ANN HARBOR, Mich. – Youth Action is a Chicago-based teen group that took 110 of its members on a campus visit to the University of Michigan Tuesday.

At least that’s the story a Michigan ticket agent heard before selling 110 tickets for Tuesday’s game to the Orange Krush.

Krush members boarded a bus outside Huff Hall at 10 a.m. Tuesday, drove to Ann Arbor for the game and returned to Champaign early Wednesday morning. While it was a long commute for two hours of basketball, the Illini fans were happy to be a part of their team’s 24th win of the season and the team was happy to see them.

“We noticed it, Krush was waiting for us when we got off the bus,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said.

Krush members dressed in Michigan and “Youth Action” T-shirts started chants of “overrated” at the beginning of the game as part of their attempt to blend in with the Michigan crowd.

During the game, chants of I-L-L-I-N-I often drowned out the Michigan fight song. When Illinois’ victory was secured, the Krush members, now wearing orange, chanted: “You got Krushed.”

“There was a nice contingency of orange out there,” Weber said.

ILLINI KEEP BC FALL

IN PERSPECTIVE

With Boston College’s 68-65 loss to Notre Dame, Illinois is now the only undefeated Division-I men’s basketball team.

“It’s a bigger target on our backs now that we’re the only undefeated team,” said guard Dee Brown.

But Weber isn’t taking the alone-at-the-top situation too seriously.

“It’s something to take pride in,” Weber said. “I hope it says something about our kids.”

WEBER’S COOKING

Tuesday’s win made Bruce Weber the fastest coach in Illini history to win 50 games.

The previous record belonged to Ralph Jones, who won his 50th game in his 64th contest at Illinois. It took Jones until his fifth season to reach the mark; Weber is in his second.

NOT DOWN ON

UNDEFEATED

When season previews hinted at an undefeated Illini season, Weber warned it wouldn’t be easy to survive the Big Ten without a loss.

Weber even noted that there was a lot to be learned from losing.

But as Illinois moves to 10-0 in the conference, with only six Big Ten games left, the Illini aren’t as concerned about needing to fall.

“We’ve won a couple this year ugly,” Brown said. “You’ve just got to fight them out.

“I think we learned from Iowa, Indiana, this game – that you’ve got to be mentally prepared or teams will come out and you could lose.”

QUOTE OF THE GAME:

“We were just hoping this would be one of the nights where if we put them in a tough situation maybe they couldn’t pull it out. I thought (Michigan) believed in what we were going to try and do tonight.”

– Michigan coach Tommy Amaker on his team’s hopes of beating Illinois.