FanHouse DemetriMcCamey

Thursday night, the Northwestern Wildcats -- looking to crawl back onto the NCAA Tournament bubble -- held a 14-point lead over their intrastate rival, Illinois. Less than six minutes later, the No. 22 Illini were victoriously celebrating on the Welsh-Ryan Arena floor. What made this thing exciting wasn't the comeback itself, but how it happened.

It all started so innocently. A Mike Davis jumper cut the Northwestern deficit to 57-45 with 5:08 left in the game. A few minutes later, and the lead was slowly chipped down to seven. With about 1:30 left in the game, though, is when things started to get crazy.

Clemson turned on the offensive and defensive pressure in the second half, forcing 17 Illinois turnovers and squeaking out a 76-74 win in Champaign.

In one of the best games of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Clemson shot an amazing 58% from the field (Illinois shot a darn good 51.7% themselves). It was a fun, physical game to watch and had just 21 combined free throws attempted.

Clemson had a balanced attack. Demontez Stitt scored 18 points, Trevor Booker added 16 while K.C. Rivers and Raymond Sykes chipped in 14 points apiece.

Illinois was less balanced. Mike Davis scored a career-high 28 points and Demetri McCamey added 20. The rest of the team combined for just 26 points.

This is the first win for the ACC in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge after the Big Ten took the first two games. It was also the third straight road win to open the series.

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.

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.

Penn State Nittany Lions 68 Illinois Fighting Illini 64

While the top four spots in the Big Ten figure to belong to MSU, OSU, Indiana, and Wisconsin, don't be surprised if the Penn State Nittany Lions sneak up into 5th place this season. After only being able to win three conference games last season the Nittany Lions picked up their second conference win in as many games on Sunday afternoon in Champaign.

The duo of Geary Claxton and Jamelle Cornley looks like one that could give a lot of Big Ten teams trouble this season, as both players had their second consecutive double-doubles at the expense of the Illini. Cornley lead Penn State with 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Claxton scored 11 and grabbed 11 boards as well.

The Illini had a chance to win the game after freshman Demetri McCamey hit two three-pointers in the final minute to pull Illinois within a point with 10 seconds left, but his floater in the lane that would have won the game missed it's mark and Illinois lost it's second straight home conference game, and third overall.

Another factor that helped Penn State pull of a big road victory was outworking the Illini 49-24. This despite the fact the Nittany Lions don't have a single player over 6'5 in their starting lineup.

Illinois' next two games are at Wisconsin and Indiana, so if Bruce Weber's already feeling the heat for his teams lackluster play, just wait until they start out 0-4.

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.