CHICAGO — Illinois’ 78-72 win over Maryland on Sunday in the regular-season finale wasn’t the most inspiring outing as the Illini head into Big Ten Tournament play this week at the United Center.

Illinois coach Brad Underwood told reporters he thought his team lacked some enthusiasm and energy early in the game. The 11-20 Terrapins, who finished 17th out of 18 teams in conference play, pushed the Illini to the end behind guard Andre Mills’ 30 points.

But Illinois (24-7, 15-5) held on to secure a triple bye into Friday’s quarterfinals as the No. 4 seed and will play either USC, Washington or Wisconsin. That gives the Illini four days to regroup and get in the proper mindset for the one-and-done possibilities that are ahead in both the conference and NCAA tournaments.

“We’ve been talking about that all year,” Underwood said. “I’m very conscientious of making sure that our players understand what the end can look like.”

Underwood said he was proud of what his team did in the “20-game gauntlet” of conference play, even with some late February losses.

Illinois pulled off huge road wins at Purdue and Nebraska midseason to vault into the conversation as a top-five team in the country. But the Illini stumbled by losing four of six after that before winning their final two against bottom-dwellers Oregon and Maryland.

The layoff before the Illini’s quarterfinal game could be beneficial.

Keaton Wagler, who was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year, had 11 points on 3-for-10 shooting against Maryland, including 0-for-4 shooting from 3-point range. Underwood said after the game that Wagler was dealing with back stiffness, and he also dealt with a left shoulder injury last month.

Junior guard Andrej Stojaković has been recovering from the flu that caused him to lose 10 pounds. Underwood also was sick.

“I didn’t lose that much, unfortunately,” the coach joked.

Here’s more to watch as the Big Ten Tournament gets underway Tuesday.

The favorite

When Dusty May and his wife were deciding where he should take his coaching career, they discussed where they might want their three sons to go to school. The former Florida Atlantic coach said they decided Michigan would be the place they felt best because they believed in the institution and its athletic department.

“When you feel that way about your kids, you surely think you have the belief and confidence you can acquire and recruit elite people on your basketball team,” May said. “It was really that simple. This was never the best chance to win a championship. It was probably that day in less of a position to win a championship than anywhere else, all the schools we were talking to at that moment.”

Two years later, May recounted that story from Illinois’ media room at the State Farm Center after the Wolverines won the Big Ten regular-season championship outright, the program’s first in five years.

May did it by building a starting lineup with some of the best transfer talent in the nation: forward Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB), center Aday Mara (UCLA), forward Morez Johnson Jr. (Illinois) and guard Elliot Cadeau (North Carolina). That quartet has led the Wolverines to the No. 3 national ranking and a 29-2 record, their only losses by three points to Wisconsin on Jan. 10 and by five points to No. 1 Duke on Feb. 21.

May believes his front line, led by All-America candidate Lendeborg, is as good as any in the country. Mara, a 7-foot-3 junior, is at the center of the nation’s second-ranked defense, according to the KenPom ratings, which Underwood said is physical, long and experienced.

Lendeborg said the team first started to believe how good it was after winning the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas in November, and the Wolverines still believe despite a pair of losses and an ACL injury to reserve guard L.J. Cason. They’re looking for far more than just a regular-season title, and they’ll start by trying to repeat as conference tournament champions with the new-look team.

“Everything goes back to Vegas,” Lendeborg said. “After that happened and just seeing how connected we were, how could we be stopped?”

Next in line

With its overtime win over Iowa on Sunday, Nebraska earned the No. 2 seed, its highest ever in the Big Ten Tournament.

It has been a season of unprecedented success for the Cornhuskers under Coach of the Year candidate Fred Hoiberg. They also set a program record for wins by finishing the regular season 26-5 (15-5 in the Big Ten) and climbed as high as No. 5 in the national rankings before some late-season losses that included a 20-point rout by UCLA on Tuesday.

The Huskers, who lost by three to top-seeded Michigan on Jan. 27 for their first loss of the year, look to achieve more firsts in the weeks ahead.

“They continue to make history with this program, and this is a fun time,” Hoiberg said after the Iowa win. “But nothing is given. It’s one-and-done time of year. You’ve got to be on point. Your focus has to be extra. I didn’t like our focus going into the UCLA game, as much as what it had been. But we got that back this week, and we’ve got to keep it for as long as we play.”

Michigan State (25-6, 15-5), which lost, 90-80, to Michigan on Sunday, earned the No. 3 seed. The Spartans have won a leading six Big Ten Tournament titles — but none since 2019.

Players to watch

Lendeborg, who is in his sixth season after three at a junior college and two at UAB, received a big payday to take an extra year before the NBA and go to Michigan — with reports ranging from $2 million to $4 million.

He has delivered, averaging 14.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists, and he was named Big Ten Player of the Year on Tuesday. May said the frontcourt with Mara and Johnson has worked because of how Lendeborg has approached it.

“He came back and just wanted to be one of the guys,” May told Colin Cowherd last week. “That’s probably the biggest reason it has worked, that he hasn’t tried to be bigger than the team. He simply wanted to be one of many and try to do something special together.”

On the other end of the spectrum is a player who has been tearing up the Big Ten for four seasons. Purdue’s Braden Smith finishes his career as one of the conference’s great point guards, averaging 14.9 points and 8.7 assists.

Jeremy Fears Jr., who grew up in Joliet, has been both brilliant and controversial for Michigan State in his redshirt sophomore season. He has averaged 15.5 points and a Big Ten-leading 9.1 assists. But he also went on a stretch of three straight games with questionable plays against opponents, including two apparent trips and a kick that earned a technical foul. He had another technical foul for a kick against a Michigan player.

Illinois’ Wagler has what many have called the best story in college basketball this season, rising from an underrecruited prospect with two Power Four offers to a potential NBA lottery pick during his freshman season. He has averaged 17.9 points and 4.3 assists.

Northwestern opens Tuesday

Nick Martinelli has hit a few game-winners over the last two seasons for Northwestern, but he couldn’t pull one off Saturday. His 3-point attempt in the final seconds against Minnesota bounced off the back of the rim and out in a 67-66 loss. The Wildcats finished the regular season 13-18, 5-15 to take the No. 15 seed in the tournament.

Martinelli, the two-time Big Ten scoring leader, will try to extend his NU career a little longer when the Wildcats take on No. 18 seed Penn State on Tuesday at about 6:30 p.m.

The schedule

United Center

Tuesday’s first round

— (16) Oregon vs. (17) Maryland, 4 p.m., Peacock

— (15) Northwestern vs. (18) Penn State, 6:30 p.m. (approx.), Peacock

Wednesday’s second round

— (9) Iowa vs. 16-17 winner, 11 a.m., Peacock

— (12) Washington vs. (13) USC, 1:30 p.m. (approx.), Peacock

— (10) Indiana vs. 15-18 winner, 5:30 p.m., Big Ten Network

— (11) Minnesota vs. (14) Rutgers, 8 p.m. (approx.), BTN

Thursday’s third round

— (8) Ohio State vs. 9-16/17 winner, 11 a.m., BTN

— (5) Wisconsin vs. 12-13 winner, 1:30 p.m. (approx.), BTN

— (7) Purdue vs. 10-15/18 winner, 5:30 p.m., BTN

— (6) UCLA vs. 11-14 winner, 8 p.m. (approx.), BTN

Friday’s quarterfinals

— (1) Michigan vs. 8-9/16/17 winner, 11 a.m., BTN

— (4) Illinois vs. 5-12/13 winner, 1:30 p.m. (approx.), BTN

— (2) Nebraska vs. 7-10/15/18 winner, 5:30 p.m., BTN

— (3) Michigan State vs. 6-11/14 winner, 8 p.m. (approx.), BTN

Saturday’s semifinals

— First two quarterfinal winners, noon, CBS

— Last two quarterfinal winners, 2:30 p.m. (approx.), CBS

Sunday’s final

— Semifinal winners, 2:30 p.m., CBS

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