Northwestern starts the new year with a trip to Champaign, Ill., a place where they haven’t won in more than a decade, to face a No. 9 Illinois team missing its biggest star.

The Wildcats (10-2, 1-0 Big Ten) have lost seven straight games at Illinois’ home court, dating back to 2013. In fact, Northwestern hasn’t won a game downstate since the Illini renamed their arena the State Farm Center in April of 2013.

But the Illini (10-2, 1-0) will be without leading scorer Terrence Shannon Jr. on Tuesday night. The unanimous preseason All-Big Ten guard was suspended indefinitely from the team on Dec. 27, after police in Lawrence, Kan., charged him with rape for an incident that occurred in September.

Shannon was scoring 21.7 points per game for the Illini, second-most in the Big Ten behind only Purdue’s Zach Edey. Last season, Shannon was a good barometer for Illinois’ fortunes against the Wildcats. He scored just 9 points in the Wildcats’ 73-60 win in Evanston, but in the rematch in Champaign he put up 26 on 8-for-10 shooting from the floor to lead the Illini to a 66-62 victory.

Illinois has played just one game without the 6-foot-6 Shannon since the suspension, and the Illini picked up the slack by spreading the scoring around in a 104-71 romp over Farleigh Dickinson last Friday. A remarkable six players scored in double figures, led by 19 points from Dain Dainja, and 18 each from Coleman Hawkins and Justin Harmon.

“I've been saying all year that this is the most connected team I've ever coached. You saw evidence of that tonight by how they responded,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said after the game. The Illini got 49 points off of their bench alone.

Still, without Shannon’s 3-point shooting (40.8%) and ability to get to the rim, Illinois’ offense will be tested against the Wildcats’ defense. While Northwestern hasn’t been as strong defensively as they were last season, the Wildcats still rank second in the Big Ten in points against, allowing 63.1 points per game.

This will be Northwestern’s second game against a ranked opponent this season. The Wildcats beat No. 1 Purdue 92-88 in overtime on Dec. 1, behind 31 points and nine assists from star point guard Boo Buie. It was their second straight win over a top-ranked Boilermaker squad dating to last season.

The Wildcats were ranked 25th in the nation after knocking off Purdue but then suffered an embarrassing home loss on Dec. 13 to Chicago State, the then-335th ranked team in the KenPom rankings, to bring them back down to earth.

Since then, Northwestern has run off three straight double-digit wins against less-then-stellar competition, including a dominant, 19-point, wire-to-wire win against Arizona State in Phoenix.

Northwestern head coach Chris Collins, who is 5-13 overall against Illinois and 0-7 in Champaign since taking the reins in 2013-14, brings his Wildcats into Big Ten play at 10-2 for the second straight season. He knows the challenge that awaits his team over the next two-plus months.

"You can say this team's down or this team's up, every game you play in the Big Ten, it doesn't matter. Everybody's good in this league," he said after Northwestern workmanlike 74-63 win over Jackson State last Friday. "You have to play well in order to win one game and that's what we're going to focus on as we head to Champaign."

The last time the Wildcats traveled south to take on their in-state rivals, Buie scored a career-high 35 points, but only one other NU player scored in double figures as the team shot 34.9% from the floor. He’ll need more help this time around.

Ty Berry’s recent hot streak could give Northwestern a boost. Since going a combined 1-for-13 on 3s in games against Chicago State and DePaul, Berry has shot 8-for-15 from long distance against Arizona State and Jackson State and scored a total of 32 points.

Another ace in the hole could be Ryan Langborg. The grad transfer has added much-needed firepower to Northwestern’s offense, especially on the perimeter. He’s averaging a career-high 13 points per game, third-most on the team, and his 42% 3-point shooting is the team’s best.

This matchup will likely come down to Illinois’ bigs vs. Northwestern’s guards. If the Wildcats want to give Collins his first win in Champaign, they’ll need Berry and Langborg to deliver, along with Buie.