Senior Day Vs. Wisconsin

We all know what happened when the Illini traveled north of the border earlier this season. They picked up possibly their biggest win on the season... But Badger fans will be quick to remind you that their loss came without one of their best players, Jon Leuer. The atmosphere should be a good one as the Illini celebrate their seniors in front of a crowd who would just love to sleep easy tonight after a win, knowing that the Illini are all but a lock for the field of 64.

The game ends, and the Illini's future is up in the air. A win against this same Wisconsin team is going to be an almost must after losing this one by 15. Final score: Illinois 57 Wisconsin 72.

55-65, and it's not looking good with the style of game the Badgers are playing.

Bill Cole with his fourth three of the game, and there is still hope. 55-62 Wisconsin, 2:30 left in the game.

Illini in a full court press.

The Illini are only shooting 36% from the field, but the biggest difference in the game are the 14 offensive rebounds Ryan's squad has managed to pull down.

Again the Badgers find a way to score with 1 on the shot clock.

Big Mistake by Brandon Paul. You just can't foul a guy shooting with 3 left on the shot clock.

Tisdale hits two free throws as Nankivil picks up his fourth foul. 52-59.

The Badger lead is 8 again after an intentional foul called on Demetri McCamey as he grabbed a player taking off on a clear break to the basket. Jordan Taylor hits one shot, still Wisconsin's ball.

Billy Cole with another giant three ball. 48-55 Badgers with 7 left... Tisdale going to the line. The first half only saw 2 Illini free throws, 19 in the second half to this point.

The calls never stop!!!! McCamey drives the lane and is fouled, makes a circus shot to get the crowd on their feet, but the ref decided in a delayed call that the shot wouldn't count. Moments earlier the Illini got the ball on a fast break 3 on 1, and the play was called dead because the Badger shot clock didn't reset at the end of their possession... just bad bad officiating. 43-54 Badgers with 8 left to play... McCamey shooting two.

Leuer and Hughes back in with 8:30 left.

The Badgers are starting to foul, and with the Illini in the double bonus, we will be shooting two the rest of the game.

The mood in here is a little tense as bad call after bad call seems to be sinking the Illini hopes.

Tisdale hits two free throws, and the crowd is up one more time in hopes that the Illini will pull off another big time second half comeback... Sort of the MO for this team.

Now Hughes and Leuer are on the bench with 4 each... a window maybe? If ever there were a time to capitalize, it's now... Paul missing the front end of a 1 and 1 doesn't help.

Trevon Hughes sinks a three, and 16 points is the Badger lead.

38-51 Wisconsin with 12 left.

We're just shooting ourselves now... Davis is missing 5 footers and knocking rebounds out of bounds, the refs are calling basically everything wrong at the moment, and we don't seem to have a game plan when it comes to getting back into this one.

Jon Leuer picks up foul number four. I really respect Bo Ryan, but I don't see the logic in playing Leuer with that much time left and up 12.

Leuer hits a one and one, and this could spell out bad things for the Illini. The lead is now 12, and I expect the Badgers to go back to their slow pace of play.

Badgers with a three. 34-43.

Hughes and Leuer back in for the Badgers, another foul for either of them and this will get very interesting as there are 16 minutes left to play.

McCamey just hit Tisdale under the basket with a beautiful pass, but it was a little too hard for the big guy who wasn't expecting it... out of bounds to Wisconsin.

McCamey is fouled taking it hard to the rim for what would have been a dunk. He hits one free throw, and the score is 34-40 Wisconsin.

The Badgers are upping the tempo considerably from the first half, and they continue to make buckets when they need to... The score is 33-40 Wisconsin with 17 left in the game.

Demetri McCamy had three assists at the half, but when the official scoring sheet came out, he was only credited with 2. As of now 2 is the official number, and Demetri still needs 5 assists to break the record.

Immediately after Leuer's foul, Trevon Hughes picks up his third, Tisdale scores, and the lead is only 6 with the two best Badgers in the building sitting on the bench.

Jon Leuer picks up a big third foul early in the second half.

The Badgers pick up the pace to open the half and stretch their lead out to 10.

The end of the second half was a little disappointing as the Illini had 2 fouls to give, and for some reason we allowed the ball to be inbounded with 5 seconds left and a shot to go up... The three went in, and the score at the half is 33-27 Wisconsin. I don't like to make a lot of excuses, but this could have been a different half. The Illini are shooting the ball well, but it seems like we aren't able to get defensive stops when we really need them. The Badgers only have 2 turnovers in the first half and both came when Trevon Hughes was on the bench. For us to comeback and win this game, we are going to have to continue to shoot well and find a way to cause some turnovers.

The Badger lead was 5, then 2 after a three by Cole, followed immediately by a three for Wisconsin. There are 31 seconds left in the half, and the Badger lead is 3.

Weber is telling his guys to talk more on the court.

Weber's really getting after the refs for some blatent missed calls including two travels in the same possession.

Davis with a 2, and it's all tied at 20 with 4:30 left.

Billy Cole with a three ball to tie it up, but Wisconsin again answers right back.

McCamey picks up his second foul with 6 left in the first... this sort of neutralizes the fact that Trevon Hughes has two as well.

Mike Tisdale knocks down a 15 footer, and the Illini have the lead for a moment before the Badgers answer. With 7 left in the first half, Wisconsin leads the Illini 16-15.

Paul hits a three after a short scoring drought, and the Illini are now within one point of the Badgers. I would love to see Paul get a little confidence because he's better than he shows at times due to a missed shot or two draining his confidence.

McCamey sinks a jump shot, and the Illini recover from the early 7-2 hole, only to have Hughes drive the lane and get fouled on a made lay-up. 8-9 Wisconsin with 14:32 left in the first half. You have to like the energy that you see right now, but Wisconsin has 5 rebounds to our 2, and 4 of these were on the offensive end of the floor. The Illini are shooting 80% from the field, but it doesn't matter when the other team has put up twice your number of shot attempts.

The Mikes are working the offense early. Tisdale and Davis have accounted for our first 6 points.

The Badgers are getting offensive rebound after offensive rebound, and the second and third attempts are putting us in a hole.

Jon Leuer makes his presence known early by scoring the first bucket of the game.