Illinois Basketball: 4 observations from the Illini win over Rutgers

2. Illini crashed the glass

In the keys the beating Rutgers article I typed up yesterday, I mentioned that if Illinois just hit their average rebounding total of 40 rebounds against Rutgers, then everything should be fine. Illinois didn’t just do that, though. They completely dominated the glass.

As far as Illinois’ rebounding goes, they hit the mark I was looking for. The Illini finished with 44 rebounds on the night, which is four more than their season average. The most impressive thing about the total rebounds Illinois pulled down was their ability to crash the offensive glass.

Illinois had 17 total offensive rebounds on the night, which is an insane number. But these numbers get even crazier when you look at the rebounds for Rutgers.

While Illinois was just plucking every ball out of the air, the Scarlet Knights were just trying to pick up the scraps. Rutgers managed to finish the game with 19 total rebounds. That means they only had two more rebounds than Illinois did offensive rebounds. That is a mind-blowing stat.

Illinois won the rebounding battle 44-19, which comes out to a +25 rebounding margin. If they can hit that number in every game on the way out, this program will win the national title. No team is going to compete with the Illini with that type of rebounding margin.

I also mentioned in the keys to beating Rutgers article that Illinois needed to team rebound the ball. They couldn’t just rely on Kofi Cockburn to pull down all of the rebounds. Illinois had four players with at least five rebounds on the night. 12 total Illini players ended up with a rebound as well. This was a great team effort.