CHAMPAIGN  Illinois finally won a football game Wednesday night.

   Or at least that''s what the knock-down, drag-out royal rumble at the Assembly Hall seemed like.

"Wisconsin could be a better basketball team without Sam Okey."

Sounds unlikely, doesn't it? Okey was 1996 Big Ten Rookie of the Year and a second-team All-Big Ten pick last season. Still, that was the off-the-cuff comment of Michigan State coach Tom Izzo last weekend.

CHAMPAIGN – The Big Ten's two toughest brick walls to crash through for recent Illinois basketball teams have been Wisconsin and Michigan.

No one's given them a harder time than those two, the Illini not beating the Badgers in four seasons and dropping 10 of their last 12 to Michigan.

MADISON, Wis. – His sweetheart didn't dump him.

His parents didn't disown him.

In fact, the only folks who had a problem with Mark Vershaw's choice of college were a few of you.

Marty Blake, head scout for the National Basketball Association, said Brett Robisch will get a chance to play professionally next season.

Savannah Robisch, the 4-month-old daughter of the former Illini center, is banking on it.

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Sports Illustrated was in Champaign-Urbana last week to profile of the Big Ten's newest sensation.

Illinois guard Kevin Turner doesn't mind that kind of attention. But the kind he's been getting paid lately has the senior sharpshooter all mixed up.

"I've never seen Mateen that hot. I thought he was Michael Jordan, just hitting shot after shot. After a while I didn't even bother to go in and rebound."– MSU's Morris Peterson

EAST LANSING, Mich. – At this time last week, they were all alone on top of the Big Ten basketball world. Unbeaten, unbelievable, unbecoming of an Illinois men's basketball team in the '90s.

At 2:30 this afternoon, they report to practice on a two-game slide, tied for fifth in the league and a Wednesday loss against Wisconsin away from .500.