Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
Reddit
Newsvine
Twitter
• Where: Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill.
• When: 9 p.m. today
• TV/Radio: ESPN; Spartan Sports Network radio, including WJIM 1240-AM and WMMQ 94.9-FM
• Records: MSU is 19-4 overall, 9-1 in the Big Ten; Illinois is 15-8, 7-3.
• Series: MSU leads 54-53.
• Coaches: MSU - Tom Izzo is 355-141 in his 15th season, all with the Spartans. Illinois - Bruce Weber is 270-119 in his 12th season overall and 167-65 in his seventh with the Fighting Illini.
• Projected lineups
MSU
Pos. Name PPG
C (41) Garrick Sherman (6-9) 2.0
F (2) Raymar Morgan (6-8) 11.0
F (10) Delvon Roe (6-8) 7.4
G (3) Chris Allen (6-3) 8.9
G (34) Korie Lucious (6-1) 5.2
Illinois
Pos. Name PPG
F (42) Tyler Griffey (6-9) 3.2
C (54) Mike Tisdale (7-1) 11.9
F (30) Bill Cole (6-9) 4.0
G (1) D.J. Richardson (6-3) 11.1
G (32) Demetri McCamey (6-3) 15.1
• MSU update: Let's play Guess the Starting Lineup for MSU. The safest bet is that Lucious will start in place of star guard Kalin Lucas (ankle sprain). Even if Lucas recovers dramatically enough to play tonight, he'll likely come off the bench and give limited minutes. Sherman seems like a good option to start against Illinois and its large starting frontcourt. The Spartans enter the day with a two-game lead in the standings over Illinois, Purdue, Ohio State and Wisconsin. After tonight, MSU still has two games with Purdue - the first at home Tuesday - and one game with Ohio State, at home. MSU beat Illinois soundly at home on Jan. 16, winning 73-63 after leading by as much as 23. Lucas had 15 of his 20 points in the second half. Roe scored 15. He is dealing with a hyperextended left knee suffered in Tuesday's loss at Wisconsin, but is expected to play. Morgan had 14 points and 10 rebounds and will need to come up huge tonight if the hobbling Spartans are going to win this game in this environment.
• Illinois update: Is Illinois a true contender? It's hard to say, because this team's schedule has been soft early - and is about to get brutal. Illinois still has to play Wisconsin and Ohio State twice, along with a visit to Purdue. Still, a win tonight pulls Illinois within a game of MSU. The Illini have won three straight since a tough loss at Northwestern. They won at Penn State, needed a buzzer-beater from McCamey to beat Indiana at home, then came back to win Wednesday at Iowa. Nothing too impressive, but this team has talent. Weber has been tinkering with his starting lineup all season, too. His latest move was starting Griffey - who had 12 points in the first meeting at MSU - in place of Mike Davis. In Griffey, Davis, Cole and Tisdale, Weber has a lot of big guys who can step outside and shoot. McCamey is playing great basketball lately. But this team still isn't playing vintage Illinois defense. This game is the featured ESPN "GameDay" event, adding some juice to a team and home crowd that would have been fired up anyway.
• Prediction: After tonight, we can truly call it a race. Illinois turns people over at home, and that's bad news for an MSU team that struggled with turnovers even when its primary ballhandler was healthy.
• Make it: Illinois 67, MSU 60
