So let's start with something that has no effect on this season

Gordon de-committs from Illinois, now a Hoosier

Also known as, Eric Gordon strings along an entire school fanbase for 11 months and leaves us hanging for a two/three guard three weeks before signing day.

With Meacham, Frazier, and Jamar all sophs, I'm not sweating the Gordon loss too much, unless they regress. Here's to Gordon being one and done for a 19-12 Hoosiers team.

And a three year tenure for Kelvin Sampson before the Indiana faithful get sick of him and his recruiting antics and let him go.

Now see, we avoid this issue by not going after top notch basketball recruits.

HAHA... I actually think the Nits may be the sleepers in the Big 10 this year. Aside from breaking the Assembly streak, Penn St. was oh-so-close in quite a few other games. If they can finish off those games this year, they should be in the running for an NCAA bid.

Of course everyone will forget about whatshisname if Rose does a 180 and is so impressed with his visit this weekend that he decides to come to Champaign.

I really have no belief he'll end up here. Maybe things will work out in the same way my complete confidence in Eric Gordon did. I wouldn't argue with that.

From the feel of things, Gordon's de-committment has opened the door for Rose to the Illini, since Illinois has went from not in the Top 5 to let's make our last visit and top 3 (even though I think Gordon being a Hoosier has eliminated IU). But as of now, the last second Rose interest is more like a playing with house money situation.

I firmly believe Derrick Rose will have something blue on next Saturday when he makes his decision. If Weber and the staff pull off a little 12th hour magic there will be some Orange with that too.

Basketball season is finally here, and already the Wildcats have a loss on their record after losing at home to Cornell of all people. Illinois handled Austin Peay 80 - 35 without Richard McBride who is still serving a suspension for DUI.

The Illini win has come at a cost, with Jamar Smith out 4-6 weeks and Brian Randle out indefinitely.

But I'm sure the pain of those losses stings a little less since Indiana lost to Butler tonight 60-55.

Yeah, Jamar's injury was much worse than they were indicating last night. That sucks he's going to miss the Maryland game and possibly the Braggin' Rights game with Mizzou. Randle isn't out indefintely as much as it is week-to-week. As long as everyone is healthy for Big Ten season (and we don't lose to Savannah State), I'll be happy.

Nice surprise with the way Michigan State has gotten out of the gates! An upset win over Texas, and a two point loss to Maryland. Playing much better than I expected, since they're starting one Jr, two Sophs, and two Freshman. Frankly, I'm just hoping they gel as a team this season, since we have an amazing class coming in next year.....

Michigan State is off to a great 4-1 start. Izzo is a great coach and he knows how to get the most out of his players. I'm sure he will have MSU rolling and competitive during Big 10 play.

Welcome back Jamar!

Smith had 14 pts in 17 minutes in helping Illinois fight off a pesky Bradley team 75-71.

It looks like Dan Monson will be the first to go this season. Monson, just like his father Don, parlayed a mid-major run into a major job that didn't pan out.

Wisconsin needs to watch out tonight as they take on Winthrop.

Just like North Dakota State beat UW last Feb. and then waltzed into Milwaukee to beat Marquette on Saturday, Winthrop knocked off Marquette last season, and now come into Madison.

the Illini are back at full strength with Brian Randle's return today against UIC.

The Badgers, having knocked off one Big East power, Marquette, now looks to Saturday's game vs. #2 in the nation, Pittsburgh.

Those teams have already played two common opponents: Florida State and Auburn. Pitt beat Florida State 88-66 at home and won at Auburn, 74-66.

Wisconsin beat Florida State, 81-66 at home and Auburn, 77-63 at the South Padre Island tourney.

This one's at the Kohl Center -- I'll say Wisconsin eeks it out by 3.

Well, I said Badgers by 3, but it wasn't even near that close. Fun times. Best game I've ever seen Brian Butch play -- can't wait to see how he and Chappel do against Oden.

Should be in the top five tomorrow. Unchartered territory for the program.

Badgers way up at #4 in the polls -- never been there before. Hope they don't get a nose bleed ...

Two Big Ten teams in Big Games on Saturday. Michigan travels to #1 ucla. and d'OSU goes to Florida in a nice parallel matchup to the football championship.

My take in Michigan will get beat handily. I'm hoping for the Buckeye win -- want both the Badgers and them to be hughly raned for their early January game.

Badgers have to take care of business first -- face yet another NCAA tourney team -- this time Pacific.

Good on the Badgers, looking like that match-up between Wisky and some sort of OSU is going to be awesome. But in the short-term, I'm looking forward to the OSU/Florida game.

Conference play has begun with 40 year old frosh Oden leading the Buckeyes to victory over IU.

What do you think we've learned from non-conference play?

OSU and Wisconsin still the teams to beat.

Illinois (esp. due to a favorable sked) and Michigan State may contend.

Purdue, if Landry plays well, will beat up a few teams.

Still don't know what to say about Indiana.

Michigan has shown it can't win the big games.

I thought PSU would be better than they've played.

Iowa is not good. Goofs and Mildcats worse.

Ugh, Illinois is in a lot of trouble. I don't know what's wrong with them right now. Sometimes they look great and sometimes they just look awful.

Michigan State certainly didn't look like a 'contender' last night. And while Iowa may not have looked good earlier in the season, they did look good last night.

We'll wait for your mid-season report before asking for re-evaluations Bucky.

Iowa did look good last night and its always hard to play in the Big 10 on the road.

The Illini get off the schnide with a win over Iowa. I guess Lunardi having them out of Bracketology may have fired them up.

Ohio State @ Wisconsin was a great game yesterday. I'm sure the teams will meet in the Big 10 Tourney Championship game if they continue to play well. Orlando Tucker (Wisconsin) is a special player.

Yeah terrific game -- very nervous last minute for me though. Badgers did a great job of limiting Oden for most of the game, but couldn't stop d'OSU's three pointers.

Tucker is a special player -- probable national POY candidate -- so -- it's just pet peeve of mine -- he deserves to have his name spelled correctly. It's Alando -- nothing to do with a town in Florida.

I was pleased that despite a so-so game from him against d'OSU, other Badgers (Taylor, Landry, Flowers) stepped up and they were able to win.

I know his name is Alando Tucker. Just was spelling too fast but since its your pet peeve ORLANDO Tucker is awesome haha..jk..

But I was just wondering how all the national basketball gurus lol cause select Ohio State over Wisconsin in the Big 10 despite the Badgers having more players with overall experience.

That just didn't seem right to me no matter the publicity of Ohio State's great freshman class or well Mr. Greg Oden lol.

I'm going to the Badgers at Northwestern game today. I'm a little nervous for the Badgers cause 3 years ago a loss at Northwestern cost us the Big Ten Title. So we need to come out and play well and not take them lightly.

I agree with you Bucky we showed that Tucker is not our whole team. I'm concerned though about his free throw shooting. 1 for 6 the other day is inexcusable. But luckily Taylor (aka Chris Rock) really stepped it up. Even though Ohio St didn't play their best you can see why this team is so dangerous and I think they are a national title contender if Odom gets 100% healthy.

Nice comeback win for the Spartans against Illinois today. Illinois just seemed to get away from what had been successful in the first half....
I didn't think State did anything very complicated in the 2nd half, but they did hit the boards harder...

Oh, but Izzo's got to get them playing more aggressively in the first half. That's three bad first halves in their last four. Iowa was bad, Illinois was bad, Indiana was horrendous. They're in danger of playing themselves right onto the NCAA tournament bubble, and they'll get blown out of the building by both Wisconsin and Ohio State, just like they did by Indiana, if they play first halves like that against either one of them.

On paper, lately it always seems like the Badgers should beat up NU anytime, anywhere -- esp. this season. But they always have a tough time down in Evanston. A Mildcat steps up and has a career day against UW and they pull out the upset. So I was nervous too. Really nice win for them considering the history.

Tonight will be a fun matchup as Wisconsin with Marcus Landry take on Purdue, with his big brother Carl, in as the main player. Hopefully they'll shut Carl down -- I don't know who else on PU scores as well.

Carl Landry seems to be to PU what Adam Haluska is to the Hawkeyes. Haluska had an awful first half, but turned it on the the second to make a close game down in Bloomington out of what had been a rout.

Will be keeping my eye on the Illini at Goofs game tonight too. Illinois really needs this road win badly!

Butt ugly win for the Badgers last night -- but I'll take the W over the alternative. I take solace that while the big three for the Badgers -- Tucker, Taylor, Butch - didn't score much, someone else once again stepped up to make the difference -- this time Chappell.

3 of the 4 next games on the road against the I teams: Illinois, Iowa and Indiana. I'm sure they'll lose at least one of those -- most worried about the Hoosiers.

Interesting trivia in the paper this morning -- with last night's loss in Madison, Purdue hasn't won on the road (be it non-conf. or Big Ten) in nearly three years.

d'OSU gave NU a thumpin' too. Mildcats haven't won in Columbus since 1977.

Illinois got the win last night against Minnesota, extending their winning streak over the Gophers to extend their win streak over MU to 16.

Wisky comes to Champaign on Saturday for another national broadcast game. You're going down Bucky!

Going down on whom now? Illinois has a nice balanced scoring attack -- Carter, McBride. I'm most worried about Randal. Still we'll see if Wisconsin's D can slow them down (can't count on the awful shooting that IL had against d'OSU). Badgers haven't won down in Champana since the mid-90s.

Randle hasn't been very active save the Iowa game. He needs a real break-out game, and I really don't think it's going to be against Wisconsin.

And the correct terminology is Chambana.

Thanks for the correction! re: Randle -- I thought he looked pretty good against the Goofs -- but I only saw part of that game (and then again, it was the Goofs, and well, everyone should look pretty good against them this season).

forgot to mention that I'm looking forward to IU at UConn tomorrow too. Hoosiers seem to have put it together of late.

Good indication of how far Wisc. program has come (or perhaps more an indication of how bad they used to be):

This season's senior class of Tucker, Taylor and Chappel is the first in Wisconsin history to have won games in all ten of the opponent's arenas.

It was pretty nasty between Coach Kelvin Sampson and Bruce Webber in Indiana @ Illinois. I know Weber hasn't been happy with Sampson's recruiting practices and especially star prep Eric Gordon de-committing from Illionois to Indiana.

Nor should he be. I hope Weber never gives Sampson the time of day.

Big win at home for Illinois, needed that one. The road smooths out from here on out. 7-3 is realistic.

Badgers on a roll -- have now set a school record for consecutive wins -- and match a 20-1 record with a 1918 (or so) team. And open the Big Ten at 6-0 for the first time since that era.

As someone who grew up follwing and attended the school during an awful stretch -- and then got excited when they began just making the NIT -- THIS IS FUN!!!

Nice win against Meechigan, even with Tucker spending 15 minutes on the bench in the first half due to two quick fouls. Two tough road games now -- @ Iowa (shut down Haluska and they should win) and @ Indiana (which I'm much more worried about).

I had the NU-d'OSU game on the PC last night too. Mildcats gave them a run for their money -- but no dice in the end.

btw -- Illini_fan -- did you catch the picture of Ron Zook napping during Saturday's Badger/Illini game? (defenders claimit just looked like dozing -- he was just texting recruits ...)

Lol, yes I did see that. I kept thinking, "please look up, please look up, people are going to think you are sleeping". Although if you watch his the top of his face you can tell he is blinking and looks like he is texting somebody.


I mean, how can you sleep in Assembly Hall? If you've ever been in there you know how loud it can get.

My weekend Big Ten Preview

I like your blog -- nice compilation. I think it would be fun, though, if you made predictions for all the games -- not just the Illini. Just pick Minnesota to lose from now on, and you''' be doing fine!

Tonight's Illini vs. MSU will be a good one -- hope I can stay awake past halftime (no reflection on the quality of the game -- it's just that I'm usually in bed by 10... )

I will predict a Wisconsin loss tomorrow at Indiana DJ White will be too much to handle. But Badgers will be helped in the standing by Sparty this weekend when they defeat d'OSU up in East Lansing.

Nah, Wisky is going to take down Indiana tomorrow as long as they move well on the perimeter to stop the inside-outside game of Indiana.

Badger D just couldn't stop the Hoosiers in the second half -- IU hit nearly 63% of their shots then And Ratliff was on target. A bunch of unforced TO by Wisconsin (travelling, wayward passes and the like) sure didn't help.

But I got some satisfaction seeing Hoosier fans rush the court after the buzzer. For beating Wisconsin of all things. How times have changed.

Time to start another winning streak!

That's the spirit Bucky. Although I was really jealous of IU fans last year when they rushed the court in Bloomington, it was a little flattering to see them rush because they beat Illinois.

My Big Ten Preview 2/3