Losses are going to happen throughout the season, but the way the Illinois basketball team played on Saturday was beyond disappointing.
The Illini had their chance to close the deficit and come away with a win, but each time we took a step forward, we would take two steps back.
Nebraska played well. They came out shooting the ball like Steph Curry, and that only slowed down a few times. Illinois still managed to keep things close, but Brad Underwood saw what most Illini fans saw. A disjointed team that wasn’t focused and ready to play. He touched on this and some other key topics in his postgame press conference.
Here are five interesting Brad Underwood quotes from the Illinois basketball presser vs Nebraska
- “They go on a 7-0 run after we get a dunk, our immaturity, that is on me for never stopping that in practice when Z (Zvonimir Ivisic) gets a dunk. He’s got to grow up.”
You can’t just give away points in a game like this, and Zvonimir Ivisic did just that. Underwood pointed out his immaturity in the postgame press conference.
After Ivisic made a dunk near mid-way through the second half to bring the score to 54-51, he was given a technical foul. Nebraska went on a 7-0 run, and that hurt Illinois greatly. Underwood is definitely going to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
- “Tonight it was just laissez-faire. You look at our front line, there’s nothing. I mean, you have a horrendous stat line from everybody that played. No rebounds, I mean, there’s nothing there.”
I mentioned this in the five observations article. Illinois’ frontcourt was insanely bad against Nebraska. He didn’t get anything from them on Saturday.
The final box score for our frontcourt players was 79 minutes, 17 points, 13 rebounds, four turnovers, three assists, two blocks, and one steal. We can’t have that type of production or Illinois will lose a lot more this season.
- “How does the best shooter in the Big Ten get a butt-naked three three minutes into the game in transition? That is just five dudes out there who aren’t dialed in, and that’s where I have to help.”
As a fan, you could tell the Illini weren’t dialed in immediately. The first 10 minutes of the game were arguably the worst basketball we have played this season.
Kylan Boswell was terrible, and Underwood pulled him early on. There was no communication, which allowed Pryce Sandfort to get open shots. I don’t understand how we can open games like this, and it has happened a lot during the Underwood era.
- “The first possession of the game where we blow a switch, we’re not very ready to go. David (Mirkovic) was in Serbia, I mean, he wasn’t in this building. We have to be better. We can’t have that. I am just really disappointed in our mental approach…that’s not very good practices, and that ultimately falls on me.”
I feel like in the last few losses, Underwood has harped on the mental game. He doesn’t believe Illinois is tough enough upstairs to get the job done at times.
While Underwood is taking the blame for Illinois not being ready to play, you can tell that he is about to rip into them this week in practice. I can’t even imagine what the next few days are going to be like.
- “To be very honest, two really bad practices. When David (Mirkovic) is focused and competing, and flying around in practice, he’s elite. Three turnovers, I mean, I couldn’t play him. I couldn’t put him in the game.”
Underwood talked a lot about David Mirkovic in this press conference. He was really disappointed in how he played and practiced, and that has to change.
This was a topic I touched on in the five observations article. Mirkovic shrank in a big moment on Saturday, and he played his worst game since joining the Illini. Underwood clearly thinks the issue is mental, and I will be curious to see how Mirkovic responds in the next game.