This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

For the first time since November of 2011, the BYU basketball team is back in the Chicago area tonight, ready to take on Illinois in the State Farm Chicago Legends double-header at the United Center.

It will be BYU's first-ever game at the home of the NBA's Chicago Bulls, while the Illini have played here a lot. Illnois is 36-14 in the building, and will definitely have the home-crowd advantage since Champaign-Urbana is just a two-hour drive away.

Bad weather might keep the crowd down a bit, though, because a snowstorm hit the Upper Midwest on Friday and more snow is expected today. And it is freezing cold, with temperatures in the single digits.

In 2011, BYU opened the Chicago Invitational Challenge with an easy win over Nevada at the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates, Ill., then fell 73-56 to Wisconsin in the championship game. Guard Ben Brust was 7 of 10 from 3-point line for the Badgers.

As I wrote in this piece, the game is BYU's last chance to get a resume-building win before the WCC slate begins after Christmas.

Illinois is a 3-point favorite. BYU coach Dave Rose said the Cougars can win if they play as well as they did Saturday night in beating Colorado, 79-71.

"If it is a 20-minute effort or a 30-minute effort, and we play really hard but we don't execute, then it is not going to be a very good day for us. We have to have both of those things going for us," Rose said.

Of course, the last time the Cougars played in an NBA arena, things didn't go well. They lost 91-84 to USC at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Rose said the Cougars will have to handle the "mystique" of the United Center, ignore all the peripheral stuff, and just play.

"This is probably one of the biggest in the country, as far as just space is concerned. It is kinda like when guys talk about playing in domes in the NCAA Tournament. It is just different.You have played in these large NBA arenas, and now you are going to a dome to play the championship. There is a little bit of a difference," he said. "We went to Madison Square Garden a few times and you not only see the New York Knicks and the NBA, but you see all the concerts and events that have happened in there. It is important to just block all that out and get to the court and just play.

Our history has been that we aren't all that good in the first half and we are better in the second half. Hopefully we can put two good halves together here."

The Cougars handled the Pac-12's Colorado because they rebounded well. They'll have to do it well tonight against a Big Ten team that will be much more physical than the Buffaloes.

"Well, I think you want to be an opportunistic offensive rebounding team, where you can grab those and get second possessions. But I think that defensive rebounding is kind of a system of how you run things," Rose said. "Our big guys have to be physical and lock guys up and then our guards have got to really be involved. I've had good rebounding guards over the years.

This year Yoeli [Childs] and Eric [Mika] are our two best defensive rebounders, and the third is LJ [Rose]. In some ways, it is a little bit of our system, but to me, we have to become better at defensive rebounding.

And not just the ball off the rim. It is the ball off the rim, off the hand, to the floor, and that's the ball we need to get.

I think if you could take one thing from the Colorado game, it is that we were really on those balls. We got our hands on balls. We were committed to make that play. And even when they went through the offensive drought, where we couldn't score, the energy level never died on the other end, and that is a good sign for a young team. You can see that energy always going when things are going well offensively. I was impressed with that.

Hopefully we turned the page, we took a step here and that can be a real milestone for us, a reference point we can go back to. Because that was a good win, that was a really good win."

Since giving up 114 points to Utah Valley three weeks ago, the Cougars have tightened their defense significantly. And teams have missed shots that the Wolverines sank with regularity.

"I think that defensively we are growing. Allright? We have got guys in the right place a lot more often," Rose said. "But you can tell that we are still really thinking about being there, instead of reacting once we get there. And that's where the improvement [is needed] that I can see with this group, is not just being in the right place, but then making a play — getting your hands on the ball. Be there and anticipate that next pass and deflect it a little bit.

You used to be able to disrupt the timing of other people's offense by chucking the cutter, knocking the guy our or taking him off the screen. But that's all out. Now you have to do it with deflections. You still have to find a way to break their offensive flow, or they are still going to have the advantage. And so I think that's the key, not only get to that spot, but be prepared and make a play."