Good Morning, Illini Nation: Still not enough offensive rebounding

Nov. 16—Welcome to "Good Morning, Illini Nation," your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He'll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood's team:

Illinois had 12 offensive rebounds in Tuesday night's loss to Marquette. Two more than the Golden Eagles. But just five second-chance points to show for it.

As a percentage of misses retained, however, those 12 offensive rebounds meant Illinois got back just 30.8 percent of its shots that didn't fall. For the still young season, the Illini are ranked 213th nationally, per Bart Torvik, in offensive rebounding percentage at 28.4 percent.

"It's ridiculous," Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. "It's my biggest point of frustration with this team. I'm literally going to play anybody who offensive rebounds, and I've said that from day one. It's a great opportunity to score points in the paint. We're just not very consistent with it. Quincy (Guerrier) had three (against Marquette). I thought maybe our effort was a little better.

"Marcus (Domask) and Terrence (Shannon Jr.), those guys in particular, great teams have wings who rebound at a very, very high level. We're asking those guys to do a lot, but we're asking them to be great players. ... I don't know. We've got to keep emphasizing it and keep demanding it. It's a big part of what our success has been."