Postpone raking the leaves until Sunday and skip that five-year kid down the street’s birthday party. Thanks to some brave scheduling and a little luck of the calendar, the Big Ten has games too good to miss on Saturday.

Illinois on West Madison

Former Northwestern coach Kevin O’Neill leads Arizona into the United Center to face Illinois. Illinois heads into the game, as usual, banged up. Shaun Pruitt sprained his ankle this week in practice but will give it a go-go and seldom used out of shape Brian Carwell messed up his knee, further jeopardizing any chance he contributes this season.

With O’Neill running a tighter offensive and defensive ship than Lute Olsen, Arizona is led by Frosh Jerryd Bayless and Sophomore Chase Budinger. Illinois will need to reply on Brian Randle to shine in his role as the primary defender on Budinger without, hopefully, running into frustrating foul trouble or relegating his offensive potential to the storage bins. Illinois seems to rise to the occasion in the United Center and they’ll need every bit of energy from the Illini Nation against the Wildcats.

Beilein Gives No Quarter

While Michigan AD Bill Martin continues to lead what can only be characterized as a bungled search for a football coach at one of the premier universities in the Country, Michigan basketball gets the joy of traveling to Durham to play Duke. Not making the trip is Jerrett Smith who was told by John Beilein to stay in Ann Arbor and hit the books.

Aiming to add a third Big Ten victim to its season, the Duke band of brothers will also assuredly be looking to rub some more salt into the wound compatriot Tommy Amaker and Harvard inflicted last week. With eight McDonald All-Americans to Michigan’s one, on paper, this game looks like an ugly mismatch, but you never know.

A well-coached Davidson team hung in there last week against Duke, and perhaps Beilein too, with a week of practice to further implement his zone defense, can keep it competitive in a display of progress. Certainly, Michigan’s freshmen guards, Kelvin Grady and Manny Harris, will need to hit some shots and handle Duke’s non-stop on the ball pressure defense much better than Wisconsin or Illinois.

BYU Needs Michigan State

The media in Provo is pointing to #20 BYU’s game against #9 Michigan State as the Cougars’ coming out party. That remains to be seen. While the Spartans will be counting on a strong defensive effort in the post against BYU’s Trent Plaisted, the Cougar’s will need to hope and hope some more that Drew Neitzel shoots like his did against Bradley. Here’s one Spartan’s take on BYU.

As it will be all season, Raymar Morgan presents a very difficult matchup for BYU and as such, he’ll need to reduce his penchant for picking up cheap fouls so he can play without fear down the stretch. The Spartans also need an offensive contribution from a more assertive Goran Suton coupled with their trademark solid team effort on defense. Hoopraker looks for the Spartans to come out playing hard and smart.

Painter is Confident

Not much slips past Matt Painter. Facing another big road game against Missouri, Painter has found confidence in how his team handled Clemson on the road, notwithstanding the ultimate loss. Throughout the week, Purdue’s been practicing how to handle pressure defense of the sort the Boilermakers will get from Missouri.

In a road game, Purdue finds leadership in the form of Terrance Crump, Chris Kramer and Keaton Grant, who will serve to stabilize their talented freshmen. While young, Purdue is growing game by game and win or lose, with a game like this one, Purdue’s frosh will be better prepared for rough road games when the Conference season kicks in.

Practicing with Bo

Like Purdue, for the past week, Bo Ryan has had Wisconsin practicing how to deal with intense pressure defense. Ryan has emphasized better decision making by his post players, who despite being solid defenders in the half court, were ridiculously careless with the ball on offense. With a pummeling at the hands of Duke still at the forefront of their noggins, the Badgers will need to replicate their efforts in practice in order to slow down Marquette’s transition game in the Kohl Center tomorrow.  Look for the continued development of big man Jon Leuer.

Elsewhere, Eric Gordon and the Candystripes play Kentucky without flight-risk Alex Legion; Lickliter goes for an Iowa sweep against Iowa State; Northwestern regrettably hits the road to Kalamazoo without Kevin Coble to play Western Michigan, who almost beat Davidson for what that’s worth; Penn State plays Seton Hall in what could be a must win for Ed DeChellis; and Minnesota looks for a 6-1 start against the pride of Fort Collins, Colorado State.

Posted by TD Lawlor on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 7:22 pm.