While the new freshman guards Brandon Paul and DJ Richardson will help, I'm not sold that these youngsters can step in right away and fill the void created by departed perimeter players Chester Frazier, Trent Meacham and Calvin Brock. Only Meacham averaged in double figures (10.2 ppg), but any team that loses that much experience in the backcourt looks to struggle, especially when the top replacements are freshman, no matter what their recruiting ranking was.
NCAA upset. I'm not a fan of a Big Ten team falling in the first round to a team from the Sun Belt. Although Western Kentucky was experienced and had some pretty solid players, they had a rookie coach in Ken McDonald. Teams that should challenge for the Big Ten title just shouldn't lose like that. I'm sorry, they just shouldn't.
Rebound margin. Last season, the Illini ranked fifth in the conference in this category at -0.1. I like teams that rebound, because those teams win. Given the solid years that Davis and Tisdale had, I'm surprised this is so low. These two guys need to get tougher on the glass. Those few extra rebounds don't seem like much, but that means extra possessions for Illinois and no second-chance opportunities for other teams. That could be the difference between winning and losing 2-3 games at the least, meaning a 4-6 game swing in the W-L record.
That about does it for Illinois. Signing off, RL.
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