ten country
No state takes their basketball as seriously as Indiana. From high school to colleges to the Indiana Paers, basketball in Indiana is more than just a game.
It’s been this way for more than a century and likely will not change any time soon. The history and tradition of the Big Ten conference make up a large part of the state’s basketball history.
The state itself is prime real estate for college basketball with storied programs and heated rivalries like the heated Indiana-Purdue matchup taking residence.
Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Illinois all border the state and have their fingerprints all over college basketball history.
Now spreading as far as Maryland and Rutgers to the east and Nebraska to the West, the Big Ten spans across the most basketball-crazed part of the country. The midwest has been producing some of the best basketball talents since the creation of the sport so many decades ago.
The Pacers are the NBA team for the most-basketball crazed state of them all. How was the Big Ten played a role in the team’s history? Here are the best Indiana Pacers players from each Big Ten program.
Note: The Pacers have not had a player from Penn St., Rutgers, or Wisconsin
Best Indiana Pacers Player from Illinois: Donnie Freeman
A member of the last Pacers championship team, Freeman averaged 14.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in his first season with Indiana and helped guide the team to their third and final ABA Championship.
He averaged 14.3 points again the following season, his final with the Pacers. An exciting player during his entire career, Freeman averaged 18.9 points over 648 contests including a career-high 27.4 in 1969-70 with Miami.