Fighting Illini at Indiana Hoosiers Preview: We Are All Still Waiting.

Tonight's match up features two teams who have been waiting for a very long time, waiting to a return to excellence and a deep tun into the NCAA tournament, something both fan bases expect. For Illinois, it has been six years since the Final Four run, five years since an NCAA tournament victory, and three years of waiting for our core of now seniors to get the team back to prominence.

For Indiana the have been chasing Bobby Knight for a decade now, even when Mike Davis, (the coaching one) took the team all the way to the championship game, the program was unsatisfied, and gave him the boot a few short years later, due largely to some high profile recruiting misses. Davis was fired, and in was brought Kelvin Sampson.

Here is where the two stories cross, really. Bruce Weber had not capitalized on the Final Four run of '05 with any big recruiting "gets" until he was able to secure the commitment of Eric Gordon from Indianapolis, the hands down Indiana Mr. Basketball, and a for sure one and done. In a year where the Illini would miss on the likes of Evan Turner, Derrick Rose, E'Twaun Moore and Lewis Jackson (and even had a shot at Robbie Hummel) Gordon was the jewel that made and otherwise unheralded class worth it.

Then came a de-commitment, (at this point believe it or not, I am over it) a commitment to Sampson and IU, and two years of acrimony that the Indiana and Illinois rivalry had not seen in a very long time. The low point of the Illini basketball program took place from 2007 to 2008, off the court problems one year, and a free fall into the conference cellar the next. Meanwhile Indiana seemed to be on its way back to the prominence so long expected from Hoosier fans, the team had a star player, and several good players on the way, and was headed toward a Sweet Sixteen (at least.) Then the recruiting violations came to light, and before you knew it, Kelvin Sampson was fired mid-season, the team was knocked out in the first round. That off-season, there was a mass exodus, players all either went to the NBA or transferred. The program blew up, sanctions from Sampson's violations were imposed, scholarships reduced, and after all was said and done, Tom Crean was hired as the new basketball coach.

For whatever reason, we are more or less in the same place we were two or three years ago. Both teams are being led by the starters from that 2008/09 season. Both teams are looking forward to better days, after a few years of great recruiting, and neither team is any threat to win the Big Ten title this year. Meanwhile, Thad Matta has had two top five draft picks over the last few years, one from Indiana and one from Illinois, and is coasting to another Big Ten title (perhaps all of our anger has been misplaced, but i digress.)

I don't mean to put Illinois and Indiana on the same level here, because the Illini are in a phenomenally better situation that the Hoosiers, and haven't lost to them since Eric Gordon was still playing for them. In fact over Weber's tenure at Illinois, he is 10-4 against the Hoosiers, a win tonight would shift the all time series in favor of the Illini.

IU is in a deeper hole than I think many would have thought at this point in the Crean regime. They are 1-4 in the Big Ten, and have lost Maurice Creek and Verdell Jones III for an uncertain amount of time. (Jones could still possibly play tonight.) With no established class to build on, Crean has been forced to make do with less than Indiana level recruiting, and has had prime Indiana players go to Purdue and Ohio State. Some IU fans have to be asking, at some point, how long does it take to rebuild, apparently at least four years.

By the same token, we have been waiting too. The seniors this year have been living in the shadow of the more successful and publicized players from the 2007 class. Demetri McCamey, Bill Cole, Mike Tisdale and Mike Davis were the consolation prizes for many Illini fans envious of other Big Ten teams and their star players, but at the same time have had the weight of the program put on their shoulders.

It is unlikely at this point that this team will be raising a Big Ten regular season banner, but nothing less is expected of them. There is still a very good chance that this Illinois team will surprise people, that it will find a groove in February that will carry it to a successful March. Starting tonight, the Illini have a chance to go on a very big roll. A very favorable four game stretch sits before them, with IU, Penn State, Northwestern, and now an Al Nolen-less Minnesota. Illinois could very well be favored in five of the next six games.

If there is a team that Bruce Weber has relished in beating up and gut punching, it has been Indiana, and I expect nothing less tonight. I don't care what manner of student promotion IU has going, Illinois will out to humiliate the Hoosiers, because while I may be over 2007, I don't think many people on the coaching staff are. (Bonus points if Chester chest bumps an IU grad assistant tonight.)

Prediction: Illini romp 78-62