It was a rough December for the Illinois Fighting Illini with disappointing losses to Penn State, Mizzou, and then into the new year with a loss at Northwestern.

Bob Asmussen watches the Illini for IlliniHQ.com and says things are starting to look much better for the team heading into its matchup with Michigan State tonight.

Illinois dug itself into an early 0-3 start in Big Ten play. Asmussen believes with 20 conference games, they can dig themselves out of that early hole.

While Illinois lost Skyy Clark to the transfer portal mid-season, he says forward Luke Goode should be back by the end of the month and once he gets in game shape will provide a real shot in the arm for Illinois in a lot of facets of the game.