Illinois Will Take The Big Ten Tournament

Wisconsin vs. Illinois, 3:30 ET

You can only describe what happened yesterday as a wild occurrence. We had multiple top-seeded options take a tumble as North Carolina, Houston, and Purdue all fell before they could win their conference championships. That doesn't complicate the brackets too terribly much if we are being honest. Houston and Purdue have done enough to be #1 seeds in the big dance, but North Carolina was on the cusp, so maybe they drop down to a #2 seed. Either way, it was chaotic and I didn't do well with my picks (heck, I had an over and the two teams combined for score eight points in the first nine minutes of the game). It was the first poor game in a while. I'm looking for a little revenge before we get a short break and the NCAA Tournament comes back into full swing as we put a play on the Big 10 Tournament Final between Wisconsin and Illinois.

I wrote about Wisconsin a few days ago, so I'll try and recap a few things that I mentioned about them, but don't want to be overly repetitive. I've been saying this most of the season: There are three Big 10 teams that I think are legitimate squads; Purdue, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The first two are obvious as they've been ranked the entire year. The third one though hasn't received as much recognition or fanfare. Afterall, they went just 11-9 in Big 10 games, and lost all three games to Purdue and Illinois. Yesterday, Wisconsin was able to get a bit of revenge as they took down Purdue in overtime. The fact that they were able to do that is remarkable. Here are some numbers from the game: 43.2%, 21.9%, 5-of-9, 32. That's the field goal percentage, three-point percentage, free throw amount, and rebounds for Wisconsin. Look at what Purdue had in the game: 45.1%, 31.3%, 24-32, 46. And, somehow Wisconsin was able to win that game. They mainly did it with turnovers as Purdue had 16 to Wisconsin's five. Wisconsin also took 23 more shot attempts than Purdue in the contest. Perhaps one additional reason they were able to win was that they kept the offensive rebound battle to basically even, so those turnovers became even more important. 

MADISON, WISCONSIN - MARCH 02: Tyler Wahl #5 of the Wisconsin Badgers drives to the basket in the second half of the game against the Illinois Fighting Illini at Kohl Center on March 02, 2024 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)

Illinois has put together a very nice season and is currently sitting at 25-8, going 14-6 in conference play. If we are being critical of the team they dropped a few battles with Maryland, Northwestern, and Penn State that they probably should've won. There was also a game against Michigan State that they could've pulled out. If we want to be a little more objective, the team has been in essentially every game they've played this season with none of their losses coming by more than nine points. After a bit of a scare against Ohio State in the opener of the tournament they were able to rebound with ease yesterday against Nebraska and made it here to face Wisconsin. The team is build around a strong guard, Terrence Shannon Jr. who is averaging 22.6 points, and then a bunch of floor-spacing forwards that are also solid rebounds and good down low. That's an area that Wisconsin actually excels in so this should be a fairly good battle. In their only matchup this year, Marcus Domask was able to pour in 31 points for the Illini and made life tough for the Badgers. Still Wisconsin had four players score in double figures. 

In order to win this game, you'll probably need to look towards role players. I do think the edge in starters goes to the Illini as there isn't really anyone on the Bagers that is as offensively gifted as Shannon Jr. However, if the forwards for Illinois can't get going, there is an edge for the Badgers to be had. Yesterday might've been Wisconsin's championship though as they knocked off Purdue and had to go to overtime to do it. I'll take Illinois in this one to cover the -3.5. 

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