For the third time in four games, Michigan basketball will square off against a top-10 team away from home.
The Wolverines split the first two, knocking off Purdue in Mackey Arena and also losing to Duke in Washington, D.C.
Some Michigan fans have questioned if the Wolverines can win it all after the Duke game. It's clear they can, they need their "A" game or something close, which they didn't have in D.C.
Heck, I would struggle to give Michigan a C for how it played. The defense did well, but the rebounding and offense weren't on par. Duke was part of that. But Michigan can play better.
Tonight, against 10th-ranked Illinois, the Wolverines have the chance to prove that, and clinch the Big Ten championship outright.
Here are two stats that will tell the story.
Offensive rebounding
Illinois averages 13.9 offensive rebounds per game. That's 21st in college basketball. Michigan allows 11.5 offensive rebounds per game (293rd). That number has been better in Big Ten play, but Duke rebounded over 40 percent of its missed shots against Michigan.
That's exactly what Illinois wants to do, besides bury a bunch of 3-pointers, and if Michigan basketball allows Illinois to rebound 35-40 percent of its misses, it won't win the game, or it will need an outlier somewhere else to do it.
3-point shooting
Illinois is a great 3-point shooting team, but this isn't about Illinois, it's about the Wolverines, who have shot under 32 percent from 3-point range in both of their losses to Wisconsin and Duke.
Michigan has also shot under 30 percent from 3-point range in close wins over TCU and Wake Forest. Illinois doesn't want to give up a ton of assisted 3-point shots. It wants to force one-on-one plays, but there will be chances and the Wolverines, unlike in the Duke game, need to knock some down.