Bruce Weber adamantly believes road wins are necessary if the Illini hope to take the Big Ten title this season, and with two losses hanging over his players’ heads, the head coach is looking to pick up a key victory at Northwestern tomorrow.

The Illini face the Wildcats at 3:30 Saturday in Evanston, Ill. Weber calls this game – which could push Illinois back over .500 in conference play – the most important matchup of the past two weeks.

“If you want to compete for the Big Ten championship, this is a huge game,” Weber said. “It’s kind of old school Big Ten where you have to win all your home games and half your road games if you want to keep up with the teams that are in this league.”

Illinois (16-2, 2-2 Big Ten) hopes an earlier win against Georgetown, which runs a similar system to Northwestern, proves useful preparation for the Wildcats. Weber said there are subtle differences which make Georgetown an imperfect model. He said the team’s seasoned players will need to step up in this game, as learning from experience will be vital in taking on the Wildcats.

Illinois played – and beat – Northwestern three times last season, giving even the sophomore players a level of comfort with the instate opponent’s style.

But Weber isn’t worried about his freshmen stepping in. Sharp-shooter Jamar Smith is adjusting to the Big Ten, and Chester Frazier has proven a strong defender – and an offensive asset when paired with Dee Brown.

“Our kids are getting better and better at picking things up,” Weber said. “For the next two days (in practice) we’ve got to learn how to attack their zone and we’ll do a lot of drill work with man-to-man offense.”

Illinois practiced going against 2-3 and 1-3-1 defenses Thursday and worked on improving the shooting that has hurt the team in recent games. Weber said he hoped readjusting Illinois’ defensive principles will help to contain Northwestern’s tendency to follow backdoor cuts with easy lay ups.

Weber also hopes the proximity to Champaign will bring out a large enough contingent of orange to hamper the homecourt advantage that has so far this season proved to be a powerful asset against the No. 7 Illini.

But no matter what plays or defenses the Illini run, they know one factor will make or break the game. It’s something that has made the difference in both the team’s home victories and in its road losses this season.

“We’ve got to come out and play with intensity,” freshman Smith said. “The first 11, 12 minutes against Indiana we played with intensity, but whenever we go on a drought and the other team goes on a run, we can never quite get back. We’ve got to keep our intensity at a higher level.”