College basketball scouting reports
Illinois (12-5, 4-0) at Michigan St. (14-3, 4-0)When: 2:30 p.m. at Breslin CenterTV: Channel 2Radio: WIND 560-AMThe skinny: A national CBS-TV audience gets to check out the Big Ten's lone unbeatens, though their perfect records aren't created equal. The seventh-ranked Spartans already own 7-point home wins over Wisconsin and Minnesota, which look a lot better than Illinois' trio of home wins (Penn State by 1 point, Northwestern in OT and Iowa by 17). The Illini have been able to ride Demetri McCamey and Mike Tisdale lately, but that won't work against the seven-deep Spartans. Mike Davis and Brandon Paul need to find their old form. Reigning Big Ten player of the year Kalin Lucas (15.5 ppg, 3.9 apg) still stirs the Spartans' drink, but 6-foot-6, 235-pound sophomore Draymond Green has become an efficient machine in all aspects of the game. He averages just 25 minutes per game off the bench, yet contributes 11.1 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.6 steals.Purdue (14-2, 2-2) at Northwestern (12-4, 1-3)When: 4:30 p.m. at Welsh-Ryan ArenaTV: BTNRadio: WGN 720-AMThe skinny: Both of these teams are stinging after home losses earlier in the week, but the Wildcats are the ones who really need to start taking advantage of their home court. What to watch? Purdue and Northwestern rank 17th and 18th, respectively, in Ken Pomeroy's national turnover rate rankings. In other words, both teams are extremely careful with the ball. However, the Boilers' hyper-aggressive man-to-man is much better at forcing turnovers. If Northwestern can withstand Purdue's attack mode and turn it back around on the Boilers, then the hosts might be able to replicate last March's 64-61 win at West Lafayette, Ind. NU's John Shurna and Purdue's E'Twaun Moore and Robbie Hummel are in a three-way tie for the Big Ten's scoring lead. They're at 20.5 points per game in league play. Wildcats PG Juice Thompson, however, has made just 11 of 38 shots in league play and averaged 8.5 points.Eastern Michigan (9-6, 1-1) at Northern Illinois (6-8, 2-0)When: 1 p.m. at the Convocation CenterRadio: WLBK 1360-AMThe skinny: It looks like Ricardo Patton's ambitious nonconference is paying dividends. The Huskies took their lumps against Northwestern, Illinois, Minnesota and Temple, but now they're the MAC's hottest team as they take a four-game winning streak into this one. NIU hasn't enjoyed a five-game winning streak since February 2003. The Huskies also haven't produced a 3-0 start in MAC play since 1981 (though it's important to note there was an 11-year interlude in which they left the league). NIU might be catching EMU at the wrong time. Senior center Justin Dobbins, one of their big three along with Brandon Bowdry (18.5 ppg, 10.5 rpg) and Carlos Medlock (14.3 ppg, 3.7 apg), just returned from a stress fracture in his leg and hit Toledo with 18 points in 25 minutes.