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Hi gang,

At 7 p.m. today, Northern Illinois and Illinois finally meet on the court. Considering both schools have been in the men's basketball arena since 1906 -- and the schools are just 170 miles apart -- their first meeting seems a little overdue.

Just for fun, I compiled a list of every in-state college, army unit, YMCA team, youth group and coffee klatch that Illinois played before it got around to battling the Huskies.

Augustana
Bradley
Cairo Athletic Club
Camp Grant (Rockford)
Champaign High School
Chanute Field (Rantoul)
Chicago
Chicago State
Chicago YMCA
Decatur YMCA
DePaul
Eastern Illinois
Evanston Reds
Great Lakes
Great Lakes Hospital
UIC
Illinois State
Illinois Wesleyan
Knox
Lombard
Loyola-Chicago
Millikin
Mount Vernon
Northeastern Illinois

Let me state, for the record, that Jeremy Roenick was one of my all-time favorite Blackhawks, right there behind Bobby Hull and Denis Savard.
But when it comes to retiring Roenick’s No. 27, I can’t jump on that bandwagon.
He just didn’t play here long enough, or win a Stanley Cup.
How can you retire Roenick’s number, or even Chris Chelios’ No. 7, if you don’t hang Steve Larmer’s No. 28 or Doug Wilson’s No. 24 up there as well?
Larmer and Wilson never won a Cup here either, but they had longevity and were special, special players.
There’s no way Roenick or Chelios get their numbers retired ahead of Larmer, who ranks third all-time in goals with 406 as a Hawk, behind only Hull and Stan Mikita.
Larmer’s 923 points rank fourth behind Mikita, Hull and Savard.

The debate over whether to move terrorist detainees to a near-vacant state prison in rarely mentioned Thomson is filled with irony.
That prison was supposed to be built on Department of Defense property on the Savanna Army Depot. Then-Gov. Jim Edgar awarded that site the prison late in his final term to help offset hundreds of job losses when the army depot officially closed.
But media-backed environmentalists quickly threw up a challenge. The army depot grounds along the Mississippi River may be home to decades of munitions testing and contamination but they're also home to some of the last native sand prairies.
Candidates George Ryan and Glenn Poshard both voiced their environmental concerns and the sand prairies won.

Many theaters in the suburbs will be showing the original "Twilight" on the big screen Thursday night at 9 p.m., followed by the midnight premiere of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," in which Team Jacob and Team Edward collide in (hopefully) spectacular fashion. Click here for a list of every theater within 40 miles of the Daily Herald office building that will be showing both movies this week.

After consulting with several health professionals, including a pair of foot specialists, Northwestern senior forward Kevin Coble has no choice but to undergo season-ending surgery to fix the mild Lisfranc fracture in his left foot.

Coble said Friday that such surgery would keep him off the court for four months, but that doesn't even take into account the rehab time necessary to return to action.

Coble also mentioned on Friday that he'd be interested in taking a redshirt year and returning for the 2010-11 season, but it's important to note that Lisfranc surgery isn't a slam dunk.

According to a page I found on footphysicians.com, there are additional issues involved with Lisfranc injuries. From http://www.footphysicians.com/footankleinfo/lisfranc_injuries.htm:

Just when Northern Illinois gets its first opportunity to play Illinois -- NIU has been playing basketball since 1900 and Illinois since 1906 -- the Huskies lose their best scorer.

What junior guard Xavier Silas thought was a soft-tissue injury turned out to be a fractured right hand. Silas suffered the injury with 18:18 left in NIU's game at Northwestern on Friday when Jeremy Nash went for the block and smacked him where the thumb and forefinger link, yet he played through it.

NIU says Silas won't need surgery, but will wear a splint and be re-evaluated at Dec. 1. At the minimum, Silas will miss Tuesday's game at Illinois as well as home games with Tennessee State (Friday) and Southeast Missouri State (Sunday) and a trip to Northern Iowa on Nov. 28.

Side thought:

House Republican Leader Tom Cross says he will attempt to put to a vote Gov. Pat Quinn's plan to sell a western Illinois prison to the federal government to house suspected terrorists from Guantanamo Bay.
Calling the move "a huge mistake," Cross said, "There ought to be a debate. There ought to be a discussion."
So far, there is a debate over whether the deal would legally require approval from the General Assembly. Under the preliminary outline, the federal government would buy the $140 million, near-vacant prison in Thomson outright from the state.

Aaron Gray is in the hospital with cellulitis, a type of skin infection, in his right knee. He’s been sidelined since the first days of training camp because a stress fracture in his left fibula, but was getting close to being able to return to practice.

This isn’t expected to be a serious issue. A few antibiotics and he should be fine. Coach Vinny Del Negro suggested Monday that Gray might join the team for the end of the 10-day road trip.

The trek began Monday with the Bulls departing for Sacramento. Del Negro said Tyrus Thomas (broken arm) will not make the trip, which is a little surprising, even though he’s not expected to play until early December. Thomas and Jerome James will stay behind for conditioning.

NOAH GAINS CIRCUS KNOWLEDGE

The Daily Herald covers about 32 suburban House and Senate seats up for election next year. With petitions now in to get on the ballot, we have dug behind the names to learn more about what voters can expect this primary and into the general election.

For the primary, several Republicans are facing challenges while Democrats are largely given a pass. The most intense primaries include challenges to state Sen. Chris Lauzen of Aurora, state Rep. Suzie Bassi of Palatine and state Rep. Kay Hatcher of Yorkville.

But the real heat will come in the general election. Remember that 10 state legislative races in the Daily Herald's suburban coverage area drew $11 million in spending last year.

The Bears got back to practice Monday morning, with the exception of center Olin Kreutz, tight end Desmond Clark (neck) and safety Kevin Payne (back), who were held out, in addition to running back Garrett Wolfe, who still hasn’t returned from the lacerated kidney he suffered on Nov. 8 against the Cardinals.

The team hasn’t been required to list a specific injury for Kreutz yet, and he may just be getting a day off because of “general soreness.”

Offensive tackle Orlando Pace (head), safety Al Afalava (shoulder), guard Josh Beekman and cornerback Zack Bowman (back), all of whom did not finish the game in Thursday night’s loss to the 49ers, were at practice. But it remains to be seen how much any of them were limited.