The Illinois men’s basketball team may have experienced the harsh ups and downs of an entire season in its recent span of three games in 10 days.

An impressive 84-70 victorymp over Purdue’s top-ranked defense was sandwiched between a blowout defeat to Michigan State that head coach John Groce called embarassing and a home loss to Nebraska that had Groce questioning his team’s effort.

“I don’t like losing, period,” Groce said following the Nebraska defeat. “I’m not a big fan of it.”

Unfortunately for Groce and the Illini, losing has become the norm to start off Big Ten play — Illinois has dropped five of its first six conference matchupDifferent w/ loss to Indiana – mp. And while Groce does his best to avoid making any excuses, injuries and illnesses continue to block this Illini squad from reaching its full potential.

A rash of injuries dominated headlines during the preseason and non-conference schedule, and a variety of unforeseen circumstances have kept Illinois from gathering any sort of roster continuity during Big Ten play.

Point guard Khalid Lewis had just been hitting his stride as a playmaker on the offensive end — he tallied 18 assists in Illinois’ final three non-conference contestsmp — before coming down with a case of the mumps that forced him out of the lineup for the first two conference games.

Once Lewis was cleared to play against Michigan State, junior guard Kendrick Nunn exited the lineup for the birth of his son, Kason Lee Nunn.

The “current rendition,” as Groce has called it, of the Illinois roster — sans big men Mike Thorne Jr. and Leron Black — has just two conference games at full strength to its credit thus far. Groce recognizes that more experience as a complete group will be crucial moving forward.

“Our current rendition has been back together for some continuity, for rotations, for what we call, for what we run,” Groce said. “That’s a big deal. That gives you a chance to keep getting better. Guys are getting used to playing with certain guys, there’s a connection there thats getting better.”

Black is deep into rehab for his knee injury and remains out indefinitely. Until he is able to practice, Groce does not expect the big man to see any more game action this season. The current rendition of the Illini is obviously a much smaller team without Black, which has led to a major difference in two key categories: rebounding and three-point shooting.

With freshman forward Michael Finke and junior center Maverick Morganmp as essentially Illinois’ only big men, opponents have taken advantage on the boards. Through six games, the Illini are dead last in the Big Ten in rebounding. They have been outrebounded in every conference game thus farYup, after Indiana, still dead last.

“Rebounding was the biggest thing for us,” Finke said after being outrebounded by 21 against Nebraska. “We couldn’t find guys and couldn’t hit them, it’s just inexcusable. We’ve just got to keep grinding with that and try to get lower and hit them.”

Although Thorne Jr. returned against Indiana, Groce has placed a larger emphasis on getting back on defense rather than crashing the offensive boards.

“All you have to do is pick up the stat sheet and see who our two best guys are in rebounds per minutes played — they’re in street clothes right now,” Groce said. “It is what it is. We’ve got to figure something else out to be better with our defensive rebounding collectively, and we’ve got to be great at something else.”

Without many options in the paint, Illinois has turned to a perimeter-orientated offense that can sometimes live and die by the three. Its 23 three-point attempts per game is the highest rate since Groce’s first year with the program.

Although the Illini are shooting at a respectable 36 percent clip from downtown, Groce wants better shot selection. The Illini launched 20 threes in the first half against Nebraska, and Groce claimed that about nine of those attempts were poor decisionsmp.

Groce said he is prepared to play the rest of the season without Black and has emphasized his “TNT” mantra of playing tough and together — which he hopes his players buy into sooner than later.

“We know what we’re capable of and we showed it against Purdue,” Finke said. “We’ve just got to go out there and play with a chip on our shoulders and prove to people what we can do.”

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