FanHouse BrianRandle

On Saturday afternoon the Purdue Boilermakers blew up in the second half of their game against Illinois to overcome a 8-point halftime deficit, and beat the Illini 74-67 at Mackey Arena. Purdue exploded for 47 points in the second half, a large number of which came thanks to the sharpshooting of Keaton Grant.

Grant scored 14 of his 22 points in the final 20 minutes, which included a big three-pointer late that put the final nail in Illinois' coffin. What got Keaton so fired up for the second half? Apparently a member of the Illini was talking some trash going into the locker rooms at halftime.

"One of the Illinois players said something that really got us going," Grant said. "It had the same effect that it had last year when the same player said something at halftime."

"It was like, 'We're being disrespected at our home court.' An away team should not come into the home team's court and disrespect us.

"We were very disrespected by what he said. He said it as we were going into our locker room. Credit him for waking us up. It was all good. We just want to thank him."

Grant wouldn't say who the player was, but by the process of elimination, I've figured it out. Grant said it was a starter, but it wasn't either Shaun Pruitt or Brian Randle. He also said the same player did it last year, so it couldn't have been freshman Demetri McCamey. So it was either Trent Meachem or Calvin Brock, and I feel pretty safe in saying that it wasn't Meachem.

If only Brock and the Illini would work as hard at hitting their free throws and not making stupid turnovers late in games as they do at talking trash. Maybe then they wouldn't be 1-5 in conference play this season.

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The Big Ten Diaries recaps the previous night's action in Big Ten Basketball, but of course, you're probably smart enough to figure that out on your own.


Wisconsin Badgers 70 Illinois Fighting Illini 60

Since Bo Ryan took over in Madison, only one Big Ten team has ever come into the Kohl Center and beaten the Badgers. That team is Illinois, but I don't think many people thought the Illini would pull it off this time around, and they didn't.

Trevon Hughes led the way for Wisconsin with 22 points, and senior Brian Butch also scored 16 points and dominated the glass for Wisconsin with 7 rebounds. Jason Bohannon scored only 8 points for Wisconsin, but six of those points came via the three-point shot after Illinois had closed the gap and started to build up some momentum.

For Illinois it's their fourth straight loss, a first under Bruce Weber, and they're now 0-3 in conference play. Still, if there's anything positive to be taken from this game it's that they shot better on Thursday than they have been lately. Though that's not saying much, as Illinois only hit 41% of it's shots, but they did hit 6-of-10 from beyond the arc.

Unfortunately for the Illini, on the night their outside shots started falling, they couldn't get any help on the inside as Shaun Pruitt and Brian Randle battled foul trouble all night.

Going into this college basketball season, there's been a general consensus that the Big Ten Conference will finish up with Michigan State, Indiana, and Ohio State somewhere in the top three. I'm not questioning this thought process or anything, because it's one I whole heartedly subscribe to.

After watching Illinois handle Arizona State in Maui late Monday night though, I think we'd all be pretty foolish to write off the Illini in the Big Ten this season.

Granted, the Sun Devils went 8-22 last season, and this was their first game of the season, but the Illini were very impressive in their 77-54 victory. What I was most impressed with were the Illini newcomers. Ever since Eric Gordon left the Illini at the altar for Indiana, Bruce Weber has taken a lot of heat for his recruiting, but after last night I'm not so sure it's deserved.

Demetri McCamey and Jeff Jordan didn't take the game over, but both should provide solid depth for the Illini in the backcourt this season. The guys who really got my attention though were big men Mike Tisdale and Bill Cole. Both showed a lot of polish for freshmen, and if they move into the weight room, Illinois is going to have a formidable frontcourt for years to come.

You add those guys with a solid upper class that features Shaun Pruitt and Brian Randle (who if he could somehow manage to stay healthy would compete with D.J. White and Drew Neitzel for Big Ten player of the year honors) and you get a team that isn't going to make it easy on Indiana or Michigan State.

There are chinks in the armor though, because much like last year, this team still isn't very impressive at the free throw line. It was their achilles heel last season, and it's probably going to be the thing that keeps Illinois from overtaking the conference's big three.