Illinois had faced some tough times after initially being ranked as a top-25 team early in the season, but they've picked it up in conference play and started the Big Ten season 2-0.
IU will have several things to worry about when facing the Illini. Here are a couple of charted bits on Illinois, coupled with a fresh quote from Crean on forward Mike Davis and center Mike Tisdale.
Scoring
The Illini have a balanced attack with five players charting double digit averages in scoring. All of those players are ranked within the top-30 scorers of the conference. Here's a quick look at their even distribution of the scoring load:
Illini point averages
McCamey - 13.8
Davis - 12.4
Tisdale -11.7
Richardson - 11.0
Paul - 10.4
Leading the pack
The Illini also benefit from having the conference's top assist man in McCamey at 5.7 and the leading rebounder in Davis, who averages 10 per contest to complete a double-double average for the season thus far.
But enough of what I dug up on the Illini, here is a comment on Tisdale and Davis from IU coach Tom Crean's press meeting this afternoon.
"They're two of the quickest big shooters that I've seen in a long time -- and the jump hook, the turn-around jumper -- all those things are really good"
