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Can any current Illinois basketball players crack the program's All-Time Rebounding List?

A few underclassmen have a chance, but it probably won't happen.

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Over the next week, we'll be taking a closer look at Illinois basketball's updated career leaders in major statistical categories to see if any members of the current roster can etch their names into the record books. Today's post will look at the All-Time Career Rebounding List.

Illinois All-Time LeadersPoints Rebounds

The 2015-16 season, shockingly, witnessed a whopping zero additions to this compilation of Illinois rebounders. No changes will be made in 2016-17. And there likely won't be any changes in 2017-18, either. But the year after that? There's a small chance thanks to Leron Black and Michael Finke! Let's take a closer look at where things stand.

Illinois Basketball's All-Time Rebounding Leaders

RANK PLAYER YEARS FR. SO. JR. SR. TOTAL
1 James Augustine (2002-06) 186 242 295 300 1,023
2 Mike Davis (2007-11) 61 275 330 243 909
3 Efrem Winters* (1982-86) 213 195 236 183 853
4 Deon Thomas* (1990-94) 186 193 256 194 846
5 Eddie Johnson* (1977-81) 84 130 310 267 831
6 Skip Thoren (1962-65) - 150 331 349 830
7 Brian Cook (1999-03) 143 212 233 227 815
8 Nick Weatherspoon* (1970-73) 246 265 295 X 803
9 Dave Downey (1960-63) - 267 ? ? 790
10 Don Freeman (1963-66) - ? ? 285 742

Asterisks denote minor discrepancies between total career rebounds, and the sum of yearly totals from basketball reference; this is possibly due to the exclusion of postseason games on the stat sheet PDFs. The career numbers come straight from Illinois' official record book.

Current Illini who could crack the Top 10

RANK PLAYER YEARS FR. SO. JR. SR. TOTAL
N/A Leron Black (2014-) 141 31* ? ? 172
N/A Michael Finke (2015-) 121 ? ? ? 121

The Fighting Illini has been playing basketball since 1905 and, out of all those players, we're trying to project a potential addition to a list of ten rebounders. What I'm trying to say is that the odds are heavily against Leron Black and Michael Finke. But they do have a chance!

I admittedly have no idea what Black's situation is, but it sounds like Illinois may apply for a NCAA medical redshirt now that he's been reinstated to the team (he only played in 7 games last year). He'll have a decent chance of becoming an all-time leader in this category if that does indeed become a reality. As a freshman, Black recorded 141 rebounds while only playing 14.8 minutes per game; that figure should see a big leap since he's now one of a few front court players on the roster. He just needs to learn how to stay out of foul trouble.

I'm including Finke here because he got off to a better start than some of the other names on the list, but I don't see this ultimately happening. Like Black, though, the sophomore will be relied upon a lot more in 2016-17, so he could improve those odds with a 200+ rebound season.