Northwestern Heads Downstate to Face Illinois Tuesday

2/20/2017 3:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: Nick Brilowski

NORTHWESTERN BASKETBALL: GAME DAY INFORMATION
DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	LOCATION	BROADCAST	LIVE STATS
Tue., Feb. 21	Illinois	7 p.m.	State Farm Center; Champaign, Ill.	BTN and BTN2Go	SIDEARM
Radio: ESPN 1000 (Dave Eanet and Joey Meyer); Sirius 134, XM 195 (Illinois broadcast) TV: BTN (Dave Revsine and Jon Crispin) Social: Twitter (@NUMensBball and @NU_SportsLIVE) \| Instagram (@numensbball) \| Facebook Game Notes: Northwestern \| Illinois

Coach Collins Meets Media | S. Lumpkin | S. Lindsey

EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern looks to set a program record for wins in a season Tuesday when it travels to Champaign to face Illinois. Tip time is set for 7 p.m.

Northwestern comes into Tuesday's contest with 20 wins. It's the fourth time the Wildcats have reached the mark, including posting a school-record 20 in the regular season each of the last two years. Including postseason victories, NU also won 20 games in 2009-10 and again in 2010-11.

Northwestern's 20-7 record represents the school's best 27-game start to a season in program history. The Wildcats opened their Big Ten season 7-2, the best mark through nine league games since the 1932-33 Big Ten championship squad. The team's six-game league winning streak from Jan. 8-29 is NU's fourth longest in school history.

A victory on Tuesday would give Northwestern six Big Ten road wins this season which would match the school single-season record. The 'Cats also notched six league wins away from Evanston during the 1930-31 campaign when they won the conference title.

Northwestern is coming off a 69-65 home victory over Rutgers on Saturday. Bryant McIntosh scored 14 of his game-high 18 points in the second half, including hitting a 3-pointer that gave the Wildcats the lead for good with 58.8 seconds remaining.

McIntosh has been on a tear for the Wildcats lately. Over the last nine games, the junior guard is averaging 18.0 points and 6.1 assists per contest. He is 13 assists shy of matching Michael Thompson (2008-11) for the NU career assists record of 528.

Northwestern is 12-3 when the combination of Bryant McIntosh, Vic Law, Scottie Lindsey, Sanjay Lumpkin and Dererk Pardon comprises the starting lineup. The three losses have been by a combined 10 points (Butler—2, Notre Dame—4, Minnesota—4).

Northwestern and Illinois have split their last 12 meetings going back to the 2009-10 season. Illinois won the first meeting between the schools, 68-61, two weeks ago on Feb. 7 in Evanston. Bryant McIntosh led Northwestern with 21 points.

Scouting Illinois
The Fighting Illini (15-12, 5-9) is coming off a 70-66 road win at Iowa on Saturday. Malcolm Hill led Illinois with 21 points and 8 rebounds in the victory. He paces the team and ranks sixth in the Big Ten with an average of 16.9 points per game. Maverick Morgan is sixth in the Big Ten with a .567 field goal percentage, while Michael Finke is second in Big Ten play with a .500 3-point field goal percentage (19-38).