ESPN Andy Katz Blog

Although an ice storm made his trip from St. Louis take four hours instead of the usual three, Illinois coach Bruce Weber wanted to get home for Christmas. An inch of ice had accumulated on his car, and his driveway could have hosted a hockey game because of the slick conditions, but a rest on Christmas Eve gave Weber a reprieve from a chaotic season. It also gave him time to reflect on how the Illini are once again heading in the direction toward the NCAA tournament after a one-season hiatus.

Weber is cautiously optimistic, and he should be, after the Illini crushed rival Missouri 75-59 in St. Louis on Tuesday night. The Illini have one nonconference game remaining, at home against lightweight Eastern Michigan on Sunday, before a brutal start to Big Ten play at Purdue and at Michigan on Dec. 30 and Jan. 4, respectively.

But a projected EMU win would push the Illini into Big Ten play with a 12-1 record and provide quite a confidence boost. The Illini easily could be 13-0 but lost by a deuce to Clemson. That game is proving to be a "good loss" with the way the undefeated Tigers are playing. (They opened ACC play with a road win at Miami.)

"We're better, but it's scary going into the league [play] because everyone in the league is playing well," Weber said Wednesday. "The Clemson game is disappointing to me because I thought we could have won, but in the long run, maybe it will help because we were thinking we were better than we were."

Illinois doesn't have much room to boast. The Illini were 16-19 last season. The buzz from the Deron Williams-Dee Brown years was long gone. The hangover from losing Eric Gordon to Indiana was still raw as the Hoosiers went to the NCAA tournament, even with the Kelvin Sampson chaos that reduced a proud program to rubble. Still, Illinois finished worse than .500, didn't make the postseason and was being passed over in the Big Ten.

Pounding Missouri doesn't mean the Illini will make it to the tourney. The Big Ten is much better, and teams such as Minnesota are suddenly players in the race for bids. So the crowded field makes it even harder for Illinois to differentiate itself. But at least Illinois matters again, as does the league. It's critical for the sport to energize a massive Midwest market.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," Weber said. "But I told our players that having the Big Ten do well will benefit us. Every game will be tough. For the NCAA tournament, it might take 23, 24 wins. We can't get stagnant."

Illinois has good "name wins" at Vanderbilt, over Kent State, Tulsa and Georgia. But it's possible that none of those teams will make the field. That's why the Missouri win was so crucial. Not wobbling back after a tough two-game road trip in the Big Ten also is a must.

"The Big Ten didn't do us any favors," Weber said. "We not only come back from a two-day break, but then [after playing EMU at home] have one day to go to Purdue, one of the favorites, and then go to Michigan, which is playing well. It's going to be a big week for us. It's going to be old-school Big Ten, win the home games and win half the road games."

The Illini haven't had a loaded slate, but they're still defending well, giving up only 56.1 points a game. Weber said the team's defense has been solid. He said the only individual defender that he can point to as a highlight is Chester Frazier, and he's just trying to get his players to keep the opponent out of the paint. He said that if he can sell Demetri McCamey and Alex Legion on defending the perimeter, they'll be a good defensive team.

The biggest surprise may be the breakout season of sophomore Mike Davis. The 6-foot-10 forward from Alexandria, Va., averaged 2.6 points per game as a freshman but is leading the Illini at 13 points and 8.3 rebounds a game as a sophomore. Davis already has had four double-doubles this season.

"Mike is so talented, and I asked all those Eastern [coaches], why they didn't recruit him?" Weber said. "They said they would go to practice, and he looked lazy. He didn't play hard. Well, he's starting to understand how to play. If we can get some strength on him and develop his ballhandling, he'll be a long athletic forward that they don't have in this league."

Davis scored 28 points in the loss to Clemson. He had a solid 13 points and nine boards in the win over Missouri.

The Illini are still young, with a roster dominated by seven sophomores. Losing last season helped them understand how to win.

"It gave us hunger and desire to push the young guys faster," Weber said. "We had to fight through the failure."

So far it's working. And Weber wants the attention.

"I'm using the national recognition as a goal and motivator," Weber said. "If we can get into the Top 25, it will help with the NCAA, because they're all watching and paying attention. It's human nature to turn on ESPN and watch 'SportsCenter.' We're improving and have from one to 10 on our roster from last season. We've got unanswered questions, and we're heading into a grinder of a conference. This will show what we're about."

• Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said junior guard Eric Devendorf should be done with his community service at Syracuse's Rescue Mission, a place to feed, shelter and clothe the homeless, by Christmas Day. That means, according to Boeheim, that Devendorf could be cleared to practice Friday in advance of Tuesday's Big East opener against Seton Hall.

Boeheim said Devendorf had to finish 40 hours of community service as imposed by the school's judicial panel. The judicial panel has to approve Devendorf's service to clear him to participate in basketball-related activities.

Devendorf missed the past two games, wins at Memphis and over Coppin State, while serving the indefinite suspension for his role in an altercation with a female student.

"It was good for him to learn, to see what the real world looks like," Boeheim said of Devendorf.

Meanwhile, in Devendorf's place, Andy Rautins made nine 3s in the win over Coppin State.

"He had open looks, got good looks, wide open looks that nobody in our league will give him," Boeheim said.

• Boeheim has a name for you, someone who could be an NBA draft pick, perhaps the best guard you don't know. His name is Tywain McKee. The senior point guard from Coppin State scored 31 points against Syracuse, making 12 of 24 shots, including five 3s.

"He's unbelievable," Boeheim said of McKee after the Orange beat Coppin State 82-71 Monday night at the Carrier Dome.

"He's really, really good," Boeheim said. "He stops behind screens, and he scored 31 in 28 minutes. We doubled him after that and didn't let him shoot anymore. He's really, really good. He's an unknown, but he can play."

• Boeheim said he can't get over the parity in college basketball. "It's crazy, anybody can beat anybody," Boeheim said. "There are so many teams that are good. I can't believe what's going on out there."

• Balance. Balance. Balance. At least that might be the mantra for coaches and players who lost their last home game before Christmas. The scores from Tuesday night weren't good for home teams.

Portland State won at Gonzaga.
UMBC won at Nebraska.
South Dakota State won at Iowa State.
Stanford won at Santa Clara.
Saint Mary's won at Pacific.
Texas won at Wisconsin.
Butler won at Xavier.

• No reason to be bitter, but you wonder how Dick Davey felt about winning with Stanford at Santa Clara after he said the Broncos essentially fired him.

• Niagara is off to a sensational start at 9-2. Sometimes players are better off dropping down a level. Rob Garrison wasn't playing much at Connecticut. He went home to Niagara. He scored 23 on St. Bonaventure on Tuesday.

• IUPUI nearly beat Arizona State, won at Seton Hall and held Indiana State to just 41 points Tuesday. Coach Ron Hunter will reprise his role of not wearing shoes for a great cause with Samaritan's Feet for those who need shoes when IUPUI hosts Centenary (La.) on Jan. 17. The National Association of Basketball Coaches hopes more coaches will adopt Hunter's lead to donate shoes to those in need.

• The Horizon League had quite a night. Butler won at Xavier, Cleveland State crushed Kent State by 26, Detroit smacked Central Michigan and Illinois-Chicago won at Toledo by 10. Three of the four wins were on the road.

• Jordan Hill will be a first-round pick. He could be a lottery pick. I'm not breaking huge news here. But it's interesting to see how much Hill has improved at Arizona in three years. He once again was a dominant player in scoring 23 points and grabbing 11 boards in Arizona's easy win over Kansas. The Wildcats won even though Chase Budinger went just 1-of-9 from the field and scored only five points.

• Alex Ruoff appears to have healed from any back or shoulder pain after scoring 38 for West Virginia on Radford in a 89-54 rout in Morgantown.

• Boston College has a shot to win enough games in the ACC to earn a bid if it can get a third and fourth scorer to go along with Tyrese Rice and Joe Trapani. Corey Raji could be that guy after he scored 26 points and had 13 boards in a blowout over Maine. Rakim Sanders also is a candidate, and Josh Southern just has to be a garbage man in the post.

• BYU's 53-game home winning streak will be tested by Wake Forest on Jan. 3 after Western Oregon couldn't get into Provo for Tuesday night's game. The game will be rescheduled for Jan. 6. The Cougars play at Tulsa on Dec. 30 before the home game against the Demon Deacons.

• Lehigh couldn't get to Seattle for Tuesday's game at Washington thanks to the snow. The teams would like to reschedule but so far haven't been able to do so.