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?
In a wild game before a predominantly orange-clad crowd on the West Side, the Illini lost, 79-76.
Penn State advances to Friday night’s quarterfinal game against second-seeded Northwestern.
In a game that had a little bit of everything, the Illini overcame a 10-point first-half deficit and were on a miniroll with 14 minutes, 18 seconds left in the second half when Dain Dainja head-butted Penn State’s Myles Dread after scoring on a fast break and getting fouled.
It was an inadvertent head-butt made during an impromptu celebration of his basket when Dainja didn’t notice Dread was right next to him.
But a head-butt is a head-butt, and after a video review, Dainja was called for a flagrant foul. Dainja hit his free throw, but Penn State guard Andrew Funk also hit his two free throws for the tech and followed with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 46-45, taking away the Illini momentum.
Whether it was a turning point was debatable. But it certainly heated up the crowd, which was already percolating from the intensity generated by Coleman Hawkins’ play.
The Illini and Nittany Lions traded blows for a while when Dainja used the glass on a baby hook shot at the 8:05 mark. The sophomore big man wisely held his hand up in the air and pointed without any crazy gyrations, then completed a three-point play to put the Illini back up 56-55.
But Penn State went on another run and took an eight-point lead on Funk’s fifth 3-pointer of the night with 3:42 left.
The Illini knew they had to get out to a strong start, especially after their much-publicized problems putting themselves in holes in the first halves.
“Our starts haven’t been good,” star Terrence Shannon Jr. said earlier this week. “We haven’t played a full 40-minute game against a good team all year. If we play the way we play in the second half for a full 40 minutes, I don’t think anybody can beat us in the country.”
That might be the case, but until they do it, we’ll never know. They trailed Penn State by 10 points a little over 12 minutes into the game but managed to cut the deficit to 31-30 by the end of the half despite shooting 34.3% and going 3 for 14 (21.4 %) from beyond the arc.
The Illini seemed content to go inside early against the Nittany Lions’ wings and didn’t hit an outside shot until eight minutes in, when Luke Goode made a steal and calmly hit a 3-pointer. Illinois started 6 for 18 from the field before Shannon knocked down a 3 at the 9:42 mark of the first half.
Shannon and Matthew Mayer, their two biggest offensive threats, were mostly absent in the first half. Shannon had five points on 2-of-6 shooting, while Mayer scored seven points in the first 3 1/2 minutes and was then shut out the rest of the way.
Penn State star Jalen Pickett scored 41 against the Illini in their last meeting, and Illinois coach Brad Underwood knew containing Pickett would be one of the keys to the game. Pickett is the only player in the country averaging 18 or more points, seven or more rebounds and seven or more assists.
“I think if Zach (Edey) wasn’t the MVP of our league, Pickett would be,” Underwood said Tuesday. “We’ve not guarded him very well.”
The Illini managed to keep Pickett from breaking out early, but Penn State guards Camron Wynter and Seth Lundy combined to score 21 first half points to pick up the slack.
In the first two days of the tournament, the Big Ten has put the “mad” in March Madness with all the early upsets. No one seemed too surprised by any of them.
“I think it speaks to the depth of the league, which we all know really well,” Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said after the 13th-seeded Buckeyes pulled off their second tournament upset with a four-point win over No. 5 Iowa. “The league is really deep and balanced.”
Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell echoed that thought after beating Michigan earlier Thursday, saying no team can go into a Big Ten game with the feeling it can roll over the opposition, no matter who they are playing.
“So you just stay the course and keep fighting and know that you could beat anybody and know that you could lose to anybody,” he said. “That’s the kind of league it is.”
If we didn’t know that before the Big Ten tournament, we certainly know it now.
No one is safe.
