CHAMPAIGN - Maybe it's just lip service paying homage to today's opponent, Belmont University. Belmont hardly reverberates as a member of the national college basketball elite, so when Illinois coach Bruce Weber warned this week that Belmont should not be taken lightly, it sounded a bit like an obligatory nod of respect.

Arizona and Maryland, this is not. But upon closer inspection, Belmont has earned its measure of respect.

The private school of about 4,500 located in Nashville, Tenn., has been a 20-win team two of the last three seasons, last year landing in San Diego at the same NCAA Tournament site that accommodated Illinois.

Belmont arrives at the Assembly Hall today with a 7-2 record and is fresh off this week's 15-point victory at Arkansas-Little Rock. That's the same Arkansas-Little Rock team that won at Minnesota earlier this season.

Coach Rick Byrd picked up career coaching triumph No. 500 in the Little Rock romp.

"He does a great job," Weber said. "He took them from NAIA to Division I, then got into the NCAA Tournament and played UCLA very well in the first half."

After making the transition to Division I, Belmont posted its first victory over a Top 25 team in 2003 when it knocked off No. 23 Missouri.

"He's a very good motion coach," Weber said. "When I played them at SIU, they were a five-man motion team that would spread you out and do a lot of 3-point shooting. Now they have a big guy and they go four around one. If you cheat in on the big man (6-foot-10 Andrew Preston), they will get the ball to the 3-point shooters."

Looming as the biggest potential distraction for the Illini is Tuesday's much-anticipated Braggin' Rights game against Missouri in St. Louis.

Fans can't wait for that game, an annual encounter many consider the most electrifying of the season. That's all the more reason Weber is trying to wave the red flag on behalf of Belmont.

"I'm telling them not to listen to the fans and media and worry about Missouri," he said. "If we lose to Belmont, it will be a major disaster, especially at home."

Weber has other issues, not the least of which is a nagging foot injury to point guard Chester Frazier and a bout of the flu that knocked Warren Carter and Brian Carlwell for a loop. Carlwell was finally easing back into practice on Friday.

Weber instructed the school's sports information staff to list eight players as potential starters for today's game, unsure who would be among his stable of able bodies.

Weber had hoped to schedule this game on Saturday night as a tuneup for the Missouri game, but that didn't work out.

"We have exams this week, so the school doesn't allow it," Weber said.

His strategic decision was to squeeze in one game between the Dec. 9 game against Illinois-Chicago and the Border Wars showdown. Missouri, on the other hand, did not schedule an interim game and will have had 10 days off between its Dec. 9 game at Purdue and Tuesday's matchup with the Illini.

What Weber hopes to avoid by playing today is, "having the rustiness of 10 days then all of a sudden playing a game."