Alando Tucker may have been named the Big Ten’s Player of the Year, but Ohio State’s Greg Oden took home the last of the glory.

Oden, who finished second to Tucker in the regular season voting, outplayed his counterpart in the Big Ten Tournament final to give his team the victory and win the tournament’s MVP award.

Oden averaged 17 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks in three games as the Buckeyes won the tournament championship, and set a tournament record with 19 rebounds in Ohio State’s win over Purdue Saturday.

He totaled 12 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks in the final.

Tucker averaged 17 points for the tournament, but only scored 10 on 4-of-13 shooting in losing to the Buckeyes.

Ohio State’s Mike Conley, Jr., Wisconsin’s Alando Tucker and Kammron Taylor, and Purdue’s Carl Landry joined Oden on the all-tournament team.

Oden, the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year, turned in several amazing blocks and dunks over the course of the weekend.

He may have had the play of the tournament Saturday when he leaped over two Purdue defenders to catch a missed shot and slam it home.

“He does some things every now and then in practice where guys will just stop practice and start laughing,” Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said after the game. “That was one of those. The first time I saw him dunk, the only guy in the gym that kept playing was (Conley). Everybody else just stopped.”

Free throw shooting cripple Illini again

Shaun Pruitt did it all against Indiana Friday Night. He scored 16 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, led the Illini in overtime and forced five turnovers from Indiana’s star, D.J. White.

Just don’t ask him to hit a free throw.

Another arrow hit the Illini’s Achilles’ Heel in the final two games of the Big Ten Tournament, where they struggled miserably at the foul line.

Pruitt was the worst offender, shooting just seven for 16 against Indiana and Wisconsin, but he was hardly the only one who had problems.

The Illini shot just 57 percent as a team, nearly costing them against the Hoosiers and leaving them no chance against the Badgers.

It got so bad against Indiana that when Pruitt finished off an epic play by grabbing his third offensive rebound of the possession and scoring over White, he was just thankful he didn’t get fouled.

“My legs were kind of dead, and I really thought they were going to foul me and I didn’t want to go to the free-throw line, so I had to put it in,” Pruitt said.

Had the Illini been more consistent from the line, they could have avoided overtime with Indiana altogether.

Illinois hit three more field goals than the Hoosiers, but Indiana stayed in the game by making 80 percent of their free throws.

“(We made) just enough free throws to find a way to win it,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said.

Big men carry Illini as guards struggle

After Chester Frazier’s heroic 22-point effort to lead Illinois over Penn State on Thursday, it seemed like the Illini’s guard play might finally be coming together. Instead, he and Rich McBride took the rest of the weekend off.

The Illini became a forward-oriented team in the tournament’s final two games, as Warren Carter and Shaun Pruitt flourished inside and the guards struggled to even get on the board.

“We’ve struggled scoring from the guard position actually this whole last stretch,” Weber said. “We’ve kind of lived off our forwards.”

Carter averaged 15.5 points and Pruitt averaged 12.5 in the win over Indiana and loss to Wisconsin. Frazier, meanwhile, scored just 15 points total after his big game against the Nittany Lions, and McBride scored just one point over a period of three halves before hitting a trio of three-pointers after the Wisconsin game was all but out of reach.

If the guards can come together, the strong inside play could be huge for the Illini in the grind-it-out games of the NCAA tournament.

“Me and Shaun always joke around, we say we’re ‘Shake and bake,'” from Talladega Nights,” Carter said. “Whenever our team can go inside out, that’s definitely a good thing for us.”

(Unintentional) Quote of the tournament

“He got his dandruff up a little bit.” – Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan on the aggressive play of center Greg Stiemsma.

For more Big Ten Tournement coverage:

Illinois gets No. 12 seed in NCAA

Buckeyes outrace Badgers for title win

Column: Uncross your fingers, Illinois: You’re in the bracket

‘Empty possessions’ end Big Ten run