Big Ten Tournament Week Is Officially Here (Lets Just Not Talk About Wisconsin)

Mary Langenfeld-US PRESSWIRE - Presswire

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Big Ten Tournament Week Is Officially Here (Lets Just Not Talk About Wisconsin)

Story Created: Mar 5, 2012 at 8:28 AM CDT

Story Updated: Mar 14, 2012 at 7:48 AM CDT

By Joe Kutsunis
HailtotheOrange.com
SBNation.com

The regular season has come to an end, at long last. For the past three years this has been a time of arguing and hand wringing about just how many games in Indianapolis the Illini would need to win to be on the safe side of the bubble. In 2012, however that equation is really simple: all of them. Win all of them or be relegated to the horrible bizzaro world of the NIT.

Illinois by finishing at a really disappointing 6-12 sits alone at ~~8th~~ 9th place in the league and will be kicking off the festivities in Indianapolis Thursday morning, yes morning at 10:30 AM central time. It is very possible that Illinois will be out of the tournament before anyone even realizes they started the thing.

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But that wont deter me. I will be on site representing Hail to the Orange, SB Nation Indiana, and all the citizens of the great state of Illinois, the Land of Lincoln and disappointing basketball teams. Both here and at the Indiana hub, look for game updates, recaps, interviews, audio, podcasts and even some video. With any luck I can bring the very fun one of a kind experience of the Big Ten tournament home to you in a digestible form. And as always you can follow my twitter account for up to the minute sarcasm and analysis.

As a side note, if you ever get a chance to go to a Big Ten Tournament, take it. It is mid-west basketball enjoyment in its purest form, from the walkable streets of Indianapolis to the down home touches like a themed baked potato bar. It is really the only opportunity for all of the Big Ten fan bases to get together in one city and interact with one another. And aside from that, there has been some really great basketball played there. And no, I am not referring to last year's eye hemorrhage inducing Penn State - Wisconsin mud wrestling match. I am talking about Evan Turner sinking a half court shot, Illinois playing OSU to double overtime for its tournament life, and Minnesota inexplicable steamrolling Purdue. Its a jam packed four days of basketball. It cannot be beat.

Next Article Complete Coverage: Wes Lunt to Illinois

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