Illinois 88, Northwestern 63

Easy win for the Illini on Thursday night. I continue to be impressed with power forward Mike Davis, the kind of player that makes college basketball so fun for me. Davis won't make a splash on the next level, I don't think, but he's really effective in the post in the college game, with a good jump hook and the best turnaround jumper I've seen from a post player this year.

Also, Bill Carmody is making a mistake playing John Shurna while Shurna struggles with a high ankle sprain. The kid wears a walking boot between practices and games, yet continues to play. I get that Shurna is one of the Big Ten's top scorers (he averages 21.3 points per game) and the Wildcats are trying to capitalize on what appeared to be a real shot at earning the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament bid. And the Wildcats have gotten unlucky with this injury given their conference schedule; they opened with road games against Purdue and Illinois and a home date with Michigan State -- perhaps the three best teams in the league behind Ohio State. The drive for a win in one of those games is understandable, but Shurna is hardly doing anything out there and may be hurting his team. He's 7-for-26 from the field in conference play, having scored just 29 points in the three games, and went 1-for-11 in a 65-62 loss to Michigan State.

Shurna hasn't sat since hurting his ankle, so the only chance he's really had to recover has come from the relatively light schedule due to the semester break. Continuing to play has likely pushed his return to health further back, jeopardizing the softer part of the conference schedule -- games that are truly "must win" for a likely bubble team like the Wildcats. Let Shurna rest, see if promising freshman JerShon Cobb can handle more of the scoring load, and trust veteran point guard Michael Thompson to step up his game in Shurna's absence.