Money Talks: NU as strong as Illinois

Illinois hosts NIU tonight in C-U, and the line is 21 to 22 points. By how many points did NU defeat NIU last Friday night? Yep, 22 points. Even the math-challenged are quick to notice the similarity in these figures.

What sort of conclusions can one draw from these facts? It depends on how one values a half's worth of Jeff Ryan to NU versus a whole game's worth of Xavier Silas to NIU. Why? Because these are the only two differences between NU and NIU today vis a vis last Friday (Ryan is out for the season, Silas is out for the Illini game after suffering a hand injury thanks to Nash's hard foul).

Carmody Court conservatively concludes that the smart money says the Illini = Wildcats.