Here's a few more...
“No rebounds – no rings” – Pat Riley
“Basketball is a simple game. Your goal is penetration, get the ball close to the basket, and there are three ways to do that. Pass, dribble and offensive rebound” – Phil Jackson
“I feel all great teams have two things in common: defense and rebounding. So, we stress defense and rebounding every day as the most important aspects in the game to win” – Larry Brown
"Rebounding wins championships, you need to emphasize it and work with kids on it." -- Pat Summitt
"Your contribution as a coach is defending and rebounding." -- Dick Motta
While I am not entirely enamored of the strategy, it is intentional and not merely oversight. Others on this board have pointed to Beilein at Michigan, Bo Ryan at Wisconsin, the Spurs in the NBA and much of the rest of the NBA following suit.
FWIW, we seemed to do a lot more intentional fighting for rebounds against Purdue than we did in prior games.
Not sure how big of a difference it would make, but ESPN is counting our Springfield games as neutral where as NCAA one is counting them as home games
Those should count as neutral right? I mean...it wasn't our home floor.
I believe I read that once you play a certain number of games at a location, it then becomes a home game.
Well let's hope that number isn't 4. We did play 4 in Springfield right?
Not sure how big of a difference it would make, but ESPN is counting our Springfield games as neutral where as NCAA one is counting them as home games
Jeremy Werner @JWernerScout 9h9 hours ago
#illini Groce: Mike Thorne Jr "as of today" is closer to getting to the court than Leron Black.
If we are #74 now, winning 9 of the final 14 could well get us to the low 50s. Add a tourney win or two, and who knows?
Not sure how big of a difference it would make, but ESPN is counting our Springfield games as neutral where as NCAA one is counting them as home games
Those should count as neutral right? I mean...it wasn't our home floor.
I believe I read that once you play a certain number of games at a location, it then becomes a home game.
Well let's hope that number isn't 4. We did play 4 in Springfield right?
It was posted somewhere on this site that the magic number is 5. I think that would make the ESPN number more accurate. Of course if the NCAA doesn't update their numbers it is academic since they would be official. It could be just an oversight on their site that it is taking them a long time to fix. You know how long it can take the NCAA to act.
ESPN's numbers are off for all teams, not just Illinois. That might explain some of the difference, though.
JG alluded to this in press conf yesterday,....said both are indefinite still and no timetable.I wonder what's going on with Leron Black for them to know that already. Was there any news on a repeat MRI showing new injury?
If any posters have a conduit to the staff or athletic department, maybe ping 'em to see whether this needs to be addressed? I mean, let's hope we finish strong enough for it to matter, but wouldn't it be a shame if we did and then got nudged out due to miscalculation?
If we are #74 now, winning 9 of the final 14 could well get us to the low 50s. Add a tourney win or two, and who knows?
Winning 5 in a row would probably do that of course that's if the other teams ahead of of us lose a game or two each. We're not out of this thing. A win today is as important as ever. 3.5 on the spread seems like easy money, but they play the games for a reason. Should be a close and exciting game.
Well, we didn't have KNunn for 2 of our losses. So that might help if we're on the bubble. But we do need some key wins over teams in the top 3rd of the conference to even make it onto the bubble, IMO.
"Jump shooting teams don't win championships." -- Charles Barkley
Kendrick Nunn did not play in 4 of our losses.
North Florida
Providence
Chattanooga
MSU
Anybody else going to the game? If so, feel free to say hello to your fellow Illinoisloyalty member. If it helps, I'll be wearing an orange shirt and denim jeans. ; )
Hope we don't sit next to each other, that's what I'm wearing! Always so embarrassed when the guy/girl next to me is dressed near the same.