Thursday Round-up

One more day to go.....

Chicago Tribune - UNLV presents NCAA challenge to Illinois
- Coach Webber concerned about UNLV Defensive pressure, athleticism, ability to stretch the floor
- Rebels 15th in the nation in "adjusted defensive efficiency" - not familiar with this statistic, more below
- Hopes Rebels get the tournament jitters, play at a higher than normal speed and take bad shots

Kenpom.com - Unusual statistical analysis including the ADE named above. I'm not going to repost what he wrote, its too long (in the help section).

Hail to the orange - Illinois Fighting Illini and UNLV Runnin' Rebels by the Numbers
- obviously biased towards Illinois
- UNLV better at drawing fouls than Illinois
- UNLV designed to grab turnovers, disadvantage Illinois

Examiner.com - 2011 March Madness Preview - Illinois Fighting Illini


KTNV - Video of Rebels boarding bus to depart for Tulsa

Statistics comparing UNLV and Illinois - Courtesy of Statsheet.com

UNLV is better than Illinois this season


- UNLV is ranked higher than Illinois in their conference (#3 vs #4)
- Computers think UNLV is better with an RPI this season that is better than Illinois (RPI: #25 vs #48)
- UNLV has a better overall record than Illinois this season (24-8 vs 19-13)
- UNLV has a better record on the road than Illinois this season (8-3 vs 3-7)
- UNLV has a better conference record than Illinois this season (11-5 vs 9-9)
- UNLV has a better record in close games than Illinois this season (5-1 vs 2-8)

UNLV is better than Illinois historically

- UNLV has more wins over the last 5 years than Illinois (144 vs 129)
- UNLV has a much better overall winning percentage over the last 5 years (0.747 to 0.599)

The Mountain West is a better conference than the Big Ten

- Last year the Mountain West performed much better in non-conference close games than the Big Ten (0.69697 vs 0.447368)
- The Mountain West has teams that are better at scoring, steals, and rebounding than any team in the Big Ten
- The top ranking player between the two conferences for points, rebounds, field goals made, free throws made, three pointers, assists, steals, and blocks is in the Mountain West


Fill out your brackets, all bracket competitions require entry by 9:00am today!