A segment of First Street near Assembly Hall has been renamed Lou Henson Court. Hundreds of former Illini will be returning to Champaign to play at Huff Hall, and an hour-long presentation will be shown in all of its glory post-game.

Don’t the Illini have another game too?

Along with the festivities Saturday, there will be a Big Ten game. Minnesota will come to Assembly Hall with disturbing the peace on its mind. While Gophers coach Dan Monson was gracious enough to allow Illinois to wear their home orange and dress his team in gold instead of maroon, he will have his team upset-minded.

“It’s been a difficult time for him (Monson) lately,” Weber said. “He has had a lot of guys leave early, and, with the probation being a friend of his, you feel bad. After losing (forward Kris) Humphries last year everything went into a panic there but they are actually a better team.”

The Gophers are tied for third in the conference and are 14-5 overall. They are a team that Weber without hesitation says is the surprise of the Big Ten.

“They are playing much better man-to-man defense and they are going out and really guarding people,” Weber said.

At the beginning of the season Monson told his team they were going to work as hard as they ever had before, but that they would also have as much fun as they ever had before. The hard work in the gym has paid off for this young unit, forcing them to be cohesive far quicker than expected.

“They wanted to prove that they could play without him (Humphries),” Weber said.

Minnesota is led by junior college transfer winger Vincent Grier, who has slashed his way to 16.4 points per game while Jeff Hagen has found an inside touch that has helped him shoot 57 percent from the field and average 11.9 points per game. Besides those two leading scorers, Minnesota receives help from the entire roster – even the 11th man is averaging two points per game.

Weber is reminding his team what can happen in conference play, citing Maryland’s 10-point win Wednesday against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“Duke has methodically beaten people all year long, it’s a wake up call,” Weber said.

With legends from Illini past will be in attendance, the current Illini have to first take care of business to pay adequate tribute.

“You’re going to get the chance to perform in front of a lot of people that meant a lot to Illinois basketball,” Weber said. “It’s special that in this the 100th year of Illinois basketball we’ve got an undefeated season and have set some new records. I just hope we don’t lose and ruin the ceremony.”

Randle’s Return Unlikely

Thursday afternoon Weber estimated Randle’s chance of returning as very doubtful. Randle, who has been out since the beginning of the regular season with a hand injury, has been finding it harder than expected to get back to where he was.

“We just don’t think he could come back to 100 percent,” Weber said. “It’s been so many things – shoulders, hands, conditioning and basketball. I want him 100 percent, physically and mentally.”