“The temptation for top-ranked Illinois, now five basketball games away from finishing off a perfect regular season, is to look into the distance instead of at the struggling opponents on this week’s schedule.
“The Fighting Illini (25-0 overall, 11-0 Big Ten) defeated Penn State — tonight’s opponent at the Bryce Jordan Center — by 26 points a month ago in Champaign in a game that was not even that close. …”