The Illinois Fighting Illini play the Michigan Wolverines on Friday in the quarterfinals of the 2014 Big Ten Men's Tournament. Tipoff is at 12:00 p.m. ET. Listen to the live radio broadcast or watch the live stream via the links provided below.
No. 8 Michigan ended the regular season on a five-game winning streak, including an 84-80 win against Indiana in the finale. The Wolverines' 23-7 record earned them the Big Ten regular-season title and a quarterfinal berth in the league tournament.
Despite the accolades, which include Michigan sophomore guard Nik Stauskas winning the Big Ten's Player of the Year award, the Wolverines feel they haven't received the recognition they deserve.
"I don't think it's disrespect, I just think sometimes we may be just flying under the radar," Stauskas said, via the Associated Press. "We're perfectly fine with that. ...
"I don't think we're the favorite to win this tournament. I don't think anyone really thinks we're going to win, so we still have a chip on our shoulder."
Stauskas leads the team in both scoring (17.4 ppg) and assists (3.4 apg), while sophomore forward Mitch McGary leads the team in rebounding with 8.3 rebounds per game.
Illinois, meanwhile, finished the regular season winning four of their last five games, including an upset win in the regular-season finale against Iowa. Illinois' only defeat during that span came against Michigan on March 4 in an 84-53 blowout loss.
"I think our group is pretty tough. They got to understand that that was two games ago," Illinois coach John Groce said. "(Friday's) game could be a completely different type of game. It's a separate entity within itself. We've got to play well."
The Fighting Illini (19-13) dealt Indiana a 64-54 loss on Thursday to earn a spot in the Big Ten quarterfinals.
Listen to the live radio broadcast HERE (ILL) and HERE (MICH), or watch the live stream HERE.
