The Illini have a powerful front court in Marcus Griffin, Brian Cook and Frank Williams with a talented back court in Preseason Big Ten Player of the Year Cory Bradford and Sergio McClain.
Illinois is 7-0 at home this season.
The Illini have a potent offense and a stingy defense that can jump on their opponents early in the game.
Getting an early lead on their opponents has forced other teams to change up their style of play earlier than they would have liked to.
With Illinois forcing its opponents to dig out of a hole early, this could present a problem for any team.
As for Penn State, it would be a familiar experience since they have trailed at the half in the past two games to Northwestern and Indiana.
In the loss to the Hoosiers, the Lions went into halftime down 18 points, which forced the Lions to come out gunning in the second half.
"When your down by that much you want to get it right back into it right away," Joe Crispin said.
"So there were couple of times I probably should have taken it right at them instead of shooting it.
"But we all were missing some shots that we normally make."
While playing on the road in the Big Ten is never easy, the Lions will be facing another challenge tomorrow - Illinois' fans.
"Their fans are wild out there," Smith said.
Known as the "orange crush," Illinois' student body brings an atmosphere to the game that tries to strike fear into its opponents.
"They're brutal," Smith said. "They try to find something out about you and chant it every time you get the ball."
Last year, Smith was told by the crowd to sing a song since he sang the national anthem while growing up.
With the crowd and the No.10 team in the country expected to be up for the challenge, Penn State will need to rise its level of play. Otherwise, the Lions might be sitting at the bottom of the Big Ten by the end of the weekend.
"We're Penn State. We have to play hard every night," Jon Crispin said. "We're not like Michigan State or Duke who can just show up and expect to win."
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