Hooray for mainstream media recognition. The Illini have broken the top 20 after a week that saw an epic come from behind victory at NU, and a nervous second half snoozer at IU.

Maybe for once the conference is getting some credit for its depth, maybe the media types just read box scores to determine their ballots. I don't know, but either way the Illini are 18 in the AP and 16 in the coaches poll. Big Ten road wins count for something, even if they are against Northwestern and Indiana.

As it stands now, with the Illini at 21-5, 9-4 in conference, it is impossible for the Illini to finish worse than .500 in the Big Ten. So far in conference Illinois is unbeaten at home, so taking 2 out of 3 against PSU MSU and Minny would allow this team to reach 23 wins, take down either PSU or OSU on the road and one win in the Big Ten tournament and this team could easily have a record of 25 and 7.  Hopefully, depending on alot of things the team will have a record worthy of a 4 seed in the the NCAA tournament, with a friendly proximity for the fans. Maybe thats too much to hope for, but I am an optimist.

It would take even more of an optimist to hope for a regular season Big Ten Championship, as the most realistic scenario would require the Illini to sweep their final five conference games including at home against MSU. All of this has to happen and the Spartans will have to lose again, in order for the Illini to have just a share of the Big Ten title. With MSU and Purdue playing two times down the stretch. Its alot to hope for, but there is at least a possibility, and after last year, even the possibility of a Big Ten crown seemed out of reach for years down the road.