Doing the math on a Big Ten game

You could say that Michigan and Illinois put up a basketball score Saturday, but that wouldn’t be entirely true.

The last three times these schools played basketball they didn’t put up so many points.

Michigan’s 67-65 triple-overtime win over Illinois in a football game marked a school scoring record for the Wolverines, who have been suiting up for 131 years.

It was also the highest-scoring game in major college football this season, and in the history of the Big Ten Conference.

To put that in basketball context consider:

--Michigan and Illinois have combined for more points only once in their last 10 encounters on the hardwood—a 74-64 win by Michigan two years ago. In two other games, they matched 132 points.

--Illinois, which has won six of the last 10 in basketball, has never scored as many as 65 points and lost to the Wolverines.

--Only once in those games has Michigan scored as many as 67 points and lost.

--The average score of the last 10 basketball games: Illinois 61.7, Michigan 58.3.

It was offensive

The last major-college game with a higher point total was played on Nov. 10, 2007, when Navy defeated North Texas, 74-62.

What had been the highest-scoring Michigan game was played in 1904, when the Wolverines routed West Virginia, 130-0. Michigan also played in what had been the high-scoring Big Ten game, crushing what was then known as Michigan Agricultural College — now Michigan State — 119-0 in 1902. (Those old Michigan teams really ran it up.)

Michigan and Illinois combined for 1,237 yards of offense, including 676 for Michigan.

“That’s not easy on the heart,” said Michigan Coach Rich Rodriguez, whose team, at 6-3 overall, 2-3 in conference play, is now bowl-game eligible

Illinois Coach Ron Zook agreed. Sort of. “This is absolutely deflating,” he said. “If anyone doesn’t think this is deflating, they shouldn’t even get on the plane home.”

Spoken like the former defensive coordinator Zook is.

Inappropriate end

Of all things, the Michigan-Illinois game was decided on a big defensive play. Really.

Michigan led, 67-59, when Mikel Leshoure ran for a touchdown that pulled the Illini within two points. But on the conversion try, Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase was blitzed into a pass that wasn’t even close.

Rodriguez called it a “fitting ending.”

Oh, please.

Quarterback draw

The Colorado Rockies baseball team apparently has a thing for Atlantic Coast Conference quarterbacks.

In the June draft, the Rockies’ top pick was Clemson quarterback Kyle Parker, and their fourth-round pick was North Carolina State quarterback Russell Wilson.

Someday, they could be in the same lineup. Both are outfielders.

But on Saturday, they faced off in what was nearly a football draw.

Parker and Clemson won, 14-13. Parker passed for 214 yards, completing 20 of 29.

Wilson passed for 212 yards, completing 22 of 36. Each passed for a touchdown and had one pass intercepted.

mike.hiserman@latimes.com