The Illini did not exactly walk into the best of situations on Wednesday: Cirque Du Soleil, the most important game in the history of a school called Stony Brook,  the massive letdown of Selection Sunday, all of it contributed to what could have been a catastrophic loss. There was an air of negativity around the whole situation, it could have ended in the season in the worst way imaginable.

But, it didn't. You have to give the team credit, they made it out alive. They survived long enough for me to take glee in the loss of Bill Self and Kansas, if you think about it, the Illini still have a chance to end their season with a basketball championship, and the Jayhawks do not. It is not really comparable, but I will take it.

The Illini did reach the 20 win benchmark of a good season and will play at least one more home game. For me, the Illini win was somewhat of a cathartic one. A terribly bad first half and a very solid second encapsulated my disappointment of this season and somewhat allowed me to get past it. The regular season was a disappointment, but it is over. At the same time the Illini are still playing, and they are playing a team that gave them hell last year.

I didn't watch the match up between the Golden Flashes and the Illini last year. It was part of the South Padre Island Invitational and thus only available on Fox Sports Southwest. I listened to the slug fest on the radio with Brian Barnhart describing Chester Frazier diving all over the floor on an injured hip and making a name for himself as the toughest player on the court no matter who he was playing. He played 42 of the games 45 minutes, not that any of us need to be reminded of how important he was to that team.

There is some good news from that game though, the Illini's three leading scorers from the game are still here, Mike Tisdale, Mike Davis and Demetri McCamey combined for a whopping 46 points. Mike Tisdale alone had 20 and 7, while Davis recorded one of his first double-doubles with 17 and 13.

Even more good news, Kent State's leading scorer from that game, Al Fisher graduated.

Of course, there has been an awful lot of time since last these two teams met.

The Golden Flashes just made it by Tulsa last week by 1 point and fell to then lowly Ohio in the MAC tournament to end their tournament hopes but blew through the MAC regular season with only 3 conference losses. They don't have any Goliaths  notched on their belt but after a team from the MVC took down the #1 of #1's, you wont find me playing the conference superiority card.

They have five players averaging at least 9 points per game, with Sophomore forward Justin Greene leading the way with 13.6 pts and nearly 7 rebounds per game. The team averages about 70 points per game and keep about the same tempo as the Illini. (68 possessions per game) Good news is, this team shouldn't be the type of team that kills us from 3. Hitting at only 31% from range and the 3 ball only accounting for only 24% of their offense. They do get to the free throw line a lot more than the Illini, so this could another one of those games where we ask ourselves "How did the free throw differential get this out of whack?"

My opinion, we should be able to outscore and out rebound Kent State with our big men. If Demetri can feed them down low and if Tisdale can keep out of foul trouble, the Illini should win this game, and hopefully take advantage of their home court. Hey, it's only two wins to New York, guys.

Tip is 7pm Central on Da UUUUUUUU. err ESPNU that is.