Zoned out

There are myriad reasons why Illinois struggles against a zone. One, the Illini don't play zone, so the zone they face in practice is weak. Two, it's not a team that gets a lot of dribble penetration. "The key is penetration, really," Davis said. Three, the Illini haven't faced much zone since the nonconference season. "A little bit from Northwestern," Weber said. He said Ohio State played about 36 minutes of man-to-man defense in a recent win against Penn State. Still, "I would anticipate they (Ohio State) will start in it." Illinois would prefer to force Ohio State out of its zone. "Hopefully we'll make some shots and they'll go back to man-to-man," said Davis, who had a field day against Ohio State's zone at Value City Arena last season, scoring 22 points. "We're a little more confident against man-to-man defense."

Klee