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The wait from Saturday's loss at Purdue to Thursday's matchup with Michigan felt like an eternity.

It felt like there was a nervous excitement throughout Bloomington and among Indiana fans everywhere during the time in between. It was do or die, and a tough Wolverine team that had beaten the Hoosiers nine consecutive times stood in the way of Indiana's berth into the NCAA Tournament.

The win. The comeback. It was all so poetic. Instead of being the team that was ahead that would eventually lose the lead, they took a different path.

"This is probably the biggest win for our program in such a long, long time," Indiana Head Coach Mike Woodson said. "I've got to give my staff and the guys in that locker room that wear that uniform a lot of credit, man, because this team, they just won't quit. And that's -- that's a good sign to me."

There have been times when it felt like Indiana's fate was sealed. The loss to Rutgers at Assembly Hall did it for a lot of people, and then losing to Purdue just affirmed some of those feelings.

"When you think about all the close games that we've had this season, this is really gratifying in terms of getting over the hump on a major stage, a big game that we had to win," Woodson said. "But hey, I didn't play, those guys in the locker room played and they made it happen, so that's what it's all about at the end of the day."

Would Indiana look as good as they do now, in terms of their NCAA Tournament chances if Xavier and Wake Forest hadn't lost Tuesday Wednesday night? Probably not. They can't control that, however, but they welcome any sort of extra help they can be given.

Coach Woodson thinks the effort they've put forth this season, today's win is a huge help, and it might be enough to see the Hoosiers dancing.

"If you look at our schedule and how we've competed this year, I would like to think that this game would put us over the top, but like I told the guys in the locker room, I don't know how it works. I'm new at this, but we got to get ready for Illinois," said Woodson.

"We believed we were going to win and we kind of saw them deflating and deflating, and then we finally got back," Indiana forward Trayce Jackson-Davis said. "So hopefully we can carry that energy because I feel like that we can beat anyone. . . just getting over that hump, especially to a team like Michigan that's beat us the last nine times, it's big."

Indiana's 17-point comeback on Thursday marked the second-largest in Big Ten Tournament history. Ohio State had an 18-point comeback in 2014.

A win over Illinois can all but lock-up Indiana's place in March Madness, and I don't say that passively at all. Kofi Cockburn manhandled the Hoosiers, and Trayce Jackson-Davis at Assembly Hall earlier this season, producing 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting, all while grabbing eight rebounds.

"Illinois is a good team and they kind of had their way in Bloomington as well. So we've got to go back, break this team down tonight and learn from our mistakes in this game and get ready for Illinois," Woodson said.

Trent Frazier led the Illini with 23 points, shooting 8-of-11, 3-of-6 from three. Indiana's perimeter defense will be tested, just like they were on Thursday. However, a bend, don't break effort might not work against the #1 seed Illinois.

"To me, it's just another game as well, just the next step to what our goal is as a team. We want to win this whole thing and that's what we plan on doing," Indiana point guard Xavier Johnson.

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