Illinois coach Brad Underwood led his team to the Elite Eight this year, but he’s taking nothing but heat following his squad’s 77-52 defeat to UConn in the finals of the East Region of the NCAA Tournament at TD Garden in Boston, Mass. on Saturday.
After Illinois knocked out Iowa State in the Sweet 16 on Thursday, Underwood was asked about his team’s impending matchup against UConn. Underwood tried to downplay the Huskies, saying UConn didn’t do anything they haven’t already seen in Big Ten play.
It turns out UConn brought something that Illinois couldn’t handle.
The game was tied at 23 in the first half, and the Huskies responded by going on a ridiculous 30-0 run to blow the game open.
Underwood obviously hadn’t seen something like that and acknowledged as much in his postgame press conference. Underwood was searching for words and said, “well I think that … I didn’t expect that.”
Coach Underwood before playing UConn:
"Nothing we haven't seen"
Coach Underwood after playing UConn: pic.twitter.com/nVoGw8vuJb
— Ryan Cassidy (@ryancassidycbb) March 31, 2024
It was very clear that UConn left Illinois stunned with the way they were dominated.
Maybe Underwood was trying to get his team in the right mentality to avoid feeling overmatched. Whatever he tried to do didn’t work too well. Or if it did, the magic wore off in the second half.
