Three Instant Observations From Illinois' 74-61 Loss to UConn

Illinois' Black Friday performance wasn't as egregious as the team's last trip to Madison Square Garden, but the No. 13 Illini again lost ugly – and foolishly – at New York's basketball mecca, puttering to a 74-61 loss against No. 5 UConn.

The Illini (6-2) couldn't keep up with or work around the off-ball movement and screening of the Huskies (6-1), and their own offense looked like a paint-by-numbers project carried out by a newborn elephant. Even in light of Illinois' 16-2 second-half push and an inexplicably terrible officiating sequence that extinguished the Illini's last hints of hope, it was a hapless, humiliating day at the office for coach Brad Underwood and his players.

Here are three more instant observations from Illinois' loss to UConn:

1. The game-coaching disparity has never looked wider

UConn’s ball-screen action remains ridiculously smooth: pic.twitter.com/oMfwrGsOnK
— Eli Hershkovich (@EliHershkovich) November 28, 2025

Modern college basketball coaching is more than about just Xs and Os. And when it comes to motivating, recruiting and team-building, Brad Underwood is undeniably at or near the head of his class. He has led Illinois to six consecutive 20-win seasons and an Elite Eight appearance. The Illini have led the way in areas such as advanced metrics and NIL management, and thanks in large part to the recruiting and development arms of Underwood's operation, the program sent its first two one-and-done players to the NBA over the summer. These things matter.

Yet the game is still played between the lines of a 94x50 wood-panel slab, and the fact is, the best of Underwood's coaching counterparts continue to consistently wipe that floor with him.

That was never more obvious than on Friday at MSG, where UConn coach Dan Hurley routinely freed up shooters Solo Ball, Alex Karaban and Malachi Smith in the first half with excellent, unrelenting screen actions from all angles while the Illini appeared utterly helpless to do anything about it. A zone look from Underwood didn't stem the tide – it only compromised Illinois' defensive rebounding.

THIS. PLACE. IS. STORRS. SOUTH. pic.twitter.com/R0OP4IFMyq
— UConn Men's Basketball (@UConnMBB) November 28, 2025

And the Illini offense? It has never looked worse. Wide-open three-point misses. Ball-handlers driving into the teeth of help defense. Zero off-ball action. zero creativity. At one point in the second half, Illinois inbounded from a solid angle on the baseline behind its own basket, and rather than using a controlled situation to run a BLOB play that creates a high-percentage attempt, the Illini settled for just getting the ball into play safely, clearing out for Ben Humrichous to take his defender one-on-one, which resulted in a kick-out to Zvonimir Ivisic, who missed a semi-contested three-point attempt. The contrast between offensive "plans" was jarring.

2. Threes are great – when they go in

Live be the sword, die by the sword. And when you take 29 cuts with your sword and connect on only six occasions, you die ugly and embarrassingly – with your pants around your ankles and Fruit of the Looms strapped around your forehead in an atomic wedgie.

In case you missed the subtlety underscoring this lost Monty Python skit, the "sword" is a shot launched from behind the three-point arc, and the Illini star in the role of the Black Knight. Against UConn, Illinois shot 20.7 percent – a ridiculous figure when threes make up half of your field-goal attempts (29 of 60).

The Illini missed a handful of good, open looks, but they also rushed plenty more off-balance three-point launches against outstretched arms for ... what? Metrics? Fun? An utter lack of creativity, perhaps? When your entire offense is predicated on downhill penetration, drive-and-kicks and the hope that two-man screen-and-roll will create something – anything! – you become predictable and laughably easy to guard.

3. Size and brute strength alone won't win the day

The Illini have two seven-footers in the rotation, a bunch of individual length and maybe the most productive 6-foot-2 rebounder in college basketball – great stuff in a matchup with UT Rio Grande Valley, but apparently not enough against UConn, which won the battle of the boards Friday, 43-38.

If Underwood is going to rely so heavily on size and strength on the boards, he should push all his chips in and use both as a larger chunk of the offense. In the second half against the Huskies, it was center Tomislav Ivisic who sparked the comeback, drawing consecutive fouls (and hitting all four free throws) before banging home a sweet little jump hook from about five feet. The Illini promptly returned to launching no-prayer threes and ignoring their 7-foot-1 all-Big Ten candidate with the hot hand. The only thing worse than bad offense is bad decision-making.

NO. 5 UCONN GOES WIRE-TO-WIRE 🐺

The Huskies take a big time non-conference win over No. 13 Illinois in MSG 👏 pic.twitter.com/XQRK1Stv8h
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) November 28, 2025