After showing off their elite offense in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, Illinois needed an elite defense to get to the Elite Eight. However, even though their defense is what vaulted them into the Elite Eight, the Fighting Illini offense had to put on a showing against one of the toughest defenses, Iowa State, in college basketball.
"When you face the No. 1 defense, you know they're not No. 1 because they're soft or they lack effort," head coach Brad Underwood said. "I also knew they'd come out and punch or counterpunch and they did that."
Illinois never trailed in their Sweet 16 matchup against 2-seed Iowa State and they were led on offense by leading scorer Terrance Shannon Jr. who scored 29 points, 20 of them in the first half. Shannon was limited in the second half due to foul trouble along with Coleman Hawkins who was the second leading scorer for the Fighting Illini on the night with 12 points.
Iowa State came into the NCAA Tournament hot after a blowout win against Big 12 regular season champion Houston, who is the 1-seed in the South Region. This was a highly anticipated matchup from the start where both teams fought. Even though Illinois held the lead the entire game, the Cyclones were able to cut it down to two points with under a minute to play.
However, a turnover late by Iowa State found its way into Shannon's hands and he made his way down the court to throw down a dagger dunk to go up four.
When asked if he is comfortable with his guys on the court knowing they could play through anything, Underwood had a simple response.
Yes.
"It's comforting, you know what they are going to do and they're gonna execute and they're gonna run their play and they're gonna try to get the best shot or the best stop or whatever," Underwood said. "So I have a tremendous amount of confidence in what these guys do.
This appearance in the Elite Eight is the first since 2005 where Illinois will have a date with the best team in the country, 1-seed UConn.
"To advance to the Elite Eight is special, and we have a great challenge, we will dive into them sometime around 3:00 a.m. when we get back and be ready to go for UConn on Saturday," Underwood said.
Illinois has a tough task ahead of them in a matchup with UConn in the Elite Eight. The Huskies have won their first three matchups by an average of almost 29 points. The team that came the game the closest was their second-round matchup against Northwestern which they beat by only 17 points.
The Fighting Illini will need a combination of their top-tier offense and the defense they showed against Iowa State to beat this red-hot UConn team.