In Reply to: If you want to dare to dream. posted by mh on February 24, 2026 at 10:40:24
It’s something many of us have been emphasizing all season—the reality is that we struggle to compete down low. It was a concern back in 2021 as well when we lost several players for different reasons and ended up extremely undersized. Somehow Riley managed to hold his own, but the size disadvantage was obvious.
If you look at our two biggest wins this year against Purdue and Illinois, the telling stat is points in the paint. Against Indiana Hoosiers, it was 38–30 in our favor. Against Purdue, 30–28. In those games, we held our own inside. But compare that to teams like Michigan, who scored 42 points in the paint to our 30, or Ohio State, who had a 28–16 edge. That’s a significant gap. For whatever reason, in the games we won, those teams didn’t consistently exploit us inside. I have my own thoughts on why that was the case in each matchup, but it had less to do with our interior defense and more to do with their approach.
You mentioned rebounding, and that’s part of it—but it goes beyond that. We simply haven’t shown the ability to consistently defend high-level low-post players, and that’s something that could be exposed quickly in the tournament.
Still, like you said, all we can do is hope.