It has been a long while, but Illinois has shown it can still field awfully good basketball teams. Now the Fighting Illini would just like some credit.
Picked as the preseason favorite in the Big Ten Conference, the Illini will be playing in their first N.C.A.A. tournament since 2013. But their run in the conference tournament, which they won with overtime victory against Ohio State on Sunday evening, was the work of a team that felt spurned: Illinois has been irate over the winning-percentage model, approved months ago, that gave Michigan the Big Ten’s regular-season championship.
Michigan had played 17 games, while Illinois went through a full 20-game schedule.