The beautiful part of college basketball is that scheduling tough non-conference competition can make a team stronger when it really counts.

Tonight the Illinois women's basketball team will make another stop in a preseason schedule that was ranked the country's eighth hardest. They will travel north to Chicago to take on the DePaul Blue Demons who are currently 3-0 and averaging 101.5 points per game.

Meanwhile the Illini are 1-3, which could be a misleading stat considering the level of competition the Illini have taken on.

"We have dropped the past three, but we have developed," Illinois head coach Theresa Grentz said. "We have learned, and despite losing, we built confidence. We have confidence that we can do this."

At practice, Grentz stopped a scrimmage to point to the scoreboard at the Ubben practice building. The Orange team had a six-point deficit and Grentz pointed out that they were right there with their opponents.

"To pull out close games we need to start eliminating our mistakes," senior forward Cindy Dallas said. "It always seems to be one facet of our game that's hurting us and we need to change that, we need to be able to do the simple things."

The difference between victory and defeat against perennial powers like Louisiana Tech and UC-Santa Barbara was marginal. A few mistakes here and there decided the game, and Grentz wants the team to see they are close to the national standing they have been playing for.

"It's definitely frustrating that we dropped those close games," sophomore point guard Maggie Acuna said. "But we have told ourselves from the beginning of the year to live in the present. We have to build on our performance from the past but live in the present."

In the series between Illinois and DePaul, the team with the home court advantage has won every game since 1981.

"We want to go up there and we want to win," Grentz said. "We need to to have that change by executing and taking care of the ball."

DePaul is a team much like Illinois: they pride themselves on their athleticism, while getting their points from good shooting.

Illinois scheduled basketball powerhouses early, on purpose.

"We have been conditioned well to where we can keep improving," Acuna said. "We are mentally tough and we need to keep improving. Our record isn't what we want it to be, but we definitely have something to build off of."

Depaul is coming off a 82-57 win against Chicago rival Northwestern. Illinois is the only team standing in the Blue Demons way from being the best women's basketball team in the state.

"A lot of players from both our teams have played against each other for some time," Dallas said. "It makes for somewhat of a rivalry; the Chicago players take it personal. They have played with and against each other for AAU and it's always important to beat your former teammates. It's also nice because our players from Chicago can have their families watch them play."

If the Illini can correct the little mistakes that have been hurting them all year they could end their three game skid and gain momentum for the end of the out-of-conference schedule.