It wasn’t a pretty win, but the Illinois basketball team still came out victorious on Friday night.
Colgate gave the Illini a bit of a scare in the first half, playing us close to nearly the halftime horn. Illinois would eventually take control of the game, leading by double-digits at the half and increasing the lead to come out with the win 84-65 over the Raiders.
After the game, Brad Underwood took the seat to talk to the media in the postgame press conference. He raved about the team and gave some important updates.
Here are the five interesting Brad Underwood quotes from the Illinois basketball presser vs Colgate
- “I think he (David Mirkovic) will tell you that I have been on him pretty good for a couple of days about his performance rebounding.”
Underwood mentioned that he was hard on David Mirkovic in practice this week. This resulted in a great week of practice from the freshman, and that resulted in what we saw on Friday night.
Whatever Underwood said or did in practice to light a fire under Mirkovic clearly worked. He just had one of the best games in program history, finishing the Colgate win with 27 points and 21 rebounds. Underwood seems to have unearthed some incredible potential in this kid.
- “Keaton was spectacular as well, especially early. He kept us afloat.”
Keaton Wagler is not getting a lot of shine due to Mirkovic’s huge night, but let’s not gloss over the fact that this kid is a special talent, too.
I love that Underwood gave him shine in the postgame press conference. Wagler was keeping Illinois afloat early on in the game. In some ways, he set the tone for the Illini, and this was able to provide a spark for the program. The freshmen saved the day.
- “He (Zvonimir Ivisic) had a surgery back when he was 16 or 17 years old, and every now and then, it was a cartilage deal, that just kind of got a little swollen yesterday and was a little sore.”
I was wondering what was going on with Zvonimir Ivisic against Colgate. He only played 16 minutes, and he didn’t look right on the floor.
Underwood talked about what is going on with Big Z after the game. There was an injury earlier in his career, and that injury flares up once in a while. He was dealing with some knee problems, and it was smart to rest him and let him recover a bit.
- “You can’t worry about percentages all of the time. There are a lot of ways to score it. The free throw line, offensive rebounding, all of those things allow you to go do that. That is what we are trying to prepare for here, when it is not very pretty.”
Underwood is spot on with this quote. No team in the country is going to be hitting every night, so when things get ugly, you have to find a way to win.
Throughout his time in Champaign, Underwood’s teams have had that mentality. This rendition might be the best of the best when it comes to getting gritty, though. Illinois needed to find ways to score on Friday night, and our freshmen came through by going 17-of-19 from the free throw line.
- “It’s the way you practice, the mental focus you have. Not reading all your guy’s stuff, and the fans and everything else. I call it drinking the poison. And you can’t, you have to stay with what is vital and what is important…The game is pretty mental.”
We all have jobs to do. Some of our jobs are to write about what we are seeing on the court. Some of our jobs are to perform on the court. Those two jobs collide at times.
Underwood at least talks to his team about not reading too much into what is written. Stay focused on what is happening on the court, and stop focusing on what is going on off the court. It is harder than ever nowadays with social media, but that challenge is being met head-on by Underwood.