Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini loss to Penn State

Illinois basketball had a chance to shoot up into the top 10 nationally, but we couldn’t manage to get past Penn State on Saturday.

This was an ugly game for the Illini from the jump. There was zero defense being played in the first half, and the Nittany Lions ended up taking a 47-38 lead into halftime. Even with this nine-point lead by Penn State, I still had confidence that Illinois could come back and win the game.

Well, I was wrong. The Illini showed very little fight in the second half. We did get the deficit back to single digits at one time, but Penn State went on another run and put us away. The Illini would end up falling to Penn State, 74-59.

Here are five observations from the Illinois basketball loss to Penn State.

1. Brad Underwood is right

Illinois fell to the Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday in what ended up being pretty ugly fashion. Losing to Penn State in general is always embarrassing, let alone losing by 15 points.

In the postgame interview, Brad Underwood expressed his feelings. It was probably a bad time to interview him considering he was still hot from the loss, but Underwood’s true feelings came out. The biggest quote I took from the interview was the fact Underwood said Illinois had a “complete lack of leadership.”

There are two ways you can view leadership. I can’t see what is happening in the huddle during a timeout. There can be leadership inside of that huddle by players. But then there is leadership on the court. That is something all fans can see. And do you know what? Underwood isn’t wrong.

You can tell there isn’t leadership on this Illinois basketball team. Not because we failed to win the game, but because this team has no guidance. No one has stepped up to take charge. No one is gathering the guys and saying motivational stuff or telling players where they need to be. There is little communication coming down the court as well.

There is also something I noticed on Saturday that I didn’t like. Late in the game when Illinois was still kind of in the game, Jayden Epps hit a three-pointer. The next time down the court, Epps was at the top of the key with Coleman Hawkins and Matthew Mayer. Hawkins and Mayer played a two-man game and literally ignored Epps. The play resulted in Mayer chucking up a bad three-pointer.

A few minutes later, there was another play when Skyy Clark had the ball on a break. He could have passed it to Mayer, but he was covered by a man, so Clark ended up taking it to the hoop. Mayer threw his hands up in the air in disgust, and his body language was terrible.

There are so many different avenues you can go down to show that Illinois has a lack of leadership. Underwood hit the nail on the head in his interview. It is a problem the Illini have, and it needs to be fixed.