The Big Ten Tournament 2024 has a champion with Sunday producing a thrilling conclusion to a wild weekend of action!

This season, the tournament final came down to Illinois vs. Wisconsin in a rematch of a regular-season meeting won by Illini. Early in the second half, it looked like the Badgers would run away with this one, but Terrence Shannon Jr. and Illinois had other plans.

Brad Underwood’s squad stormed back with a furious finish, ending the game with a 52-point push after halftime in the 93-87 win. Now, the two sides wait to learn their seeding as Illinois cuts down the B1G Tournament nets for the first time since 2021.

Here are the key takeaways from Sunday:

The weekend of Terrence Shannon Jr.

Illinois is cutting down the nets in Minneapolis in large part because of Shannon’s electric scoring ability. After a record-setting performance in the semifinals, Shannon was just as good in Sunday’s title game.

Facing Nebraska on Saturday, Shannon kept Illinois close despite first-half struggles from other key players. He eventually punctuated that comeback with 40 points, a record for a single game in the B1G Tournament.

Facing the Badgers, Shannon was on fire once again with 34 points on 8-for-15 from the field. He finishes the weekend with 102 points for an average of 34 points in 3 victories.

Another key stat to monitor entering the Big Dance: Shannon attempted double-digit free throws in all 3 games. He went 38-for-44 from the free-throw line in Minneapolis and will be a handful for any team who draws Illinois.

RELATED: March Madness is here! Prep for your brackets and get in on the latest odds for the NCAA Tournament with Tradition’s Ohio sports betting links and apps!

Illini serve as comeback kings

While no team wants to fall behind in March, the Illini showed this weekend they are capable of erasing any deficit.

After facing an 11-point deficit at halftime against Nebraska, Illinois once again faced a double-digit deficit in the second half on Sunday. A free-throw by Chucky Hepburn put the Badgers up 61-51 with 14:38 left in the second half, and it looked like Wisconsin was poised to run away with the game.

The opposite proved to be true with Shannon and Marcus Domask leading a charge to erase the margin and tie things up at 65-all with 11:02 left in the game.

In the NCAA Tournament, Illinois will want to avoid those kinds of deficits and slow starts. However, they have shown an ability to claw back in a hurry if needed, certainly a huge factor for a team looking to get past the second weekend of the Big Dance.

Not all bad news for Wisconsin

Wisconsin misses out on a title this weekend, but the Badgers did achieve the goal of building some momentum for next week in Minneapolis.

Entering the B1G Tournament, Wisconsin had not beaten a likely NCAA Tournament team since a Jan. 26 win over Michigan State. Then, the Badgers turned things up with wins over Northwestern and Purdue before showing they could also go toe-to-toe with Illinois.

A big key to it all came from Chucky Hepburn who was impressive efficient all weekend. He scored 42 points with 9 assists and just 1 turnover in the final two games in Minneapolis and had just 3 turnovers all tournament long.

If Wisconsin wants to win a few games in the NCAA Tournament, Hepburn has to deliver that kind of efficiency to go with AJ Storr’s scoring and Max Klesmit’s ability to shoot from range. Anything can happen, but at least he’s hitting his stride at the right time.