CHICAGO — One by one the higher-seeded teams kept falling in the Big Ten tournament, leading into Thursday night’s Illinois-Penn State game at the United Center.
The lower seeds had won the first four games for the first time in tournament history, giving the seventh-seeded Illini pause before they faced the 10th-seeded Nittany Lions, who already had beaten them convincingly twice in conference play.
Would the underdogs continue their roll, or could the Illini bring some sanity back to the tournament?