Illinois at Michigan State Preview: This One Is For Some Of The Marbles

How is this game not being more hyped? Its a battle between two teams that are undefeated in the Big Ten! Conceivably this will be the game that decides the entire race! Just because we arent even half way through the conference schedule? Oh well I suppose that is a valid argument.

Look, I know that this has got to be least hyped and probably worst team the Illini have ever led the Big Ten with (yes I am still going to keep saying that, I'll keep saying it until we lose!) But look at this way, the Illini have played good teams (Gonzaga, Clemson) mediocre teams (Northwestern) and bad teams (Georgia, Indiana and Penn State) right down to the wire, winning some and losing others. The facts tell me that this is a team that can't really pull away from bad teams, and wont roll over to better teams. There is some comfort that can be taken in that fact, that the Illini will almost always have a shot to win, even against the likes of Michigan State.

The key will be whether or not the two freshmen and Mike Davis are able to recapture even a little bit of the early season awesome they once had earlier this season. D.J. seems to have worked his way through the funk somewhat, but Brandon Paul is still suffering from the after effects of the loss of his night-elf mohawk. Like Sampson in Biblical times, it seems the reigning Illinois Mr. Basketball's strength lay in his hair. Alas. What may be most important about these freshmen however is their speed. We all know that MSU likes to run, so these two speedy guards are going to have to haul ass back on defense in order to prevent the Spartans to get gobs of points off of easy baskets.

The Spartans also have a tendency to turn the ball over quite a bit, a stat that is often negated by the higher number of possessions in the game, but still an exploitable weakness if attacked right. You know what I am getting at here. We need to go all Wisconsin on everybody's ass. Slow down the offense, milk the clock, take good shots and get your ass back down the floor to defend.

Its the strategy that very nearly worked last year, and we can only will be enough this year. We are riding 4 straight losses to the Spartans, and haven't won in East Lansing since 2006, so the odds are against us. But I am an optimist, and am hoping the Illini will score themselves a very valuable road win this weekend.

Game tip is 2:30 central on CBS