Illinois at Indiana
4 pm
TV: ESPNU
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Nebraska is top of the Big Ten and Indiana is in last place. No? No, it isn’t, because nothing makes a damn bit of sense in the Big Ten this year. The Hoosiers (10-5, 0-2) came into the year as Final Four contenders and Nebraska, well, they also fielded a team.
So here we are, January 7th, with Illinois headed to Bloomington to face a Hoosiers team that has lost three games in a row and also lost to Fort Wayne earlier this season. It’s not exactly what you might have predicted. Except, what can you predict anymore? Ohio State almost beat Purdue after losing to Illinois, Minnesota did beat Purdue and also beat Northwestern, and, oh, Northwestern is good this year!
All of this makes trying to preview Illinois’s clash at Indiana seem like a fool’s errand. It could be a return to form for Indiana that ends up worse for the Illini than the Maryland loss; it could be a fourth consecutive loss for the Hoosiers as they continue to crumble; or it could be a nail-biter that hinges on the great match-up between Malcolm Hill and James Blackmon. Your guess is as good as anyone’s, literally.
My prediction: LOL