* The Champaign Room…

For the second time in four years, Your Fighting Illini are the Big Ten Tournament Champions, beating Wisconsin for the eighth-straight time overall on Sunday in Minneapolis, 93-87.

Much like the previous two victories at Target Center, the Illini came back from a double-digit deficit to beat a third sizzling-hot team in as many days. […]

Unlike the previous BTT Championship in 2021 with Ayo and Kofi, this particular set of victories did not FEEL like relief, it felt more like inevitability.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a weird thing to FEEL for a lifelong fan of this state university. Inevitability is always a negative emotion or foreboding of catastrophe just around the corner.

* AP…

Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 34 points on 15-for-17 shooting from the free-throw line, helping 13th-ranked Illinois outlast Wisconsin 93-87 in Big Ten tournament championship game on Sunday. […]

Shannon finished with 102 points in three games this weekend, one short of the Big Ten Tournament scoring record, and was voted the Most Outstanding Player. Keegan Murray had 103 points for Iowa in 2022, but the Hawkeyes played four games that year on the way to the title.

After celebrating in a shower of orange-and-blue confetti and cutting down the nets at Target Center, the Illini hustled to a side room for the NCAA Tournament selection show to learn they’re the No. 3 seed in the East Region, with a first-round game at 2:10 p.m. Thursday (truTV) against No. 14 Morehead State. […]

Illinois, the winningest team in the Big Ten over the last five seasons, has its most victories since a 26-win team in 2005-06.

* News-Gazette…

“When you’re part of something that’s really special — and that’s this league — when you accomplish something like this, you don’t take it for granted,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “To come here and have three games that were all a little bit different and then have the confetti fall at the end, I couldn’t be prouder of these guys. I’m glad they get to experience that feeling and hoist that trophy.” […]

Before the trophy was hoisted and the confetti fell, Marcus Domask knew exactly who he wanted to celebrate with first. Terrence Shannon Jr. was in the sights of the Southern Illinois transfer the entire time.

“I ran over to TJ,” Domask said. “What he did this tournament was unbelievable. He put us on his back and carried us. I went to TJ first, and then everybody was just jumping around and it’s a celebration.

“It was the reason I came to Illinois. I came to Illinois to win championships. That was pretty much all me and coach talked about in the portal. Who was going to be on the team. How we were going to win championships. That was the main thing I was looking for.”

* Illini Now…

Illinois guard Terrence Shannon was greeted with a chant from the Wisconsin fans each time he went to the foul line during Sunday’s Big Ten title game.

A section of the Badgers fans would chant “No Means No” as Shannon prepared to shoot. It was in reference to Shannon facing rape allegations stemming from an incident last September.

According to Brian Hamilton of The Athletic, the Big Ten has since stopped the chant. It was caught early in the first half.

* More…

* The Intelligencer | Illini earn No. 3 seed in NCAA Tournament: Illinois is the No. 3 seed in the East region and will open their NCAA Tournament run against No. 14 seed Morehead State (26-8) in the first round at 2:10 p.m. Thursday in Omaha, Neb., at CHI Health Center Omaha. Illinois is one of three Big Ten teams – and one of 14 teams nationally – to earn a bid in each of the last four NCAA Tournaments.

* WCIA | Illinois wins second Big Ten Tournament Title in four years: “You just get chills honestly, especially myself growing up in the Midwest, an Indiana boy, you know you grow up watching college basketball your whole life,” junior Luke Goode said. “Watching people cut down the nets and having the opportunity to be in those shoes is something people will always remember.”