Illinois seniors Paul and Richardson optimistic about making the NCAA tournament

"There's a lot of regrets," Richardson said. "Everyone wants to do better, but at the same time, it's with us being experienced seniors. I believe we can have a great season this year. When I look back, more than everything bad you can think of happened to us the last three years. There's some positive things that happened, but there's a lot of bad things. We didn't close out games we should have won. With us being seniors, upperclassmen now, there should be no reason why we can't close out tough games."

Paul is driven by the same failures. Last season was especially tough on the returning Illini. Illinois opened the season with a 15-3 record and was ranked No. 25 before dropping 12 of its final 14 games.

"I want to have a better year this year than I have collectively the last three years," said Paul, who averaged a team-best 14.7 points last year. "I had a chance to make it to the tournament and win a game my sophomore year. I want to do more than that this year."

Scott Powers