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STONY BROOK, N.Y. – There's a line forming at the playground courts.

Forty, fifty strong, Stony Brook students shoot hoops and battle for the right to play more games. "Winners stay!" someone shouts.

And why not stay all day? It's 60 degrees on a Tuesday in March, just a few days after Jimmy Tallman grand marshaled the annual St. Patrick's Day parade down the road in Ronkonkoma. The sun's out, for goodness sakes! Say goodbye to the harsh winter. There are rays bouncing off the water at nearby West Meadow Beach.

"We were about to get some games in," says Derrick Lugo, a computer science major from the Bronx, who's wearing shorts and sneakers. "Too many people, though."

Are the courts always packed like this?

"Sometimes," he says. "New York loves its basketball."

Tugging on a purple wristband, he adds with a chuckle, "Just not really at Stony Brook for a while."

This seems like a good time to clear something up: Stony Brook basketball, in its 10th season at the Division I level, hasn't exactly turned Rucker Park on its side. That more than 15 media outlets, including the New York Post, requested credentials for tonight's NIT game between Stony Brook and Illinois is a big deal (8:10 p.m., ESPNU).

"We hosted Villanova a few years ago (in 2006)," says sports information contact Jeremy Cohen. "But this is bigger. This is definitely the biggest we've had."

"In the last seven years, we've gone from not having a school color or a school logo to hosting a postseason game in men's basketball," says athletic director Jim Fiore. "That's where we've come. Illinois was in the national championship game five years ago. We're just trying to get on the map."

That purple wristband on Lugo's arm? It qualifies him for a ticket to the big game tonight at Stony Brook Arena, an old-school gym that seats 4,500-ish. The A.D., the coach, whomever you ask: no one seems to know the exact capacity, only that it will be full, with standing-room only in the track that circles the court below.

At the front doors of the gym on Tuesday, workers were handing out wristbands and tickets. They expect a record 1,500 students, most behind one basket, under banners that read "Maine" and "Albany" and "Vermont."

"This isn't the Big Ten," says Fiore. "It's the America East."

"If we win it'll be crazy," Lugo says.

Welcome, Fighting Illini, to the State University of New York at Stony Brook. It's a school with almost 25,000 students, some of who pay an affordable in-state tuition of about $5,000 and many of who take the train into New York City on the weekends. The campus is near the north shore of Long Island. Basketball coach Steve Pikiell, even though he doesn't play golf, can hit the Atlantic Ocean from his backyard with a full pitching wedge. Yes, Stony Brook has a basketball team. And the Seawolves want nothing more than to beat a Big Ten team – again.

"They're going from the United Center to Stony Brook," says Fiore, the A.D. "They're probably saying, 'Who the hell is Stony Brook?' "

***

One of nine brothers and sisters, a father of four and a husband of one, Steve Pikiell grew up in Bristol, Conn. His fourth-grade class toured the ESPN studio "when it was one room with one satellite," he says.

Now in his fifth season as the men's basketball coach at Stony Brook, the 42-year-old has led the Seawolves into their first nationally televised game on an ESPN network. Top-seeded Illinois (19-14) was forced into playing a first-round road game at eighth-seeded Stony Brook (22-9) due to a scheduling conflict with Cirque du Soleil at the Assembly Hall.

It also marks the second time an America East program will host a postseason game. Niagara, which is no longer in the league, hosted an NIT game in 1987, according to the league office. Illinois is the third power-conference team to play at Stony Brook (St. John's, Villanova), and Stony Brook has beaten a Big Ten team once before, a 59-51 upset of Penn State in 2006.

The community is treating this event as such – an event.

"We found out we were hosting about 10 (minutes) till 9 (on the night of Selection Sunday)," Pikiell said. "Obviously we were thrilled. Then it was like, 'Oh (shoot), we better get ready.' "

Tonight also will be the first time in two seasons the Seawolves will play a game in Stony Brook Arena. Renovations were stalled due to a freeze on state-school spending, Pikiell said, and the team has been playing in 1,650-seat Pritchard Gymnasium across the hall from the arena.

Pikiell taps the door code outside the team's locker room. America East Player of the Year Muhammad El-Amin is spread out on a leather couch watching SportsCenter. There's a sign on the wall that reads, "Goals: 1. Graduate (19 of 20 under Pikiell have) 2. Win the America East (for the first time this season) 3. NCAA tournament (almost)."

There weren't conference players of the year on leather couches when Pikiell arrived in 2005. Stony Brook won 20 games in his first three seasons, 38 in the last two.

On a smaller scale, Pikiell fights many of the same recruiting battles as Illinois coach Bruce Weber: "The entourages with the kids in the city, it's out of control," Pikiell says.

It's what Weber deals with in Chicago. Here, it's New York. Small world, really.

"Kids think they're going to the Big East when they're just going to ride the bench," he adds. "I tell them, 'Why not come here and be the best player in the league?' "

Pikiell was a member of Jim Calhoun's first recruiting class at Connecticut. After every season at Stony Brook, he calls Calhoun with a pseudo-recruiting question: "I always ask him, 'Who's leaving?' "

Stony Brook isn't, um, a destination for New York's snazzy prospects. So Pikiell searches near and far – only one player on the current roster is from the state – and sometimes overseas. In fact, he has a plane ticket for the Canary Islands. The flight leaves Monday.

"Unless something crazy happens," he says.

***

Muhammad El-Amin – or "Mo," as teammates call him – slides into a seat in the Stony Brook video room. The 6-foot-5 guard, who recently set the school's single-season scoring record, kicks his vintage Air Jordans out in front.

"First time I heard about it (Stony Brook)? I didn't know it was in New York or anything," he says. "It was a little different. I didn't know what to think."

See, El-Amin's from Lansing, Mich. For two years he attended the same high school as former Michigan State center Goran Suton. He knows "just about all the guys" on the Michigan State roster. He grew up a Big Ten fan.

"Probably this season I watched Ohio State and Illinois the most," he says. "I enjoy how they play."

He estimates having watched the Illini five times: against Ohio State, twice against Wisconsin and, of course, the game against Michigan State at the Assembly Hall.

"We've seen the way they play," he says. "They're a team that lets you stay in the game."

"It's going to be a challenge, I'm telling you guys. This is not a team that will go down easy," Weber said. "It's going to be a hard-fought game. I can promise you that."

"If we win it'll probably be the biggest win we've ever had," El-Amin adds, glancing toward the Illinois scouting report on the whiteboard.

Welcome, Fighting Illini, to Stony Brook. They play basketball here.