Robin Scholz - AP

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Well thankfully our week without any competitive men's basketball was filled in with coaching dismissals, coaching hires, and players declaring for the NFL. All of it very important and interesting but I will always prefer actual games to speculation about future seasons. That said, lets talk about tonight's basketball game shall we?

The Illini travel tonight to face the struggling Georgia Bulldogs on dreaded neutral court in Atlanta Duluth, Georgia. The Bulldogs are not very good this year, and come into this game riding a two game losing streak, and earlier this year lost to common opponent Wofford.

Of course the last time the Illini went to a neutral court against a presumably over matched opponent, we got the last second loss to Utah, and then to Bradley. So I suppose we are in no position to really take many opponents lightly. Its hard to ignore the blow out the Illini dealt the Bulldogs last season in Chicago though. In that game the Illini ran away with it in the second half, outscoring UGA 46-19.  Even Bruce admitted that Georgia laid down in the second half and pretty much just accepted defeat. Better yet, the three players who played the best last year, are back in Davis Tis and DMAC.

With the new coach however, I don't expect Georgia to just roll over and accept it like they did last year. They have a quality big man in Trey Tompkins and I assume he will be the player that Bruce wishes to stop most in this game. For the season they have been shooting a respectable 43% from the field, but well behind the Illini, who are nearly making 50% of all shots they take.

Paul Klee said earlier this week that with the right kind of defense, and a shooting percentage that high, the Illini can really starting blowing out their opponents. Offense has not been what the Illini have been lacking so far this year, however, its consistent defense. Defense that, to be fair, has really picked up in the last two games. I for one think that the D is only going to keep getting better as the year goes on, and the freshmen only get more experienced.

I honestly don't think the Illini will have much of a problem with Georgia tonight, They have not played well this year, and I can't shake the memory of the Illini just shooting them out of the building last year. I think the Illini win comfortably.