Another game is in the books, and another win is on the board for the Illinois basketball team.
After the victory over Wisconsin on Saturday, the Illini now move to 13-5 on the season and 9-3 in Big Ten action. This was a great team win and one that has us close to overtaking Michigan for the No. 1 spot in the conference. With this win over the Badgers comes some interesting numbers.
Here are four big statistics from the Illini win over Wisconsin.
1. +27
Coming into the Wisconsin game on Saturday, Illinois was one of the best rebounding teams in the country. They averaged 40.2 rebounds per game, which ranked No. 16 in the nation.
Wisconsin was about average in the rebounding department. They were pulling down 35.1 rebounds per game, which ranked No. 181 in the nation. So, they were middle of the pack. Not bad but not good. They were just average.
In the Illini win, the Badgers couldn’t rebound and Illinois took advantage of this fact.
Illinois had a rebounding margin of +27 against Wisconsin.
Honestly, I am not sure if I have ever seen a rebounding margin this lopsided for the Illini in a Big Ten game. I would imagine we would have had a margin this bad against a cupcake game early in a season, but against a Big Ten team, this is embarrassing.
It wasn’t just the typical Kofi Cockburn rebounding show either. While he did pull down 14 rebounds, the rest of the team also contributed.
Ayo Dosunmu had 12 rebounds, which was a part of his triple-double night. Da’Monte Williams came off the bench and had nine rebounds in just 22 minutes of action. Jacob Grandison also had four rebounds in the game.
This was a team effort on the glass. Illinois didn’t just outrebound a team. They crushed Wisconsin’s soul by over doubling the rebounding total of the Badgers on Saturday.