March 10, 2006

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The Big Ten Tournament's (BTT) No. 3 and No. 6 seeds have played seven previous times, with the sixth seed winning three times. In all BTT games, the No. 6 seed has a record of 14-7 while the No. 3 seed is 7-8.

Saturday's semifinal games:  No. 2 Iowa vs. No. 6 Michigan State at 1:40 p.m., and No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 5 Indiana at 4:05 p.m.

Illinois

It's the first time ever that the Fighting Illini have lost in the quarterfinal round (8-1).  This loss breaks their three-game winning streak and drops their overall record to 25-6.  It also evens their overall record at Conseco Fieldhouse to 3-3.  

Illinois still leads Michigan State in the all-time series record (52-48).

Senior Dee Brown made his last appearance at the BTT, finishing with 78 points in 10 games.  He now has a career total of 1,789 points (third place on the Illinois list).  He also owns the Fighting Illini mark for most minutes played with 1,823. Brown had seven assists vs. MSU, bringing his BTT total to 49, second best to Mateen Cleaves of MSU who had 55. He also is tied for first on the BTT career steals list with Sergio McClain (21).

Senior forward James Augustine registered his 26^th season and 74^th career double-double (16 points and 15 rebounds). He made history today by becoming the first 1,000 point scorer (1,353) and 1,000 rebounder (1,012) in University of Illinois history. Only 11 other players in the Big Ten history have achieved that feat; the last one was Indiana's Alan Henderson eleven years ago. With five free throws vs. MSU, Augustine now has a career total of 300, good for eighth place on that list. Augustine is second only to Iowa's Reggie Evans (95) on the BTT career rebounding list with 85.

Michigan State

Michigan State has been responsible for three of Illinois' seven all-time BTT losses. The Spartans are a perfect 3-0 against the Illini in tournament action. MSU and Illinois each have two BTT titles which is tops among all teams.

With their victory, the Spartans now have an all-time BTT record of 9-6. MSU is 5-4 in quarterfinal-round games.  Michigan State has a record of 3-2 in games at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Paul Davis made two of his three free throw attempts vs. Illinois. He now has 468 career free throws and moves into a tie for second place on MSU's all-time list with Shawn Respert (1990-95) in that category.  He now trails only Sam Vincent's 476 career free throws made.

MSU's Goran Suton had 10 rebounds vs. Illinois, tying his single-game best.  He also had 10 boards vs. Gonzaga on Nov. 22, 2005.

Shannon Brown (14 pts.), Maurice Ager (16 pts.) and Paul Davis (16 pts.) combined for 46 of MSU's 61 points.

Teams that have scored 60 points or more in 2006 BTT games have a perfect 6-0 record.