Illini

TIM FRAZIER HIT a floater in the lane with 8 seconds left and Jermaine Marshall blocked Sam Maniscalco's layup at the buzzer to give Penn State a 54-52 upset of No. 22 Illinois last night. Frazier finished with 12 points and nine assists for the Nittany Lions (10-10, 2-5 Big Ten), who ended a three-game losing skid. Off a timeout, Frazier drove at the top of the key before Jon Graham's pick freed him from hounding defender Brandon Paul. The Illini (15-4, 4-2) lost for the first time since re-entering the AP Top 25 this week.

SEVEN YEARS of tantalizing potential that often lead to frustrating results at Illinois ended yesterday when the school fired coach Ron Zook following his team's historic, late-season collapse. Illinois started the season 6-0 but finished with a six-game losing streak, finishing with a 27-7 defeat at Minnesota on Saturday. According to STATS, LLC, the Illini are the first FBS team to open the regular season with six straight wins, and close it with six losses in a row. Zook took the Illini to their first Rose Bowl since the 1980s and last season led the team to its first bowl win in more than a decade.

Kurt Kittner threw for 387 yards and four touchdowns as No. 10 Illinois clinched at least a share of the Big Ten football title with a 34-28 victory over Northwestern yesterday in Champaign, Ill. Illinois (10-1, 7-1) finished the regular season with its best record since 1983, when the Illini were 10-1 and went to the Rose Bowl. The Illini, led, 34-13 early in the fourth quarter then hung on as Northwestern (4-7, 2-6) scored twice to make it close. Illinois will win the Big Ten outright if Michigan loses to Ohio State tomorrow, and is in the running for the Bowl Championship Series regardless of what the Wolverines do. Illinois' only loss was to Michigan.

Dee Brown scored a career-high 34 points and No. 6 Illinois held No. 7 Michigan State nearly 33 points below its average to win their Big Ten-opening showdown, 60-50, last night. The Illini (15-0) extended their home winning streak to 30 games, matching No. 8 Gonzaga for the longest current run in the country. Maurice Ager, the Big Ten's leading scorer at 20 points per game, was held to nine on 3-for-8 shooting as the Spartans (12-3) had their 11-game winning streak snapped.

Illinois' three-guard attack might be down to two tonight against Arizona in the Chicago Regional final. Luther Head, a 6-foot-3 senior from Chicago, is nursing a pulled right hamstring and might not be in the starting lineup when the top-ranked Illini (35-1) face the Wildcats (30-6). Head "tweaked" the hamstring in practice Monday, coach Bruce Weber said. He was limping during Thursday's 77-63 victory over Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Despite that, Head contributed 12 points, six assists and two steals.

Illinois quarterback Tim Lavery's debut as a starter against Iowa was unspectacular, but it was enough to earn him another try when the winless Illini face No. 2 Penn State today. Illinois lost, 38-10, to No. 11 Iowa. Some quarterbacks might think it's a mixed blessing to get a chance to start during Illinois's toughest stretch. Not Lavery, a redshirt freshman who replaced junior Mark Hoekstra. "It's two tough games right off the bat. I'd rather have it that way, to be honest, and know what it's like to play good teams," Lavery said.

Tim Duncan doesn't live there anymore. Neither does his alleged successor, Loren Woods, who almost went to Temple, but instead has transferred to Arizona, after only two years on Tobacco Road. Wake Forest has 11 freshmen and sophomores on its roster, from a team that might have had the best 16-14 record in the nation last season. And last night at Madison Square Garden, the Demon Deacons came from six points down in overtime to beat Illinois, 75-73, in the opening game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic doubleheader.

The way Lou Henson sees it, the worst is finally over for his troubled basketball program at Illinois. The Fighting Illini are eligible for the NCAA tournament this season. They will be allowed to play on television. They signed two of the top scholastic prospects in their home state this fall, and will not be limited to two next season. The sting of a three-year probation is slowly, but surely, going away. "We look at this as our comeback year," said Henson. "Everything is behind us and we feel good about ourselves again.

Brandon Paul and D.J. Richardson made consecutive three-pointers to give Illinois back the lead with 6 minutes left and the seventh-seeded Illini pulled out a tough 57-49 win over No. 10 Colorado in an East Regional second-round game in Austin, Texas. Illinois led by 16 at halftime only to watch Colorado rip off a 21-2 run in the second to grab the lead. The Illini looked desperate until Paul and Richardson coolly knocked down their shots to put Illinois ahead, 48-44. Four free throws by Paul eventually put the game out of reach for the Illini (23-12)

Illinois coach Lou Henson felt free-throw shooting might be his team's Achilles' heel in the NCAA Tournament. After all, the Illini shot just 67 percent from the line during the regular season and were ranked last in the Big 10 Conference. Still, Henson did not think his team would totally self-destruct as it did in yesterday's 66-63 loss to Villanova. Illinois shot just 5-for-16 from the line in the second half and made only 3 of its last 11 free throws. That led one cynical writer to ask Henson if he thought his team had choked under pressure.

Brandon Paul and D.J. Richardson made consecutive three-pointers to give Illinois back the lead with 6 minutes left and the seventh-seeded Illini pulled out a tough 57-49 win over No. 10 Colorado in an East Regional second-round game in Austin, Texas. Illinois led by 16 at halftime only to watch Colorado rip off a 21-2 run in the second to grab the lead. The Illini looked desperate until Paul and Richardson coolly knocked down their shots to put Illinois ahead, 48-44. Four free throws by Paul eventually put the game out of reach for the Illini (23-12)

Shane Larkin hit a go-ahead three-pointer with a minute left and Miami gained possession on a ball knocked out of bounds that probably should have gone to Illinois to help the Hurricanes hold on for a 63-59 victory Sunday night in Austin, Texas, to advance to the NCAA round of 16. After Larkin's first field goal in about 91/2 minutes, D.J. Richardson missed a three-pointer. In the fight for the rebound, the ball appeared to ricochet off the hands of Miami's Kenny Kadji out of bounds.

EASTERN KENTUCKY coach Jeff Neubauer had a good feeling halfway through Sunday's game against Illinois. "At halftime, I really felt we'd win the game," Neubauer said. "Our defense was good enough to win the game. " Brandon Paul scored 17 points, Tracy Adams added 13 and the No. 10 Illini pulled away late to remain unbeaten with a 66-53 victory over visiting Eastern Kentucky. In a game between undefeated teams, the Illini led by 11 early but needed a late 12-2 run to gain control and help John Groce become only the second coach in Illinois history to win his first 12 games.

Indiana is No. 1 for a sixth straight week in the Associated Press college basketball poll. The Hoosiers are again followed in the Top 25 by Duke, Michigan, and Syracuse. The only changes in Monday's poll is the order, not who's ranked. The Hoosiers (9-0) received 44 first-place votes from the 64-member national media panel. Duke (9-0) again drew the other No. 1 votes. Florida and Louisville switched places at fifth and sixth. They were followed by Ohio State, Arizona, Kansas, and Illinois.

STATE COLLEGE - Bill O'Brien isn't focusing on the past. When it came to the topic of Illinois sending its coaches to State College this summer to recruit Nittany Lions, O'Brien just kept the discussion to preparing for Saturday's game at the Fighting Illini during his weekly press conference Tuesday at Beaver Stadium. "It takes a lot to bother me," O'Brien said. "So I will tell you that our players, myself, our staff, we're very focused on the task at hand, which is to practice today.

STATE COLLEGE - Illinois first-year head coach Tim Beckman said Monday he did not regret his decision to send coaches to Penn State to recruit after the NCAA levied unprecedented penalties on the program. But, he said, he did regret that it ended up being so talked about. In July, the NCAA hit Penn State with sanctions stemming from the university's handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal. The sanctions barred the school from postseason play for four seasons, imposed scholarship reductions and cost the university millions of dollars.

  Kentucky wasn't just supposed to beat Louisiana State, it was supposed to win comfortably. But the Wildcats (31-1) labored through an 18-turnover performance Friday in which the feisty Tigers led early in the second half before losing, 60-51, in the second-round of the Southeastern Conference tournament in New Orleans. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist helped No. 1 Kentucky overcome its early lethargy, scoring 10 of his 19 points in the opening 20 minutes before his teammates came alive in the second half.

TIM FRAZIER HIT a floater in the lane with 8 seconds left and Jermaine Marshall blocked Sam Maniscalco's layup at the buzzer to give Penn State a 54-52 upset of No. 22 Illinois last night. Frazier finished with 12 points and nine assists for the Nittany Lions (10-10, 2-5 Big Ten), who ended a three-game losing skid. Off a timeout, Frazier drove at the top of the key before Jon Graham's pick freed him from hounding defender Brandon Paul. The Illini (15-4, 4-2) lost for the first time since re-entering the AP Top 25 this week.

The speculation has begun. As soon as Temple introduced Steve Addazio as its head football caoch in December, fans wondered when Bowl Championship Series programs would try to lure him away. Two seasons? Four seasons? According to the Chicago Tribune, things could happen sooner than expected. The newspaper reported that the Owls' first-year coach may be a candidate for the Illinois job. Any new coach will replace Ron Zook, who was fired Sunday. "I have no comment," Addazio said Monday about being mentioned for the job. "I have nothing to say about that.

SEVEN YEARS of tantalizing potential that often lead to frustrating results at Illinois ended yesterday when the school fired coach Ron Zook following his team's historic, late-season collapse. Illinois started the season 6-0 but finished with a six-game losing streak, finishing with a 27-7 defeat at Minnesota on Saturday. According to STATS, LLC, the Illini are the first FBS team to open the regular season with six straight wins, and close it with six losses in a row. Zook took the Illini to their first Rose Bowl since the 1980s and last season led the team to its first bowl win in more than a decade.