How Illinois basketball has become "Europe's team"

If you come from the fruitful Bob Huggins coaching tree, as did successful Illinois veteran Brad Underwood, you know precisely what it means when the words “get opposite” begin echoing through a gymnasium. If you began your basketball career in the European club system, and English is not necessarily your preferred language, this phrase may be as vexing as any item of grammar-challenged slang repeated in the locker room. Huggins, for whom Underwood got his high-major coaching start as an assistant at Kansas State, long ago figured out the majority of rebounds traveled away from where the shot was launched. So getting “opposite” to where the ball was most likely to bounce offered the best...