#20 Illinois 60        Northwestern 59

There is a point during the season that sticks out amongst the others.  It’s a point that could determine how the rest of the season goes.  Positive or negative, this point is usually the lasting memory of that season.  For example, the point that sticks out from last year’s season was Shaun Pruitt’s inability to make free throws against Indiana at home as we lost that game in OT to Eric Gordon and the top 25 Hoosiers.  Last night’s 17-2 run to close out the game and beat Northwestern might have been the point for this season.

Illinois has been struggling on the road, and last night was no exception.  They never held a lead in the game, and even though they for the most part kept it close, they couldn’t find a way to answer buckets with defensive stops.  It took a while, but when Northwestern finally extended their lead last in the second half to 14 points, it wasn’t hard to feel like this game was a lost cause.  The offense just couldn’t get anything going, and Northwestern for a time looked like they could do whatever they wanted. 

What happens from here?  Illinois falls to 7-5 in the Big Ten, 19-6 overall, and you have to travel to Bloomington, IN with a bad taste in your mouth?  Instead, someone out there turned on the Trent Meacham signal (it’s like the bat signal but instead just has a giant TM in the middle of the light).  This Meacham signal had been missing for the last three weeks and it was a big mystery as to whether or not anybody could find it.  Little did we know that this Meacham signal was located in Evanston, IL, on the NU campus?  Late in that second half, someone turned on that signal, and when Trent saw it, he put on his cape (which was rather dusty due to rare usage), and went berserk. 

Meacham racked up 12 of his 15 points in the final 5 minutes of the game, and also had the assist to Demetri McCamey on his game-winning bucket.  What we saw from Meacham is what you would expect to see from a senior, but it was something we haven’t seen from him for a while.  He obviously isn’t the focal point of our offense, but he has an ability that is better than anyone else on the team, and that of course if his three point shooting.  When on, he can be unstoppable from beyond the arc, but he need to be on. 

Thanks to Super Trent, the Illini are looking good with an 8-4 conference record, and 20 wins on the year (who predicted that?).  It was also nice to see McCamey play big time in a game against a lesser team.  I’m not saying the Wildcats are bad, but it has been games like this where McCamey sometimes doesn’t “show up”.  He was plenty there last night, and when he scores his points, and gets his assists, the Illini are extra tough. 

Thanks to Meacham and McCamey, last nights come from behind win against Northwestern just might have been “the point” that gets the Illini back on track on the road.  Let’s beat the snot out of Indiana on Sunday.

I-L-L!!!