Northwestern at Illinois preview: Welcome to bizzaro world.

What has the world come to, I ask. When the sad sack Wildcats of Northwestern are coming into the Assembly Hall ranked in the AP top 25 and the Illini riding a two game losing streak, something in the universe is seriously amiss. The Illini having made 9 of the last 10 NCAA tournaments and the Wildcats having never gone whatsoever, it is a beautiful bit of cosmic justice given the divergent decade the two teams have had in football.

But here I sit, typing at my computer in my Illini Snuggie, shaking the cobwebs off from my holiday hiatus and wondering if Ed DeChellis Bill Carmody (me = dumbass) and his mighty Princeton offense will overwhelm our apparently beleaguered Illini. Oh and they don't even have Kevin Coble. What the hell is going on here. I feel that at some point over the past year, I slipped into an alternate universe logic no longer applies.

On the bright side, Vegas has not slipped into the crazy land, and the Illini are still favored at home against the 'Cats. And why not? By far the best games the Illini have played this year have been at home, where they beat Vanderbilt and Boise State with two quality end to end games. The freshmen especially seem to play much better at home than they have elsewhere, especially the neutral court games.

I don't want to get into the fact that last year it took a late surge by Trent Meacham and a last second bucket by Demetri McCamey to actually win, because in world it should not be that close.I think I would like to see alot of Dominique Keller this game,he seemed to be a bit diminished in his playing time against Mizzou, but I believe he is the sort of guy who can really turn a game around when it goes south, because he plays with the sort of forcefulness that really isn't seen by the other players. Bill Cole will no doubt be seeing even more time, especially as Bruce tries to shore up the defense, and without Alex Legion behind him anymore, I assume his status of first guard off te bench has only been solidified.

I am guessing that next semester we may see another  scholarship reward to Jeff Jordan who will once again reap the benefits of a player's departure.

Game is tonight at 8 central on BTN.