COLUMN: Illinois Is A Four-Letter Word No Team Wants To Be Called: SOFT

COLUMN: Missouri's players did everything but call Illinois' players soft in the 63-56 win in the Braggin' Rights Game. So, let me do it instead.

ST. LOUIS -- The description of this Illinois team right now is a four-letter word that every coach worth anything in this business considers vulgar.

S-O-F-T. Illinois is soft. Like the tissue paper you’ll use to stuff in your wrapped Christmas gift baskets.

How do I know they’re soft? Missouri’s players and coaches told you so.

“We knew we were the tougher team,” Missouri guard Javon Pickett said. “We knew it.”

Illinois came into this contest Saturday as the NCAA leader in rebound margin (+14.2) and ranks second nationally in offensive rebound percentage (40.7 percent) while standing 39th in defensive rebound rate (76.5 percent). Missouri head coach Cuonzo Martin’s response to that? Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it.

“Like I said to my guys, ‘Are they the best rebounding team? Let’s find out,” Martin said. “I always say you have to play this game with boxing gloves on. It has to be a physical game and you have to set a tone of toughness before you ever step on the floor.”

Missouri physically pounded the Illini on nearly every drive to the basket, every post touch by its 7-foot “monster” Kofi Cockbun, who was resembling an upcoming first-round draft pick until this weekend. And Illinois didn’t like it. They looked at referees to make calls that it was obvious from the first media timeout they weren’t going to make. They missed six layups and missed practically everything for the first 14 minutes of the second half (2 of 14 in that stretch).

“For their players, it’s very personal,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said. “They play that way. We don’t. We didn’t.”

In what should be a typical game plan from a team coached by Martin, who grew up fighting for nearly everything in nearby East St. Louis, Missouri challenged the manhood of each and every Illinois player who stepped on the floor Saturday. Every one of them but Ayo Dosunmu failed to meet or even show up for that challenge.

And give Dosunmu credit for the first time this season basically calling out himself and his teammates for not having any urgency on the defensive end against a Missouri team struggling to score in big games this season.

“We shouldn’t have to wait for Coach (Underwood) to get hyped to play great defense,” Dosunmu said. “It should be a respect thing where we should come out and do it each and every night. There are times we let our offensive droughts bleed into our defense.”

Alan Griffin did his best to meet the challenge but then let his emotions of the Braggin’ Rights Game overtake him in a regrettable ending to his second consecutive loss in the rivalry game.

Just 77 games into his two-and-a-half-year tenure as Illinois men’s basketball coach, Underwood has a team that isn’t strong with the basketball, will avoid contact and conflict at the rim when a defense is physical with them and on Saturday was accused by their head coach of not having any “fight”.

And it doesn’t take very long to recognize the last time these accusations were made about this Illini team. Illinois fans, who hate losing this game maybe more than any other on the schedule, may have looked up halftime scoreboard at State Farm Center on Dec. 2 to see it read: “Miami (Fla.) 50, Illinois 31” may have thought this was the one forgetful performance of the season. Well, think again folks. This is officially a problem and it’s not going away anytime soon.

For the most part, this isn’t a schematic issue. Although, Illinois could help out their currently inconsistent guards who have proven unable to positively react to the deeper 3-point line. It’s not an Xs and Os problem when Javon Pickett simply takes the ball away from Cockburn. It’s not an Xs and Os problem when Giorgi Bezhanishvili dances his way to six turnovers and only five points.

When asked if he felt the physicality and toughness of Missouri’s defense bothered his players, Underwood, who comes from the tough, physical coaching tree of Bob Huggins and Frank Martin, remained stubborn.

“You don’t think Maryland or Michigan were physical? Or Old Dominion?,” Underwood said. “I don’t think today was any more physical than these last three games.”

Now that I have a chance to respond: Yes Brad, Saturday’s game was more physical than those two Big Ten Conference games and was certainly more physical than Old Dominion. But either way, you, I and every coach worth his large salary in the college game know the word is out on Illinois. Punch them consistently and unless they’re feeling desperate at home, they won’t respond.

Not yet anyway.