The Illinois Fighting Illini came into their Braggin Rights’ showdown with the Missouri Tigers ranked ninth in the country in rebounding margin, while their adversaries came into the game ranking 173rd. At this stage of the season, teams have done a pretty good job figuring out what they excel in and it was pretty clear that Illinois was going to succeed in rebounding and thus have an advantage in second chance points.
While being dominated in second chance points isn’t a recipe for success, the Missouri Tigers had two avenues to swing the tide in their favor: free throws and points off of turnovers.