Illinois Basketball: 5 big questions for the Illini against Colgate

2. Will Illinois stop giving up second chance opportunities?

The fact Illinois was able to come within single digits of knocking off Tennessee is impressive. The Illini had been on a long road trip, and it was all capped off with a  game against a top-20 team.

Illinois being on the road for a week started to show at the end. One of the big ways it was showing in the Illini play was in the rebounding department. Illinois wasn’t getting the usual rebounds, and this killed any chance we had at coming out victorious.

I am going to be watching to see if Illinois can rebound better against Colgate. Will Illinois stop giving up second-chance opportunities to the opposing team?

Against Tennessee, Illinois got outrebounded in the game 43-34. This was the worst rebounding performance of the season for the Illini. What was more worrisome was giving up 13 offensive rebounds to the Volunteers.

An opponent getting an offensive rebound means they get another chance at scoring on the offensive end of the court. Illinois has actually been bad this season giving up offensive rebounds. We are allowing opponents to pull down 8.9 offensive rebounds per game, which ranks No. 183 in the country.

So, not only does Illinois rank in the bottom half of the country in offensive rebounds allowed, but we gave up 13 against Tennessee, which is well above our season average. Illinois has allowed opponents to snag at least 10 offensive rebounds in six out of nine games this season. This has to stop.