Michigan and Illinois are playing live in the Big Ten tournament Thursday and the game is streaming online from ESPN and the WatchESPN website from Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis for the quarterfinals of the tournament and Nik Stauskas has the chance to lead his team into the semis and it starts up at 12 pm noon.
Michigan comes into the postseason playing very well and they have been excellent all season on both ends of the floor and Nik Stauskas comes I'm looking to continue that strong play against Illinois. The Wolverines should dominate the game on Friday, but they don't take anyone lightly and they won't do that against the Illini and now Stauskas can solidify himself as one of the best players in the conference with a strong game on Friday.
The Wolverines took the Big Ten title in the regular season after being a co-winner two years ago and now they have the top seed I the tournament and a good showing here could give the school one of the better seeds for March madness when things start up with selection Sunday. The team got a bye into the quarters and they are battling Michigan State, Ohio State and Iowa State and Stauskas has helped the team to be one of the most efficient in the nation and matching up with Illinois could be a huge advantage for him.
The point guard won conference player of the year and now he leads his team I to the tournament as the leading scorer and assists man and this comes after he helped the team to a nice run last season. The Big Ten was one of the best conferences in the nation this season and the winner of the conference tourney will get an automatic bid into NCAA March madness and Stauskas will be a huge part of that. Michigan finished the season strong and they had nice wins against Ohio State and Michigan State down the stretch and earlier in the season they won over Wisconsin and MSU and Iowa during that run and now they can continue that Friday.
Michigan comes into the game after finishing the season with a win against Indiana and they are ranked in the top 10 after going 15-3 in the conference and they got revenge after a loss against the Hoosiers earlier in the season and the final game saw Stauskas score 21 points. The team comes in averaging over 70 points per game and they have been one of the strongest overall and they are shooting nearly 49 percent this season and they come in ranked 20th in the nation in field goal percentage. A win here could put the team in one of the top seeds and this will be a good test for the team, as the tournament field is deep in the conference.