#606 ASA PLAY ON 8* Indiana -1 over Illinois, Saturday at 12 PM ET - This is a huge home game for the Hoosiers who are currently safely in the Big Dance, however with a number of really tough road games coming up this month (@ Mich State, @ Purdue, @ Ohio St) they need to pick up all the resume’ building wins they can. They are catching Illinois is a perfect spot for an update and the Illini just beat Wisconsin at home on Wednesday to move into 1st place in the Big 10. Indiana has been off since last Saturday so they’ve had plenty of time to rest and prepare for this one. The Hoosiers defense which is ranked #1 in the Big 10 in efficiency, matches up very well with this Illini offense. On Wednesday Illinois killed Wisconsin inside with Kofi Coburn 37 points in 16 of 19 shooting. That’ll be much tougher here vs an Indiana team that ranks 5th nationally defending inside the arc allowing opponents to make only 41% of their 2 point shots. That means the Illini will most likely have to be on from beyond the arc to have a shot here and we can’t anticipate that from a team that ranks 9th in the Big 10 (conference play) hitting just 33.8% of their 3’s. The Illini have played the easiest Big 10 road schedule to date. Their last 4 conference road games have come vs Minnesota, Northwestern, Maryland, and Nebraska – the 4 teams that sit at the bottom of the Big 10 standings all with 3-8 records or worse. Indiana sits with a near perfect 13-1 SU record at home with their only loss coming vs Michigan and that was a definite letdown spot just 3 days after the Hoosiers knocked off Purdue here at home. They’ll be more than ready for this home game after blowing a 2nd half lead here last year vs Illinois and losing in OT. Since the start of the 2018 season Indiana has been a home dog 10 times and covered 70% of those games (7). Indiana gets the home win.