CHICAGO — These Nittany Lions are built a bit different.

Different than just about any other Penn State basketball team of recent vintage, as the Lions erased any doubts about their NCAA Tournament worthiness with a 79-76 win over Illinois in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.

It’ll be the first time since 2011 that Penn State goes dancing.

The Lions are also built differently from their Big Ten counterparts from a physical standpoint.

This is the league’s shortest team, which leads them to do strange things like post up their point guard near the top of the key to set up the offense.

For Illinois coach Brad Underwood, who went 0-3 against Penn State this year, that uniqueness is an Achilles’ heel for his ballclub.

Underwood calls it, with a hint of admiration and a dash of derision, “Bootyball.”

“They go to Bootyball, and it’s really, really hard to guard,” Underwood said. “When you can keep the possession of the ball for 12-13 seconds, and just keep backing up and you have no recourse in how you guard it because you can’t touch them, it becomes very challenging.

“If you double him, (Jalen) Pickett sprays it out for the 3. They have the rule in the NBA that eliminates that, but they don’t in college.”

Looks like we can guess Mr. Underwood’s next suggestion to the rules committee.

Pickett, who was just named Penn State’s first basketball All-American since Jesse Arnelle led the team to the 1954 Final Four, would describe his style in a different manner.

“I play a physical game,” Pickett said. “I don’t know about Bootyball — I kind of want to change that word. But I play a tough game.”

Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry doesn’t care what you call it so long as it wins games. And that’s exactly what it’s doing this season.

“We’re just taking advantage of what we’re allowed to do. Like we’ve been doing all season,” Shrewsberry said. “All he’s doing is playing basketball. You could say, yeah, he’s got the dribble and he’s backing people down. But they’re playing ‘Bootyball’ in the paint. They’re doing the same exact thing as us, just from a different position on the floor. … We just choose to start it in a different area.

“I don’t know. He’s a good player. It’s hard to stop. It’s hard to deal with. That’s why he’s an All-American.”

These Lions have a heart

Shrewsberry’s Lions have no need to travel the Yellow Brick Road to find their courage. Nothing seems capable of rattling this team’s cage.

Penn State was 1 of 3 Big Ten teams that entered the conference tournament needing a win to improve its chances of making the NCAA Tournament. Michigan and Wisconsin failed in that task, clearly succumbing to the heat of the moment.

The Nittany Lions did not.

Such is the advantage of Penn State having the most experienced roster in Division I.

“We’re just a tough team,” said 6-6 senior Seth Lundy, who plays power forward when he isn’t moonlighting as a center. “We’ve been doing it for so long that we accept the challenge every single time.”

Though the roster wasn’t completely familiar with each other at the start of the season — Penn State ranked 140th in minutes continuity from last year — Shrewsberry made it a point to bring in veteran transfers to match his returners.

“These guys never bat an eye and they never waver,” Shrewsberry said. “That’s the toughness of this group. There’s no situation we haven’t been through. We’ve been through everything.”

“Everything” is a bit of hyperbole. They haven’t had to walk 2 miles to the arena in the snow after their bus got a flat tire. Probably.

But Penn State has certainly been forced to dig deep after a loss at Maryland dropped them to 14-11 and 5-9 in the Big Ten.

From that point on, Penn State could afford no more than a single loss if it was going to break its NCAA Tournament drought.

With Thursday night’s win, the Nittany Lions are 6-1 since reaching their point of no return.

“I told the guys in shootaround, this is a single-elimination tournament, and we’ve been playing single elimination basketball the past 3 weeks,” Shrewsberry said. “Every single game has mattered. And they’ve answered the bell every time.”

Penn State has at least 1 more bell to answer in this tournament.

And thanks to their mixture of moxie and unorthodoxy, the Nittany Lions are also giving themselves a shot to answer a few more next week.