He’s never played there, but T.J. Parker says he knows what to expect from the student section at Illinois’ Assembly Hall.

“Champaign (Ill.) is going to be something crazy,” he said. “I hear they know everything about you, like your girlfriend, everything.”

On Saturday, when the Wildcats (12-12, 7-6 Big Ten) take on the Fighting Illini at Assembly Hall, Parker finally will see what these students — officially known as the Orange Krush — have learned about his life. Tip-off is set for 1:30 p.m.

Last season when Iowa’s Jared Reiner played in Champaign, students were ready for the South Dakota native.

“One guy told me I was a blankin’ hick and to get back on my tractor and drive home,” Reiner said.

Parker and his Northwestern teammates have heard most of the snide comments before, playing in front of rowdy student sections at other Big Ten schools. Every time they leave Welsh-Ryan Arena, fans are ready to pounce on each player’s weakness.

Parker has been called “Dirty Frenchman” more than a few times, but he’s usually able to shrug it off. Sometimes — if the Cats’ lead is big enough — he’s even able to laugh about it.

Perhaps the most basic of all on-court ribbing is the brutal “airball” chant. Even NU’s leading scorer, Jitim Young, isn’t immune to the awful chorus that comes with each touch of the ball after failing to hit the rim on a shot. The Cats’ captain had the experience at Michigan.

“It’s like, ‘OK, let me shut these people up right quick and come down and make 10 baskets,” Young said.

Young finished that game with 20 points, but he sank just 5-of-14 shots — not that the fans had anything to do with his troubles.

“It doesn’t get to me,” Young said. “You expect it when you shoot an airball. I’ve been in this league so long I just worry about what I have to do to win the game.”

While each school has its rabid fans, most players say Michigan State and Illinois are the toughest places to the play in the Big Ten.

At the Spartans’ Izzone, named for coach Tom Izzo, students research every opponent.

“When you come out of the shoot-around, there’s a whole line there, waiting to talk to you the whole time,” Parker said. “The thing is, during the game there’s a whole bunch of white T-shirts standing up and yelling.”

The Fighting Illini’s Luther Head, a junior, remembers a particularly nasty greeting directed at him and former teammate Brian Cook in Michigan State’s Breslin Center.

With Cook’s mother, Joyce, in attendance, some fans held up their sign: “Joyce Cook Gives Luther Head.”

“She was so mad she had to go over there and snatch the sign out of their hands,” Head said.

While Illinois (19-5, 10-3) and Michigan State get most of the attention, fans at Welsh-Ryan have quietly made NU’s home court one of the toughest stops in the Big Ten. This season, the Cats have won 5-of-6 home conference games, knocking off two top-25 teams.

It was just three seasons ago that NU snapped its 15-game Big Ten home losing streak with a win over Iowa. But these days, the Cats are nearly unbeatable in Evanston.

“I think the student section here is awesome, especially when they all come,” Young said. “This could be a hostile environment because the gym is so small it’s like the fans are right there on you. I’d hate to be a visiting team coming to Northwestern when the game is tight.”

Credit former NU basketball coach Kevin O’Neill for giving the Cats a true home court advantage. O’Neill, who led NU from 1997-00, decided to put the student section — then called the Welsh-Ryan Rowdies — behind both baskets, putting undergraduates closer to the players.

Previously, half of the students sat in the northeast corner of the arena, where they were removed from the action.

“Every time you have an out-of-bounds play or something like that right on the baseline, they’re in your ear barking,” Minnesota forward Michael Bauer said.

Although the Cats’ student section, now called the WildSide, isn’t as large as other schools’, it produces as much noise as powerhouses Indiana and Michigan State. The students’ choice of words, as much as their volume, can draw the attention of opposing players.

In the past, students have yelled, “State school!” at opposing players, showing their disdain for public universities.

Some at NU frown at the politically incorrect cheer, but Bauer said he doesn’t mind.

“I think that’s pretty funny,” he said. “They’re a private school and there’s always been pride in private schools and contempt for the state schools. I don’t think it’s a big deal. I think it’s just kind of funny that the fans get on the players for things like that.”

Most good-natured chants like “Tiny Johnson” — a Feb. 14 barb directed at Penn State forward Aaron Johnson — tend to get the players’ attention, even if they won’t admit it.

“It’s funny when they’re not chanting it at you,” NU’s Young said.

And although Iowa’s Reiner ranks Michigan State as the hardest place to play in the conference, he said the WildSide can hold its own.

“The students get pretty rowdy.”