Illinois 59 Minnesota 49

This picture is good news for Illini fans everywhere. Not only is Jamar Smith showing some fight again, he's showing the healthy ankle to go with it. The microwave might be on his way back, after dropping in 13 on the strength of three 3-pointers in the Illini win. His stroke looked smooth once again, especially as the game progressed. At first it looked as though his shooting woes would continue, but he lit it up in the second half as part of the Illini run that changed a four point halftime lead to a 21 point lead with 10 minutes to go in the game. Rich McBride also contributed 13 on three 3-pointers, including a shot that looked closer to half court than to the three point line.

The first half wasn't the greatest for the Illini, down 20-18 at one point. If Minnesota would have hit their wide open three point attempts, the margin would have been much larger. But that is why Minnesota is at the bottom of the conference in scoring and near the bottom in the standings. Although I have got to give the Gophers credit, they fought back to get it into single digits late in the game and put a little scare in the Illini faithful. Not only that, but this Illini fan had horrible Vietnam-esque flashbacks to the Penn St. game last year.

Illinois now sits at 5-5 in the conference with six more games to play. The bad news is that 4 of those six games are on the road. The good news is that two of those games are Northwestern and Penn St., with the two home games bringing Northwestern (again) and Michigan into town. Doing some of Bruce's math, that would put Illinois into the NCAA tournament with 21 overall wins and 9 conference wins. Now, personally, I think it's going to take a win at either Indiana or Iowa as well as a semifinal appearance in the Big Ten Tournament to get Illinois to the Big Dance.

Then again, Bruce owns an orange blazer and I don't, that should tell you something about credibility.

Illini Gain Ground in Big Ten with Home Victory (Daily Illini)