CHICAGO – Over the past three years, several teams have felt the sting of playing Illinois at its home away from home. The trip from Evanston to the United Center is too close to argue fair play.

Despite getting only seven points out of leading scorer Vedran Vukusic, Northwestern outlasted Michigan 58-56.

This game marked the third-straight time the Wildcats advanced past the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Advancing past the second round will now become the trick, as only one team has figured out how to win against Bruce Weber’s squad.

“This is the third crack at them this year,” Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody said. “I thought we played them pretty well the first time at home, but then the last time we got annihilated in Champaign.”

The Wildcats played Michigan tight the entire way Thursday, the difference coming with a defensive and aggressive full-court press.

“We were fortunate to keep up the defense,” Carmody said. “We turned up the press a little bit and got some hands on balls.”

Northwestern forced 19 Michigan turnovers, resulting in 25 points in transition.

Against Illinois, the Wildcats will not be able to count on 50 percent of the total points coming off the fast break. The careful Illini backcourt rarely gets beat in that category and has yet to be bothered in a trap. The last time Northwestern tried, Illinois handed the Wildcats an 84-48 loss in Champaign.

“We are looking forward to playing this game,” junior swingman Mohamed Hachad said. “We are lucky to get to play the No. 1 team in the country again and we are hoping to knock them off.”

Today will be the first test for Illinois coming off its loss Sunday at Ohio State. Weber and Carmody agree that Illinois is too confident and too battle-tested to let a minor setback keep them down.

“Perhaps they will be more aggressive, but they are plenty aggressive on offense and defense already,” Carmody said. “It would have been a good story going undefeated, but it wasn’t a devastating loss by any means. They are what they are. I would consider that loss negligible.”

The Illini have had the same goals since the beginning of the season, and although their record has a blemish, those visions are what’s still perfect. The next goal mapped out by Weber and company is a Big Ten Tournament title, but they’re taking the journey one game at a time.

As the No. 1 team has learned, looking past a game can be dangerous. Leading scorer Vukusic is waiting.

“Today I was just trying to rest up a little bit for tomorrow,” Vukusic said jokingly, referring to his off performance and the excitement of playing Illinois.