The Illini men’s basketball team knew it had an immense task on hand facing No. 6 Ohio State on Saturday.

The Buckeyes brought a wild weapon in the form of freshman forward Greg Oden, the Indianapolis native who will likely be in the NBA next season.

“People say, ‘Why would you take him for one year?'” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said after beating Illinois 62-44. “Because I sure don’t want to play against him.”

Illinois junior Shaun Pruitt and freshman Brian Carlwell were assigned to guarding the 7-foot center. And the pair of Illini stepped up to the challenge, holding Oden scoreless through the first 20 minutes of the game and allowing him to score only seven points in the second half.

With infamous alumni Dee Brown, Luther Head and Deron Williams now playing in the NBA, Illinois has fallen far short of the backcourt success it saw in the past several seasons.

But even as the guards have fallen on tough times, Illinois’ forwards are starting to shine – and for the Illini it didn’t come a moment too soon.

“The past three games, watching film, a guy would dive on the floor, make a big three, and everybody would run down the court and play defense,” forward Brian Randle said. “There was no excitement. Tonight showed us we have to be excited for each other.”

Despite Pruitt and Carlwell’s efforts, Ohio State turned to outside shooting and handed the Illini their worst loss in 31 seasons.

“This better be rock bottom,” Carter said after the Ohio State game.

And for the moment, it looks like it was.

Only days later, Illinois’ frontcourt stepped up once again, this time dominating Iowa under the basket and leading a scoring attack that gave the Illini their first Big Ten victory of the season.

After a three-game losing streak that stretched through much of the winter break, the Illini began showing important improvement as they snapped what would have been the team’s worst losing streak since 1998-99.

The turnaround was undeniably attributed to the frontcourt effort, as Carter, Pruitt and Randle combined for 48 points on 20-of-24 shooting in the game against the Hawkeyes.

“The last couple games I’ve been trying to rush it,” said Carter, who was scoreless in the first half.

“What I was trying to do early was let the game come to me. In the second half I had more things open to me,” Carter said.

Illinois is 4-3 in semester-break games this season, with a final trip to Michigan State scheduled for Sunday.

But there is a clear pattern pointing to Illini success.

Illinois is 10-2 in games where it has out-rebounded its opponents, as it did in the 74-70 win against Iowa.

The Illini have been successful when more than one player steps up; 10 times this season Illinois had four players score in double digits – and only one of those games was a loss.

“The more we can pull for each other, the more we can show the crowd and this family love, it’s going to make us a lot better,” Randle said.

With point guard Chester Frazier absent Wednesday as he nursed nagging foot problems and is a potential question mark against Michigan State, and as fellow sophomore Jamar Smith is providing shaky performances in recent games, it is likely the bigs will once again be called upon. But Randle said it’s a job his teammates are ready to tackle.

“I think everybody, including myself, we’ve been doing a lot of reflection,” Randle said after beating Iowa on Wednesday. “Tonight showed the team we could be.”