The weekend in Illinois has been packed with excitement and now comes the second of three games in what is essentially a non-MTE, MTE. Illinois’ goal for tonight against Southern is to get off to a better start than they did Friday. While they beat Valparaiso, trailing by 10 at two points in the first half wasn’t part of the plan. It seems that this has been a trend against mid-major opponents this season. We’ll see what happens, so follow along with beat writer Scott Richey all night long to find out more:

Scott Richey is a reporter covering college basketball at The News-Gazette. His email address is [srichey@news-gazette.com](mailto:srichey@news-gazette.com), and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).