Michigan and Illinois are playing in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals and the game is streaming on ESPN and in a Big Ten conference college basketball game on Tuesday and the matchup is streaming online from ESPN and the Wolverines will visit the State Farm Center and it will be live from the WatchESPN website at 7 pm ET.
Michigan comes into the game ranked number 12 in the nation and they have gone 13-3 overall in the conference this year and the Wolverines will be favored against Illinois in the game after they have gone just 6-10 this season in the Big Ten. Michigan has the chance to close things out in the conference and this comes after last season there was a tie for the title and this year they can clinch things with a win against Illinois and they next play a game at home to finish the schedule against Indiana and that comes after the wolverines lost on the road at Assembly Hall earlier in the season.
The team comes in at 21-7 overall and they are two games up on number nine ranked Wisconsin, as they are 24-5 on the season and 11-5 in the conference. The standings has four ranked teams in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Michigan State and there is a good chance that Ohio State will be another when the season ends. The team has a two game lead on MSU and the Badgers and wins here will seal things up for the Wolverines. The team has won three straight games, including one over Michigan State and against Purdue in overtime and before that the team had a brutal stretch, playing Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio State and MSU all in a row when they were all ranked and they ended up 2-2 in that stretch.
Nik Stauskas has once again been fantastic for the team and he is shooting 48 percent and is leading in scoring with 17 points per game and he also is leading in assists and steals per game for the team. Mitch McGary has been excellent and he is leading the team while pulling down eight rebounds per game. The team is averaging 74 points per game and they are shooting over 47 percent to rank 28th in the nation and on defense the Wolverines are ranked 52nd in points with 65 points allowed per game and they need to do a better job on steals.
Illinois comes into the game after a dominating win against Michigan State and that was on the road in East Lansing and it was the best defensive performance of the season, as MSU only scored 46 points in the game. Illinois will try and do the same on Tuesday and they finish the season with Iowa in their final game. The team comes into things after winning three straight and that came after two losses and to end the season they have games against three straight ranked opponents, winning against Michigan State, playing Michigan and visiting Iowa.
Check here for the Michigan and Illinois live coverage from Watch ESPN.