Saturday, February 5, 2011: Illinois Fighting Illini (14-7, 5-4) vs. Northwestern Wildcats (13-8, 3-7)

Illinois loses to Northwestern 71-70, failing again to show up on the road.

The close score does not reflect the actual game, which the Illini never led and trailed by double digits multiple times.

Here is a recap of the game.

It’s getting to be a waste of time analyzing this team.

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Illinois sophomore guard D.J. Richarson (#1) rises and fires a jumper during Tuesday night's victory against Penn State.

Courtesy of Nick Houska, who graciously braved the elements on Tuesday night, here are some photos from the Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball team’s victory against the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Enjoy.

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Thursday, January 27, 2011: Illinois Fighting Illini (14-6, 4-3) vs. Indiana Hoosiers (10-10, 1-6)

Illinois falls to the Indiana Hoosiers 52-49 during an ugly loss that creates some serious doubts about this team’s NCAA tournament chances (are we really reliving this song and dance again?).

Senior guard Demetri McCamey (6 points on 2-11 shooting, 3 assists, 5 turnovers) was a non-factor for the second consecutive game, and the Illini were unable to get any real offense going en route to shooting 32 percent from the field and 25 percent from the three-point line.

After coming from behind to take a 32-30 lead at the half, Illinois went more than five minutes without a basket in the second half and only scored 17 points in the final 20 minutes as the Hoosiers pulled off their first win against a top-25 team since Tom Crean became the head coach.

All of Illinois’ guards struggled in tonight’s game, and the team was only kept in the game thanks to some very strong rebounding from the post players.

Mike Davis (14 points, 7 rebounds) was the only Illini in double-figure scoring. Coming off the bench, Jereme Richmond just missed his second career double double, finishing with 9 points and 11 rebounds.

Illinois center Mike Tisdale (8 points, 6 rebounds) had a huge turnover with less than 30 seconds remaining, and Brandon Paul (5 points) missed a potential game-tying three at the horn, resulting in yet another Illini loss to an inferior opponent.

Much more on this tomorrow and what it means for these players as March approaches.

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