For Bruce Weber and Co., the last few weeks have been anything but easy. There have been the road trips to the Smith Center and United Center, the current stretch of three games in six days and now the slight tear and strained muscle to freshman guard Chester Frazier’s left quadricep. Frazier could be out anywhere from four to eight weeks.

No. 11 Illinois (8-0) will look to continue its momentum tonight when it hosts Georgetown (3-1) at 8 p.m. at the Assembly Hall. The game marks Georgetown’s first-ever trip to Champaign. The Illini defeated the Hoyas in Washington, D.C. 74-59 on Dec. 9, just days after earning the No. 1 ranking last season.

Because the Hoyas are known for their Princeton offense, Weber said on Tuesday that practices would focus on breakdown drills, 3-on-3, to stimulate what Georgetown does with ballscreens and backcuts.

“The one thing we can’t get them to do is freeze on defense,” head coach Bruce Weber said of his team. “We have to play hard and be aggressive. If they get you, they get you. I’m hoping our pressure can disrupt them a little bit.”

After going to Georgetown’s home court last season and pulling out a win that wasn’t certain, the Illini know that this difficult game comes near the end of an NBA-esque stretch.

Stepping up for the Illini in recent games has been freshman guard Jamar Smith, who had 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting against Arkansas Little-Rock on Monday night. Smith also shot 75 percent from three-point range.

“He’s been a great surprise and uplifting for our program,” Weber said of Smith. “If we don’t have him (Monday) and probably a couple of those other games, North Carolina he comes in and evens the game and even against Xavier, we can’t score a basket, he comes right off the bench and pops up and hits a couple baskets and gets the crowd going.”

The Illini will need to stop the Hoyas’ leading scorer, senior guard Ashanti Cook. Cook is averaging 12.8 points per game. Weber described Georgetown’s guards as the “X factors” in the game.

Also posing a problem could be seven-foot-two-inch sophomore center Roy Hibbert.

“I think they play him in spurts of three to four minutes,” Weber said. “They’ll sub him out and then go small, that’s when it really puts you in a bind, because that’s where (Jeff) Green and (Brandon) Bowman are really effective, cause now they are five and four.”

Georgetown head coach John Thompson III said Hibbert’s improvement has been due to “working extremely hard in the offseason.”

“His teammates have more confidence in him. He’s still very much a work in progress, he’s very far from where he’s going to be one day, but he’s made great strides over the summer.”

After the Georgetown game, the Illini will conclude a span of 10 games in three weeks against Oregon in Portland on Saturday.

“I’m sure they are looking forward to getting a little bit of time to relax,” Weber said. “I’m looking forward to practice again, because that is your next section of time to make your big improvement.”

Krush Contribution

At halftime of tonight’s game, the Orange Krush will donate $50,000 to the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. The V Foundation is a charitable organization created by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano, North Carolina State basketball coach who led the team to a National Championship upset over Houston in 1983.

The Orange Krush Foundation has now raised and donated $400,000 for charity to bring the seven year total to $1 million. The Foundation donated $350,000 to the University and 35 local charities at its annual check presentation ceremony in October.