Northwestern Hosts Illinois to Open Big Ten Season Friday

11/30/2017 4:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: Nick Brilowski

NORTHWESTERN BASKETBALL: GAME DAY INFORMATION
DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	LOCATION	BROADCAST	LIVE STATS
Fri., Dec. 1	Illinois	8 p.m.	Allstate Arena; Rosemont, Ill.	BTN and BTN2Go	SIDEARM
Radio: 720 WGN (Dave Eanet and Joey Meyer) TV: BTN (Cory Provus and Jon Crispin) Social: Twitter (@NUMensBball and @NU_SportsLIVE) \| Instagram (@numensbball) \| Facebook Game Notes: Northwestern \| Illinois TICKETS

Coach Collins Media Availability | V. Law | B. McIntosh

EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern tips off it Big Ten Conference slate Friday when it hosts Illinois at Allstate Arena. Tip time is set for 8 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets are available online at NUsports.com, by calling 888-GO-PURPLE or in person at the Allstate Arena Ticket Office.

The Wildcats follow up Friday's contest by playing a second league game Sunday at Purdue. Dec. 1 marks the earliest start to conference play in league history.

Northwestern suffered a buzzer-beating 52-51 loss in its most recent outing Tuesday at Georgia Tech. Trailing by 10 with eight minutes left, NU used a 12-point run to take a late lead before falling at the buzzer. Bryant McIntosh led the Wildcats with 18 points while Dererk Pardon had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

McIntosh has hit on each of his 19 free throw attempts this season. As a team, Northwestern's .763 free throw percentage ranks just behind Illinois (.764) atop the Big Ten.

McIntosh enters Friday's game with 591 career assists, three behind Illinois' Deron Williams for 14th place in Big Ten history.

Over the last two games, Northwestern has gotten back to being the solid defense unit that has come to be expected under head coach Chris Collins. The Wildcats allowed an average of 78.4 points per game while allowing their foes to shoot 48.9 percent from the field over their first five contests. Over the last two matchups, NU has surrendered only 51.0 points per game while their opponents have shot just 40.0 percent. Northwestern has forced an average of 19 turnovers the last two games after forcing an average of 12.2 over the first five.

This is the lone scheduled meeting between the teams this season. Beginning in 2018-19, the teams will be guaranteed to play twice. Illinois won both matchups a year ago, winning 68-61 Feb. 7 in Evanston and 66-50 Feb. 21 in Champaign.

Scouting Illinois
The Fighting Illini (6-1) suffered its first loss of the season Tuesday, falling 80-73 at Wake Forest. Aaron Jordan, who is shooting 65.5 percent from 3-point range this season (19-29), led Illinois with 20 points off the bench. Leron Black paces the team with an average of 14.1 points per game to go along with 5.7 rebounds per contest. Illinois ranks first in the Big Ten with an average of 20.0 turnovers forced per contest and +6.7 turnover margin.