Illinois heads to Michigan today to take on the Wolverines at 6 p.m. in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The No. 8 Illini (22-4, 8-4) will have to overcome a quick turnaround and a tendency to struggle on the road if they hope to pull off a much-needed victory.

“I’d rather play than practice any day,” point guard Dee Brown said. “We’ll just hop on the plane, get mentally prepared, and go up there to win.”

With the race for first place in Illinois’ hands, the Illini need only to win their remaining four contests in order to take away the Big Ten title.

“You’ve got to take it one game at a time,” Brown said. “You’ve got to go in with a mentality to work hard and believe that we can do it.”

The Illini hope to step up their overall intensity on the court, taking pressure off Brown, the team’s pacesetter. While Brown’s 10 points in Sunday’s game against Indiana are not impressive on face value, fellow senior captain James Augustine said Brown is the team’s emotional leader and sets the pace of the game.

The Illini won when the Wolverines came to Champaign earlier this season, with Brown scoring 26 points and Augustine adding 23.

“They’re a tough team. They’ve had a lot of upsets in terms of knocking people off,” forward Brian Randle said. “Like Dee said, it’s going to take a lot of mental toughness for us to step up.”

In addition to mental toughness, the Illini will need strong shooting. Weber said that if Illinois can sink shots from three-point range, there should be little problem playing deep into March. With a recently inconsistent shooting performance, though, shooting well may be a tough project.

Sunday’s win over Indiana gave Illinois the lift it needed, brining the team back into Big Ten contention. While head coach Bruce Weber knows becoming a “special team” will be a bigger challenge than it would have been if the Illini had not faltered in conference play, he says the team is taking small steps to returning to title contention.

“I think we keep taking a step closer to being pretty good. We’ve got to make those steps,” Weber said. “Some of it’s still level, some of it’s understanding. We’ve got to go to Michigan and fight one out, tough one out. They’ve got talent, but we’ve got to score.”