I want to first start off by saying that Illinois basketball fans shouldn’t turn on Brad Underwood.
Underwood’s resume with the Illini is pretty impressive. He has won two Big Ten Tournament titles, he took home a Big Ten regular season title, and Illinois made it to the Elite 8 just last season.
The things Underwood has done, especially in the transfer portal era, have been quite remarkable. But I am also not turning a blind eye to some of the downfalls too.
Illinois looked bad on Friday night against Maryland. The Terrapins throttled the Illini from the jump, and it would have been a 40-point blowout if Maryland didn’t rest its players.
One of the interesting characteristics of the Underwood era is that he loses games in spectacular fashion. It is rare that Illinois goes into a game and narrowly loses, especially in big contests. It is either we win the game or we lose in incredible fashion.
The last two postseason losses for the Illini have been particularly brutal. The loss by 23 points to Maryland on Friday night was the latest blowout loss. That comes on the heels of losing to UConn in the Elite 8 by 25 points. So, that is back-to-back 20+ point losses in the postseason for Underwood.
Losing by double-digit points in the postseason has been somewhat of a trend for Underwood too. In 2018-19, Illinois’ season ended with a 21-point loss to Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament. In 2020-21, the No. 1 seed Illini fell to Loyola (IL) in the second round of the NCAA tournament by 13 points. In 2021-22, Houston beat Illinois in the second round of the NCAA tournament by 15 points. In 2022-23, the Illini once again lost, but it was in the first round to Arkansas by 10 points.
Out of all of the losses in the postseason, so the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA tournament, Underwood has lost six out of nine games by double-digit points. One of the non-double-digit losses was by nine points to Iowa in 2017-18 in the Big Ten Tournament.
I have never seen anything like it. Like I said earlier, Underwood has won hardware. Two Big Ten Tournament titles are something to be proud of. A run to the Elite 8 hadn’t happened in nearly 20 years. But when we do lose, it isn’t just by a few points. We go down in a blaze.
Brad Underwood still has a chance for a nice NCAA tournament run with the Illinois basketball team
I know Friday night was super disappointing to all Illinois fans. Like I said in the observations article, it isn’t so much the loss more so the way we lost the game.
This has been the entire Illinois season, though. It is almost like we should be used to the roller coaster. Illinois looks great against Iowa and then horrible against Maryland. The game on Thursday still gives me some hope we can put together a decent run in March.
Let’s say Illinois gets the No. 6 seed on Sunday. We can take out a No. 11 seed. While Illinois could fall, I think there is a chance we advance on to battle a No. 3 seed. With the way Illinois plays, anything could happen, and a Sweet 16 berth isn’t out of the question. Let’s see if we can right the ship and make some type of special showing in the Big Dance.