Back in November or December, it sounded only natural. A month ago, it seemed completely crazy.

But as the Big Ten tournament opens Thursday at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Illinois might be the team to beat.

Yes, the same Illini team that was 4-5 in Big Ten play after an early February loss to Michigan State. Yes, the same Illini team that was lumped in with Iowa as the league's biggest disappointment. Now, Illinois is starting to look the team everyone thought it could be.

It's amazing how eight consecutive victories can change things. And when the Illini completed an amazing comeback at Minnesota -- they trailed by nine with 3:12 to play -- Illinois grabbed a quarter share of the Big Ten championship.

"Three weeks ago, nobody thought we'd be here," Illinois forward Brian Cook said. "It's a dream come true."

Illinois enters the Big Ten tournament as the No. 3 seed and will face the winner of Thursday's Minnesota-Penn State game in Friday's final quarterfinal. With point guard Frank Williams, gunner Cory Bradford and versatile forward Brian Cook, Illinois is a team that's built for scoring points. But the biggest difference in the last month is that the Illini are guarding people.

"We needed to stop living off last year's team," Williams said. "We had to pick up our defense."

In the eight-game winning streak -- seven Big Ten victories and a non-conference win at Seton Hall -- no team has scored more than 67 points against the Illini. After giving up 69.6 points per game in the first nine games of the Big Ten season, Illinois is allowing 59.8 points per game since then. In the winning streak, opponents are shooting just 38.2 percent against Illinois and 30.9 percent on 3-pointers.

While four of the first five games in the winning streak came against teams in the league's bottom division, it ended with a home win over Indiana and the victory over Williams Arena -- one of the Big Ten's most difficult places to play.

Illinois coach Bill Self, however, called the tournament "wide open," especially after watching Iowa win four games in four days to secure its spot in the NCAAs and the Big Ten tournament title.

In addition to Illinois, both Wisconsin and Michigan State enter the tournament on a roll. The Badgers, who will have nine days of rest before Friday's quarterfinals, have won six consecutive games while the Spartans have won five in a row.

"I think anyone can win," Purdue coach Gene Keady said. "It's wide open, all 11 schools have a chance to win.

"It's going to be challenging, exciting and fun. There's probably a couple, three teams that should win, but that hasn't been the model. Very few times has the favorite ever won it. It's wide open, and more so this season than ever."

No team in the field, however, has more on the line than Minnesota. The loss to the Illini -- the fifth time this season the Gophers have seen a lead vanish in the final minutes -- left the Gophers with a 9-7 record and squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble because of the conference being down.

"That perception (of the Big Ten being weaker) has already hurt us because everybody's saying we're a bubble team -- 9-7 in the past is in, it's a lock," Gophers coach Dan Monson said. "If we win a couple of games I think it's pretty hard for us not to have a case for what we've done. Down in the Big Ten isn't like being down in the Southern Conference.

"The Big Ten tournament looms larger for us than any team," Monson said. "We probably have more at stake."

Jeff Shelman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune is a regular contributor to ESPN.com