But Illinois over Ohio State by a 74-55 margin in a game that was never close or even competitive still fits the description of a Saturday afternoon surprise considering OSU is ranked three spots ahead of Illinois in the Associated Press poll and 42 places ahead of Illinois at KenPom.com. So how did this happen? How did a team that just got worked at Purdue turn around and three days later work Ohio State from start to finish?

Answer: Not how you would've expected?

Illinois usually wins by taking a lot of 3-pointers and making a high percentage of them -- proof being that the Illini were 10-of-25 (40.0 percent) from beyond the arc in their November win over Butler and 11-of-26 (42.3 percent) from beyond the arc in their December win over Gonzaga. But Illinois was just 8-of-27 (29.6 percent) from beyond the arc in this January win over OSU, and its top three 3-point shooters (Joseph Bertrand, Tyler Griffey and Brandon Paul) combined to make just 2 of 12 3-point attempts.

And yet Illinois still won by 19 points.

Gary Parrish