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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 23 • 13 part," Palm said during an ap- pearance on 'Gold and Black LIVE.' "You're judged on your en- tire season and you can make or break your tournament chances in November and December as easily as you can in January and February. Purdue broke them in November and December and they're now trying to make them in January and February and doing a pretty good job to make them, but there's still work to do. "That home Illinois game is going to be crucial because Illi - nois is in the same position. … If they lose all three (including Ohio State), I don't know if there's any- thing they can do in the confer- ence tournament but win it." Lunardi tweeted that Purdue was one of his "last four in," along with Cincinnati, Colorado State and BYU. The other side of that — the "first four out" — included Illinois. The Boilermakers host the Illini on senior day on Saturday. MILESTONE VICTORY With Purdue's 92-85 victory over Rutgers Thursday, Painter became only the fourth active coach in the Big Ten reach 100 league victories. In typical Painter fashion, he didn't really want to discuss any significance of the feat. But he does realize that average 10 victo- ries per conference season helps the program. "You know what you take from it? You want to go to the NCAA Tournament," Painter said after that game. "There's a lot of guys in our locker room who haven't been to the NCAA Tour- nament. Each win you can get it obviously helps you. That's what you're trying to do. That's a big thing. Those things mean a lot be- cause, especially those guys who are there like Jon Octeus, we have to win for him. You have to win for your upperclassmen. A.J. (Ham- mons) and Ray, they've sacrificed a lot and they've proven they're a big part of our solution. "We just have to keep fight- #1 Wisconsin #4 Mich. State #2 Maryland #3 Purdue 6:30 p.m. BTN United Center Chicago All times Eastern PROJECTED MEN'S BIG TEN BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT :25 After ESPN :25 After BTN Noon CBS :25 After CBS 3:30 p.m. CBS Noon BTN #9 Michigan #5 Iowa :25 After BTN #7 Indiana 6:30 p.m. ESPN2 :25 After ESPN2 #6 Ohio State #12 N'western #11 Nebraska 4:30 p.m. ESPN2 7 p.m. BTN #13 Penn State #14 Rutgers Noon ESPN #8 Illinois #10 Minnesota Wednesday, March 11 Thursday, March 12 Friday, March 13 Saturday, March 14 Sunday, March 15 Tom Campbell Matt Painter became only the fourth active coach in the Big Ten to reach 100 confer- ence victories after the Boilermakers beat Rutgers last week. BIG TEN STANDINGS (Through March 1) Team Big Ten/Pct. Overall/Pct 1. Wisconsin 14-2/.875 26-3/.897 2. Maryland 12-4/.750 24-5/.828 3. PURDUE 11-5/.688 19-10/.655 4. Ohio State 10-6/.625 21-8/.724 Iowa 10-6/.625 19-10/.655 Michigan State 10-6/.625 19-10/.655 7. Indiana 9-7/.563 19-10/.655 8. Illinois 8-8/.500 18-11/.621 9. Michigan 7-9/.438 14-14/.500 10. Minnesota 6-10/.375 17-12/.586 11. Northwestern 5-11/.313 14-15/.483 Nebraska 5-11/.313 13-15/.464 13. Penn State 3-13/.188 15-14/.517 14. Rutgers 2-14/.125 10-19/.345