The Big Ten coaches had a teleconference on Monday to talk about tournament play.

Most of the coaches agreed with the sentiment that successful tournament teams have experienced quality play from their guards.

“You’ve got to have some good players across the board,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “But you’ve got to have some guards.”

In the Big Ten, all of the main contenders have good guards: Purdue (E’Twaun Moore), Ohio State (David Lighty, William Buford), Wisconsin (Jordan Taylor), Penn State (Talor Battle), Illinois (Demetri McCamey), Michigan State (Lucas) and Michigan (Darius Morris).

"When it’s one-and-done time, your margin for error is so small," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "That’s why they always say good guards are key, because they can control the ball and make better decisions."

No. 14 Purdue notched a comeback win over Illinois 81-70 on Sunday at Assembly Hall.

JaJuan Johnson scored 24 points and E'Twaun Moore added 20 to lead the Boilermakers to the win.

Purdue survived a first half of 28.6 percent shooting to trail only 32-27 at the break. Then the Boilermakers caught fire, scoring 54 second-half points and outrebounding the Illini 28-9 over the final 20 minutes.

Illinois coach Bruce Weber says outside influences are affecting the team and senior Demetri McCamey, who has struggled as of late.

"It's disappointing, some of it is Demetri, obviously," Weber said Friday on "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000. "But the outside influences, just kill kids, I'm just telling you. I feel bad. He was playing so well, and all of a sudden, the runners, the agents, the third-party people, they're all telling him he's an all-American and this and that.

"Then, he stopped coming in to work hard and spend extra time on his shot and all the stuff you need to do. Here, I'm saying give a five-month commitment, put more time in, and they're telling him how great he is. It just screws up kids. It's not just me. If you talk to our the football coaches, you can talk to other coaches in the Big Ten, it's one of the worst things we have to deal with in college basketball is the outside influences, the third parties, the agents, the runners, whatever. It's that honestly."

No. 24 Illinois defeated Penn State 68-51 on Tuesday night to rebound from back-to-back losses.

Mike Davis scored seven straight points midway through the second half to give the Illini a 52-39 lead with 10 minutes left to play.

Penn State lost senior forward Jeff Brooks just before halftime to a dislocated right shoulder.