The Illinois basketball team is in a prime spot, as they began their 2025-26 campaign ranked No. 17 in the country and with the nation expecting them to climb rather quickly.
Brad Underwood's bunch has climbed as high as No. 8 after the Colgate game, but sadly dropped to No. 13 after the Illini fell to Alabama.
Illinois is in a promising spot at this point in the season, taking out the likes of Long Island and UT Rio Grande Valley in what people were calling 'tune-up games.' But that didn't stop Underwood from critiquing his team a bit after their 87-73 win against the Vaqueros.
Brad Underwood had a problem with the way the Illinois basketball team was playing defense
In Monday night's contest at the State Farm Center, the No. 13-ranked Illini were favored by 33.5 points over UTRGV. It was supposed to be a one-sided affair all night long, with Illinois blowing away the opposition rather easily.
That certainly wasn't the case early on in this game, as the Illini failed to pull away throughout the majority of the first half. They kept this game to a single-digit margin all the way until the 4:45 mark, when Mihailo Petrovic nailed a three-pointer to push the lead to ten.
Thankfully, Illinois began to turn things around in the second half behind Andrej Stojakovic's 10 second-half points. But that didn't stop Underwood from laying into his team's lacking performance, calling their performance, "doo-doo."
No. 13 Illinois has a big one looming Friday vs. UConn.
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 25, 2025
Whether the Illini were looking ahead, Brad Underwood wasn't thrilled with how his team played in tonight's win over UTRGV. pic.twitter.com/XUXidn4kzF
The worst part about it is that he's right. The Illini did play like "doo-doo" against a much inferior team. They were slapped in the face early on and had to claw their way back into it. Sure, they did get the win, but the manner in which they won was not impressive, especially with UConn on the horizon.
As of writing this, Illinois is ranked No. 21 in the country in defensive efficiency according to Pomeroy College Basketball Rankings. They have a special group of guys from all walks of life who have a chance to make a big run this season. If they're going to be lacking like this, they're going to have a problem against a coach like Dan Hurley. Illinois is going to have a problem against a program like UConn.
Let's button some things up on Black Friday, as it will be a war at Madison Square Garden. No more "doo-doo" quotes from the coach. We can't have it.