The 21st annual Big Ten men’s basketball tournament tips off Wednesday at Madison Square Garden in New York City. While fans’ expectations for Illinois may not be overly optimistic, the annual gathering of the conference’s teams has produced more than its share of surprises since the first tournament in 1998.
Did you know …
— Two former Illini coaches rank among the top four in Big Ten Tournament history. Ohio State’s Thad Matta won 71.9 percent of his team’s BTT games, followed by UI’s Bill Self (71.4 percent), Iowa’s Steve Alford (68.4) and Illinois’ Lon Kruger (66.