ILLINOIS vs MICHIGAN Watch FREE Live Stream Online & Listen: Big Ten Tournament Live Coverage

Today at 12:00 p.m. ET, Illinois and No. 8 Michigan go head-to-head in Big Ten tournament action live from Indiana. The game can be live streamed for free here.

While Michigan was the regular-season champion, its star player doesn't believe it gets the recognition it deserves.

''I don't think it's disrespect, I just think sometimes we may be just flying under the radar,'' Michigan's Nik Stauskas told CBS Sports. ''We're perfectly fine with that.''

The Wolverines won the Big 10 by three games and are now in search of the No.1 seed for the NCAA tournament. Despite their success, Stauskas doesn't see the team as the favorite to win it all.

''I don't think we're the favorite to win this tournament,'' said the sophomore guard who is averaging 17.4 points and shooting 46 percent from 3-point range, via CBS Sports. ''I don't think anyone really thinks we're going to win, so we still have a chip on our shoulder.''  

This is the first time Michigan enters the league tournament as a top seed, but coach John Beilein isn't worried about his team's seed entering the NCAA tournament, and he's just looking for his team to shut down opponents.

'We have gotten better, but obviously, we're not good enough to shut people down enough,'' Beilein told CBS Sports. ''We better play well offensively, or we'll have a tough time winning.'' 

Illinois will look to bounce back from a lopsided 84-53 loss to Michigan last week and come in hot winning five of six with two road victories over ranked opponents.

"I think our group is pretty tough. They got to understand that that was two games ago," coach John Groce said of the Michigan loss, according to CBS Sports. "[Friday's] game could be a completely different type of game. It's a separate entity within itself. We've got to play well." 

Rayvonte Rice and Kendrick Nunn combined for 30 points between each other the last time they faced Michigan.

Illinois and Michigan tip off this afternoon live from Indiana.

© 2023 Sportsworldnews.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Real Time Analytics