We must protect this house! In their last 78 games at home, the Fighting Illini are 75-3 (including 18 straight) and perhaps their last tough home test of this season comes today against the #20 Wisconsin Badgers. The Badgers are no doubt still smarting over having the Illini come to Madison and snap their 38 game home winning streak and would like nothing more than to return the favor in Champaign. Add to that the post-season boost the Badgers would get from a win on the road against the #1 team and you have to believe that Bo Ryan will have his team ready to play.

The Wisconsin press is loaded with coverage. Opportunity knocks is the headline to Mark Stewart's article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. In the Capital Times, Rob Schultz (perhaps unknowingly) weighs in on the whole "nickname thing" with orange sharks in reference to Illinois' suffocating defense. The Wisconsin State Journal has more on the Badger's feeling that they let the previous game "slip away."

The Illinios media has more. Mark Tupper notes here that it is now the Illini who have the home winning streak to lose and they are expecting the Badgers to slow things down today. Marlen Garcia previews the game here by looking at three players who were in the same high school conference: James Augustine, Roger Powell and Alando Tucker.

Jeremy Rutherford breaks down the game for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch here and the official Illinois game notes can be found here.  posted by Illiniwonk at 8:44 AM