#18 Indiana (22-6, 12-3)
All time: 86-88 (last: Illinois 69, Indiana 103, 1/19/16 in Bloomington)
Tip-off: 8 p.m.
TV: ESPN
The Hoosiers utterly dominated Illinois when they met earlier this season, there’s no other way to describe how they beat the Illini. Indiana set a Big Ten record with 19 made threes and just made Illinois look silly. What Illinois have to do this evening, is simply avoid such a fate.
At this point, Illinois is almost guaranteed to playing on Wednesday of the Big Ten Tournament. They’re surely one of the four worst teams in the conference this year, so their best bet is to play spoiler. They might be able to do so against Indiana, as the Hoosiers are just 1-3 in their last 4 road games, including a loss at Penn State. However, the numbers aren’t in Illinois’s favor. Indiana is first in the conference in scoring, field goal percentage, and three point shots made per game, whereas Illinois is 13th in scoring defense, 14th in field percentage defense, and 13th in three point defense.
The Illini showed heart in the first half at Wisconsin on Sunday, but failed to maintain a 13-point lead and lost. If they could maintain high-level minutes against Indiana, another upset could be in the cards. Simply avoiding embarrassment is a more reasonable expectation, though.
Likely starting lineups
Illinois: Khalid Lewis, guard; Jalen Coleman-Lands, guard; Kendrick Nunn, guard; Malcolm Hill, guard; Maverick Morgan, center
Indiana: Yogi Ferrell, guard; Nick Zeisloft, guard; Max Biefeldt, forward; Troy Williams, forward; Thomas Bryant, forward
Gut feeling
Maybe the start of baseball season is to blame, but there’s a definite “just get through this” feeling lingering over the Illini schedule. This season is lost, and with just two home games left I almost want to fast-forward through this. Indiana is a very good team and Illinois is not. The result will likely indicate as much.