CHICAGO — Does Brad Underwood think Illinois get complacent?
After No. 4 Illinois’ 91-88 loss to No. 5 Wisconsin on Friday afternoon at the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago, the Illini’s head coach nodded in the United Center press conference room.
“I’m not worried about the offense, I’m worried about the other end,” Underwood said. “When we make shots, we get casual on the other end. We think it’s just easy. I had that feeling today. All of a sudden they get going and it’s a shootout. I don’t want shootouts.”
It was like so many other games we’ve seen over the past month from the Illini.
In East Lansing.
In Champaign against the Badgers.
In Los Angeles.
And again.
A second-half lead. And then… complacency.
“We had a nice 15-point lead in the second half, then we got complacent,” Underwood said.
For what it’s worth, Illinois also had a 15-point lead in the first half.
“We’re really good,” Underwood said. “We’re a possession away in a lot of games for me, and one of the best teams record-wise in the country. We’re still one of the best teams in the country. You have to find someone to make those shots, get that stop. It’s not a combination of a lot of things. It’s a combination of a few small things.”
For a team that had national championship aspirations a month ago, it feels like that’s fallen off. Way off.
His players? Not giving up just yet.
“[Underwood’s] message to us was this loss isn’t the end for us,” said star freshman Keaton Wagler. “We gotta learn from this. Focus on what wins games. Defense and rebounding. We got out-rebounded, and we can’t let that happen if we win games.”
“Any loss stings,” said junior guard Andrej Stojakovic.“ But when it’s in overtime, and it’s happened, all we can do is learn from it.”
At this point, Underwood still likes his team’s chances, even if the sixth man sitting on the couch has lost hope.
“We’ve won a lot of close games,” Underwood said. “We beat Purdue. You go right on down the list. It’s not a narrative one way or another. We owned the fact we got beat in those. But we’ve won a lot of close ones. Is this a story if you get beat by 20? It’s not, it’s because they’re one possession games. It’s more of one-possession type situations. We can’t take any possession off. It’s one rebound, you can’t be lazy mentally and not block out. If you get a rebound in the MSU game in East Lansing, we win. A rebound against UCLA, we win. But before that, Keaton made the shot at UCLA. I don’t like narratives. I like figuring out how to solve the problems. It’s just one possession here or there.
“And today I thought it was a lack of focus.”
A lack of focus.
With the NCAA Tournament less than a week away, now is the time to start focusing.
Otherwise, we’ll be looking to the transfer portal and building a roster for March 2027.
