"Been a long time since the Illini have taken a good old ass-kicking like that"
Illinois basketball coach Brad Underwood is reliably one of the more blunt and entertaining post-game interviews in the Big Ten. And that didn't change after his team was hammered by Maryland.
Illinois basketball coach Brad Underwood is reliably one of the more blunt and entertaining post-game interviews in the Big Ten. That didn't change after his team was hammered at home by Maryland on its home court, 92-71, on Thursday night.
"That wasn't very much fun. Been a long time since the Illini have taken a good old ass-kicking like that," he said. "So give Maryland all the credit in the world. Really, no excuses for up from us. We've had just really tough week with sickness and not knowing if guys are playing, and guys not in practice. But yeah, it was ... nobody played any good. We were just awful. Nobody played any good. Give Maryland all the credit."
Maryland (15-5 overall, 5-4 Big Ten) has had Illinois' number, winning seven of the past nine meetings and four of the past five in Champaign. Underwood wasn't asked about that, but he was asked about what he would've changed to keep his team from being demolished under the basket. With Illinois (13-6, 5-4) missing star 7-footer Tomislav Ivisic, one of the Big Ten's best centers, Maryland recorded 62 paint points, the most by any Big Ten team this season.
"Let's see. Grow Jake [Davis] eight inches, put 35 pounds on Ben [Humichrous], have Carey [Booth] become 260 pounds instead of 210," Underwood said. "We knew it was going to be tough in the paint without Tommy and they pretty much controlled the game from the paint."
As Kevin Willard mentioned in his postgame interview, Underwood doesn't like to double-team in the post, preferring to keep his guards on the perimeter. And he has evidence that it works. His team is limiting opponents to 27.8 percent from three, the third-stingiest rate in the country. But it's also been a winning strategy for Julian Reese (27 points, 17 rebounds, three blocks), who's averaging 21.6 points and 13 rebounds in his past three games against Illinois.
"They're a really good three-point shooting team, so it's kind of pick your poison," Underwood said. "They don't have a three at half. We hold them to three. You're going to pick your poison. If you're going to double, then those guys shoot the cover off of it."
Maryland forced 16 turnovers without needing to press. The Terps' hands were active all night and the defensive effort was as consistent as it's been in a while.
"Turnovers, points off turnovers, very uncharacteristic to have 12 turnovers from your starting backcourt. Very uncharacteristic night to have no offensive rebounds ... We had two at half, so that'll tell you where our energy was and our focus," Underwood said.
He tried switching his defense, but it didn't work as Maryland big men Reese and Derik Queen combined for 52 points and 23 rebounds.
"I played a zone tonight and again, that got really hard because we haven't had anybody in practice. So, it's something that we haven't spent a ton of time on. We had three or four kind of fake possessions that looked good," he said. "Tommy's been our highest-graded guy almost every game defensively. He's your brains, he's 7-1, he makes everybody around him better because he covers for all that."
It seems unlikely Ivisic would've singlehandedly evened the big gap last night.
"I'm making an excuse and I'm not trying to make an excuse. They whipped our butt, obviously," Underwood said. "It was just a stinker."
