No. 20 Indiana Looks to End 2020 on Positive Note in New Year's Eve Showdown

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The more Grace Berger thought about it, the more she admits Thursday's game against Illinois might have a little more pressure.

Thursday is Indiana's third Big Ten game of the season, and the Hoosiers will be looking to improve to 3-0 to begin conference play. But Thursday is also New Year's Eve, which means it's the final day of the year.

What better way to close an extremely difficult year by getting a win with your teammates in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall?

"I guess it definitely adds some more pressure to it because you want to win your last game of the year and end it on a good note," Berger said.

So far in conference play, the Hoosiers have won both their games by an average of 28.5 points. Illinois has only played one conference game so far, and the Illini lost to Nebraska by six. Indiana defeated Nebraska by 36 to open Big Ten play.

The Illini haven't played a game since Dec. 10 because two games were canceled due to COVID-19 with their opponents.

When Indiana and Illinois met last year in Bloomington, the Hoosiers won easily 83-42. But when the two met again later that season in Champaign, Indiana only came away with a five-point victory.

Indiana head coach Teri Moren believes this Illini team is completely different from the one they played twice last season.

"They are running different stuff, and she's (head coach Nancy Fahey) got a whole new coaching staff on the sideline," Moren said. "They've been through a bit of a transformation in a lot of different ways."

The Illini are led by sophomore guard Jada Peebles, who is averaging 11.8 points per game and a team-high 3.0 assists per game. Sophomore guard Jeanae Terry also adds double figures with 11.3 points per game and ties a team-high 8.8 rebounds per game.

"Very athletic on the perimeter," Moren said. "Playing fast, trying to get downhill. A lot similar to how we like to play."

With all the time the Illini have had off, the team has been able to prepare for and watch Indiana for nearly three weeks now.

As for Indiana, it doesn't have nearly as much film on the Illini.

"Yeah, it definitely is kind of weird that they've had that much time to prepare for us," Berger said. "And we haven't been able to see new stuff that they've been put in and stuff like that."

Indiana hasn't played since last Wednesday when the team got its first road win of the season at Minnesota.

The team didn't go home for Christmas, but Moren gave the players three days off to spend time with one another. Berger said they watched Christmas movies and baked some cookies during that time off.

But Indiana has ramped things back up the last couple of days to make sure the Hoosiers are ready to go for Illinois.

"More than anything, what we did was try to get up and down the floor," Moren said. "Keep our conditioning at the level that it needs to be as we go into not just tomorrow, but as we go into next week."

The game between No. 20 Indiana and Illinois will tip-off at 1 p.m. ET on BTN Plus.

Add us as a preferred source on Google