Illinois takes share of Big Ten crown in wildest way, plus explaining that Duke disaster

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Let's get right to it.

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Good morning to everyone but especially to...

David Craan / Illinois Athletics

THE ILLINOIS FIGHTING ILLINI...

On the last day of the regular season, the Big Ten truly experienced the madness of March.

All No. 10 Wisconsin had to do to win the league outright was win at home against Nebraska, the last-place team in the conference playing without its leading scorer. Simple enough, right? Wrong. The Cornhuskers beat the Badgers 74-73 in a game that saw Wisconsin star Johnny Davis hurt his ankle.

That opened the door for No. 20 Illinois to claim a share of the conference crown and earn the top seed in the conference tournament with a win over No. 24 Iowa.

After trailing by as much as 15, Kofi Cockburn and the veteran-laden Illini righted the ship and held on late, winning 74-72.It's the first time they've won or shared a Big Ten regular-season title since 2005, when they eventually went to the national title game.

Illinois' road to the tournament title game will now include either Michigan or Indiana. Illinois went 3-0 combined against those two. Then it's likely either Iowa or Rutgers. Illinois went 3-1 combined against those two. The Illini will avoid Purdue -- who they went 0-2 against and present their worst matchup -- until the title game, should they get there. (Full bracket here)

Perhaps Illinois coach Brad Underwood summed it up best, saying simply, "It was a weird day, a weird, weird day."

... AND ALSO A GOOD MORNING TO THE TEAMS THAT PUNCHED THEIR TICKET TO THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

You can keep up with every conference tournament here.

Honorable mentions

And not such a good morning for...

THE DUKE BLUE DEVILS

The crowd, the venue, the rivalry and the occasion were all legendary. The performance was anything but.

With nearly 100 of his former players (and plenty of celebrities) in attendance, Mike Krzyzewski's final home game as Duke's head coach went about as poorly as possible: a shocking 94-81 loss to archrival UNC. There are two things that made it a roughly tough weekend to be a Blue Devil. First was the on-court product. Second was the resulting extreme awkwardness of the off-court ceremonies.

As for the game itself, the Blue Devils were all out of sorts in the second half, when the Tar Heels outscored them 55-40. And to be clear: we have to give North Carolina credit. This was an incredibly impressive win for a team that entered the weekend on the bubble.

But this was a meltdown by Duke, too. Remember, the Blue Devils won the first meeting by 20. On Saturday night, though:

Paolo Banchero scored 23 points but needed 26 shots to get there.Duke struggled to defend Caleb Love, who had 22 points -- 12 from the free-throw line alone -- and five assists.UNC's Brady Manek made five 3-pointers. Duke made seven 3-pointers as a team.UNC's 94 points were the most Duke has allowed in a home game in over three years.

The loss made the rest of the night pretty awkward. Krzyzewski was honored in a lengthy pregame ceremony that included legends such as Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Jay Williams and J.J. Redick. Following the loss, Krzyzewski spoke to the crowd and was forced to go off-script, in part apologizing for the performance and calling it "unacceptable."

It's a loss that will go down in infamy, writes our college basketball insider Matt Norlander:

Norlander: "Given the buildup and presumptive nature of a Duke win by plenty, it's easily arguable this is the most gratifying — if not amusing — win for UNC fans over Duke ever. You get one chance to spoil Coach K's final home game. Carolina passed the test. Its base will hold this over the Duke faithful forever. It's so bitter for Duke, but that makes it tremendous for the rivalry. Down in Carolina, this one will live in conversation forever, no matter the favored shade of blue."

The loss also pushed Duke down to a 3 seed in Jerry Palm's latest Bracketology.