After a three-week break from competition, the Illinois men’s wheelchair basketball team returns to action this Thursday in the National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball tournament in Arlington, Texas.

The Illini leave by bus early this morning, and after a 15-hour trip, should arrive in Arlington late tonight. Illinois will have a shoot-around early Thursday morning and will open tournament play later that evening against No. 6-seeded Oklahoma State or No. 7 Southwest Minnesota State.

Head coach Mike Frogley believes that this year’s team, seeded No. 3 because of their finish in last year’s tourney, is ready to make a run at a title.

“We need to take good care of the ball, take good shots so we shoot a high percentage,” Frogley said. “We need to be quick on defense, and see the court and play together. We need to push the ball up court on offense, crossing a lot to create open court opportunities so we can get easy baskets.”

If the Illini win their tourney opener, they will advance to the semifinals against the hosts and No. 2-seeded Texas-Arlington.

Awaiting the winner of Illinois and Texas-Arlington’s semifinal game will be the undefeated and No. 1-seeded Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks. The Warhawks have recorded several wins this season against the Illini, including a 61-41 score at IMPE in the season finale.

Because the tourney is single elimination, Frogley and the Illini know that one slip-up could knock the Illini right out of contention.

“There’s no learning from your opponent, there’s no saving for the next game; you give it all right then and there because you may not get a next game,” he said.

“The last thing we talked about this morning (at practice) was, I looked at Jeff (Townsend) and Adam (Lancia) and said, ‘You guys are seniors, you want to go out on a championship, you don’t want to go finish on a losing note.’ For the rest of the guys, I said, ‘The biggest thing you can do as a good teammate, is bring your ‘A’ game so that they go out with a championship. Because that’s what teammates do.'”