Illinois Coach Brad Underwood on USC Loss: 'I've Gotta Be Better Than That'

Underwood said his Illini were "off" against the Trojans but put the blame on himself for Saturday's defeat

Jan 8, 2025; Champaign, Illinois, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood reacts during the second half against the Penn State Nittany Lions at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Johnson-Imagn Images / Ron Johnson-Imagn Images

No. 13 Illinois looked out of sorts pretty much from the opening tip of Saturday's game in Champaign, where USC pulled off an 82-72 upset and didn't so much make the home team look ordinary as they gave the Illini all the room they needed to do that for themselves.

In the postgame press conference, coach Brad Underwood admitted that he sensed something was off about his Illini even before they hit the floor. When, exactly?

Breakfast.

"I told my wife when I walked in after breakfast this morning," Underwood said of the funky vibe he picked up on from his Illini on Saturday. "The good Lord has blessed me with one thing, and that's a sense to feel when stuff's different. And I mean, boy, you can fight it and you can try to get it right, and I told my wife after pregame breakfast this morning. My gut doesn't lie very often. My gut is damn near 100 percent. So now I gotta listen to my wife when I go home."

It happens. Five months and 30-something games is a long time to stay permanently locked in, and to Illinois' credit, the USC game was the first in 16 games so far this season that its motor wasn't running at maximum RPMs.

Rashaun Agee dunk ⏩ then block 💥

The Trojans pull off the upset in Champaign as they secure a 82-72 win over No. 13 Illinois 👀#B1GMBBall x @USC_Hoops pic.twitter.com/4ufPnKQpkb

— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall) January 11, 2025

And perhaps the loss can even be looked back on later as a blessing. This team, at this time, can't expect to win on a game-to-game basis just by lacing up their kicks. The Illini are young, learning, missing bucketloads of threes and, for the moment, lack the services of freshman point guard and Wooden Award candidate Kasparas Jakucionis (forearm injury). Room for error – or lax effort – is a luxury they don't have.

"I just can tell by energy, and I can tell by the emotion," Underwood said of taking the temperature of his players Saturday morning. "I can tell by the way our guys react and talk. And I don't know, it's just that I've always had that. that gift. ... I don't know if it's a gift. I just got a feeling. I don't know how to describe it. I just felt we were off."

And Underwood didn't let himself off the hook. Illinois' dead-ball out-of-bounds plays – not always a strength – kept them in the game against USC in the first half. But Underwood says his adjustments in the face of certain developments Saturday – namely, the rampant downhill drives to the rim of Trojans guard Desmond Claude – were an overreaction on his part.

"Maybe the head coach was off," Underwood said. "Something I don't usually do is overreact to things. But I did today."

Underwood said both he and the Illini made decisions they previously hadn't all season. When some of those choices seemed to initially yield results, Underwood called them fool's gold.

"That got us out out of sorts, and we had a hard time getting back to it," he said.

"I've gotta be better than that."

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