First, on Saturday, the Illini get a chance to do something they haven't done since the 2004-05 season - beat the #1 team in the country (Ohio State). And because the Buckeyes beat the top-ranked '04-05 Illini team, this would be a nice way (for the fans and for Bruce Weber, at least) to turn the tables. A Buckeyes fan might argue that we've already taken our revenge by beating their #1 ranked football team in 2007, and that the schools are even (and it's not like the Buckeyes will ever have a chance to defeat a #1 ranked Illinois football team). To that hypothetical fan, I'd say that I'd like to see some basketball-specific comeuppance tomorrow. Unfortunately, here are the scores of the last four OSU-Illini games in Champaign:
2007 - 62-44 L
2008 - 74-58 L
2009 - 67-49 W
2010 - 72-53 L
So the Buckeyes have really had our number of late, and Jared Sullinger is exactly the kind of player (highly skilled widebody) that we struggle to control. Even if we do somehow slow him down, Jon Diebler will kill us with a bunch of threes. Sorry, fellow Illini fans, I just don't see it happening. Prediction: Chestnuts 75, Illini 63
As for the other big weekend event - first, I'd like to point out that this is technically not the oldest NFL rivalry. That would be the Bears and Cardinals, who first played on November 28, 1920 (when the Cardinals were Chicago's team and the Bears were Decatur's team). But this is the NFL's "longest standing rivalry," with the teams having met every year (except the strike-shortened 1982 season) since 1921. There's not much I can add to the hype about the game, except to say that the last time one of my teams played a hated rival for a chance to play in the championship game was in the 1989 NCAA tournament. That was probably the worst sports fan experience I've ever had (even worse than the 1984 and 2003 Cubs) - knowing that the Illini were better than Michigan and would have crushed Seton Hall in the Finals, but having to see them lose and not get that chance.
I wish I could be more optimistic about Sunday's game, but even at home, against a team the Bears did hold in check in the two meetings this year, I just have a bad feeling that I'm going to have to live through another round of losing the big game to a team I can't stand. Maybe someday the Cubs will beat the Cardinals in the NLCS on their way to winning the World Series....OK, now that you're done laughing...Prediction: Packers 21, Bears 13.
Bonus Prediction: No way the Steelers lose twice at home to the Jets this year - Steelers 24, Jets 14.
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