Illinois’ first-year point guard Kasparas Jakucionis isn’t your typical freshman – and Purdue coach Matt Painter is well aware. Averaging 15.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.8 assists ...

Matt Painter talked about the greatest challenges that Illinois will present for Purdue heading into Friday's regular season finale.

Get real-time COLLEGEBASKETBALL basketball coverage and scores as Purdue Boilermakers takes on Illinois Fighting Illini. We bring you the latest game previews, live stats, expert picks and recaps on CBSSports.

Braden Smith fell one rebound shy of a triple-double with 18 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds and Trey Kaufman-Renn came one point shy of a career-high with 29 and

Against the Big Ten's best rebounding team, Purdue showed a promising effort on the glass Friday despite the loss to Illinois.

Not the final two minutes. The Boilermakers want some of those possessions back. Illinois concluded its 88-80 victory on a 13-1 run. Add it to the other potentially big victories -- too many of them -- which wound up as near misses over the final month of the regular season.

Scott Richey covers college basketball for The News-Gazette. His email is [email protected], and you can follow him on Twitter ( @srrichey ).

Find out the Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Purdue men's basketball game betting odds, over/under and point spread on Friday, March 7.

Purdue basketball headed on the road to end the regular season with hopes to end its season on a three-game winning streak and positive momentum. Though against the Illini it’s momentum was stopped after picking up its tenth loss on the season.