Early March Madness Big 10 style

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Illinois coach Brad Underwood gained a new appreciation for Michigan’s season recently when he saw Baylor struggle a bit after a lengthy layoff.

Michigan, of course, had a similar stretch without a game earlier this season, and the Wolverines barely missed a beat.

“It’s very, very, very, very impressive — and I don’t think I put that in perspective until the other night when I watched Baylor in the Kansas game,” Underwood said. “Michigan’s been great, and I think it shows their commitment and their veteran leadership.”

The second-ranked Wolverines host fourthranked Illinois tonight in the next marquee matchup of this Big Ten season.

The conference had three teams in the top five and four in the top seven in Monday’s AP Top 25 poll, and now it’s finally time for Michigan and Illinois — the top two teams in the standings — to meet.

They were supposed to play Feb. 11, but the Michigan athletic department began a coronavirus-related pause during the latter half of January, and the Wolverines missed five games.

Since that break, Michigan is 5-0, including a win over then-no. 4 Ohio State and a 22-point blowout against an Iowa team that is now No. 5.

The Wolverines (18-1, 13-1) are making up two of the games they missed, so they’re in the middle of a stretch of five games in 11 days to close the regular season.

Tuesday will be the fourth game in eight days for Illinois.

“I’m trying to do the best I can as far as preserving their energy, with all this quick turnaround, and not wearing them down in practice,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. After routing Iowa on Thursday, Michigan had to return for an afternoon game at Indiana on Saturday. The Wolverines won by 16.