Hi.

I saw you sitting at the other end of the bar and you looked lonely. I thought I'd come say hi.

I look familiar? You might have seen me before, yes. I've done some things on television. But let's not talk about that right now, let's talk about you. Why do you look so sad?

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We all have those days. A commitment is never easy, and when you've been together this long, say seven or eight years, you can't help but have your doubts. It is completely normal and even to be expected to let your eyes stray. Maybe its the next door neighbor that suddenly looks more attractive, or maybe you have let your eyes wander to someone younger and you just want to see if you can still attract them like you used to.

I am just saying, its okay. Looking, isn't wrong. Maybe things aren't quite like they used to be in the beginning. You hit hard times, but you know, you get past it.

I mean, remember the good times? The reason you two got here in the first place?

It didn't come from nothing. Give it some time. Maybe til the end of March. You know give your self some time to think, see if they get better. Just don't rush things. Unless of course, you know, that neighbor of yours give you their number, then maybe you might want to jump on that.

When last we saw the Illini they were scrapping, clawing and bricking their way to a victory over a top ten Michigan State team. It certainly wasn't pretty, but at this point I am beyond asking for things to look pretty, I just want victories.

Today the Illini look for a season sweep against their old in-state rivals the Northwestern Wildcats, the team whom the Illini have routinely dispatched at home, but had ridden a bad losing streak up in Evanston. Good news is, the Illini broke that streak earlier this season with another one of their patented way too close victories. Bad news is, whenever something good happens to this team, karma conspires to send us back into depression.

This is game the illini need, even with their win over the Spartans on Tuesday, they still have a relatively small margin for error the rest of this season, if they want to get a halfway decent seed in the tournament.

In past years the Illini have driven the Wildcats out of Assembly Hall by simply shooting the net off of the basket, and coming off of the 40 ish point outing against the Spartans, i would certainly take that.

Its getting to be like a broken record, but Illinois' troubles isn't that the offense isn't "working" per se, just that a lot of normally reliable shooters can't sink them. Three pointers were once an important weapon, but the team is now shooting around 30% for the season from beyond the arc, and I don't think we have even hit that number since Ohio State.

If DJ Richardson and Brandon Paul can refind their shot, or Tracy Abrams, Sam Maniscalco or Myke Henry could become a legitimate threat from shooting, a the offense would have far fewer problems.

That and, if the Illini could find a way to get the ball to Meyers Leonard at LEAST every other possession, Northwestern shouldn't really have an answer.

Beyond that though, we know one thing is true, the 'Cats are going to hurl up a lot of their own three pointers, and just try and get enough points by volume to overcome their other disadvantages against the Illini. That means the Illini have to limit their turnovers, grab rebounds, and guard well beyond the arc. If the Illini take more shots than do the Wildcats in this game, I can't see a way that they can lose.

At the end of the day, Illinois beat a top ten Michigan State team at home, ended a three game losing streak, and moved back above .500 in the Big Ten. All of that is great. But frankly, aside from the result, there was very little good about the win tonight.

Fact is Illinois played terribly for very long stretches. Brandon Paul missed two crucial free throws in the final minute that could have iced the game, DJ Richardson made his first three, but missed every one there after, Meyers Leonard had some great blocks, but ended up with just 4 points and 6 boards. MSU had EIGHTEEN offensive rebounds. Joe Bertrand had no points at all, and the offense with Sam Maniscalco at point was unable to produce much of anything.

And yet, Michigan State played way worse. Their star player Draymond Green barely played with consecutive problems of having the flu, getting a technical/foul trouble, and messing his knee up in the final five minutes. Derrick Nix was 1-7, with all of those misses coming from about point blank range.The Spartans had more turnovers, (15) than they had made baskets (14).

The bright spot seems to be the defense, and I will hand the Illini that, Michigan State didn't shoot so poorly without the defense having some effect.

Fact is, Illinois was very close to losing this game, and the way they played most of the game, it is a surprise that they did. But to be fair, they played well enough to beat Penn State, and played more than well enough to beat Minnesots, but they still lost those anyway. Things broke the Illini's way in the final moments of this game, with Nix missing a free throw and Kieth Appling missing his last shot, and they were certainly do for some good breaks.

It is a game where the team didn't play well and they won, and personally I will take those over a hard fought loss, because a win is still a win, as Akon reminds us.

All of that said, this win, no matter how it was achieved, is huge. Another top 10 win, and a complete crisis averted. It is a win that helps dramatically in the quest to keep off of the bubble, and keeps Illinois alive at least for a decent seed in the Big Ten Tournament, and one game closer to 20 wins.

There is a lot that needs to be cleaned up before Sunday's game against Northwestern, but I am much happier that it is done after a win than a loss.

Now let us never speak of this again.

There really isn't much to say about this one. Given that the first Illinois Minnesota game went to overtime in Champaign, I really shouldn't be surprised that this one went into extra minutes too. But it should not have. These teams have been playing each other very close, and you can't afford to make dumb mistakes and expect to win. Down the stretch, both Illinois and the Gophers made dumb mistakes, which swung the pendulum back and forth wildly. Illinois goes on a 17-2 run, takes the lead, then turns the ball over a bunch of times. Minnesota gives Illinois a four point possession, Illinois does not cover the three pointer in transition. Both teams had idiotic out of bounds mistakes, and both teams had terrible decisions on fouls in the last minute. Unfortunately, Illinois' foul was way way more costly.

Up three and 20 seconds to go, Illinois could have done one of the following things to win the game. A: foul way far away from the basket, before Minnesota even thought about shooting. B: clear the lane and let them get the easy layup. Or C: foul the shooter, but make damn sure you foul him hard enough so he can't make the shot. Illinois opted for option D: lightly foul the shooter in the act, but not enough to change his shot, and keep your feet moving so the refs HAVE to call it. (They didn't have to, yes, and Doug Gotlieb thinks they were hosed, but Meyers was moving way too much not to attract attention.)

All of the sudden, Illinois lost the lead, with no time to get a good shot off, and lost the most talented big man on the floor. They lost in overtime.

The game was defined by inexperienced mistakes, the mistakes we thought we wouldn't see because Illinois had been in so many close games already this season. That is not the case though. And for all the bright spots of the game, Tracy playing very well on offense, Brandon Paul once again taking over in the second half, there were too many bad notes as well. The bench, that was at one point going to be a strength this season, is an absolute liability now, and it has been since Joe moved into the lineup. This compared to the Gophers, where otherwise unheralded players took Illinois to school for a stretch in the first half.

The offense only really moved in the second half when Brandon simply took the game over, and cleared the lane for himself. When that happens it is a thing of beauty, but even his heroics weren't enough. Until overtime, and in desperation mode at that, three point shooting for Illinois was a non factor, with DJ and Sam Maniscalco, two players whose main offensive weapon is the three-ball combining for 1-9. That is just about as catastrophic as it gets. Illinois basically played without what has been its major offensive threat at times this season.

Offensively, the team has devolved into Meyers and Brandon doing everything themselves, accounting for 62% off all of the points. This isn't a bad thing if you can play them for 40 minutes each and make sure they get the ball with a decent look, but the passing of this team just can't guarantee that.

Things are really bad right now. Really bad, three game losing streak bad. You can turn things around to a degree, but the road is much much harder now, starting with a visit from Michigan State Tuesday night. Brace yourselves, things could get worse. If this was the breaking point of the season, and the team lost, does that mean the whole thing is broke?