Illinois walked into a sold-out arena in Lubbock on Tuesday as the No. 3 team in the country and left with a loss. The Illini trailed Texas Tech 49-29 at halftime, rallied to within one point late in the second half, and still fell 84-78. Afterward, head coach Brad Underwood spoke without a filter about what went wrong, and his message was blunt.
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“We didn’t come out with the intensity we needed to start the game. That’s not good,” Underwood said in his postgame press conference.
“But at least they identify it, and now we can identify that. In the second half you see a different team. I don’t think we’ve been very violent in our drives. I don’t think we’ve been violent in our pickup points and aggressive in our pickup points. I don’t think we’ve been very, very, very good on the glass. Our physicality has been atrocious,” he added.
The start explains the frustration. Texas Tech jumped on Illinois from the opening tip and built a 49-29 lead by halftime, hitting 18-of-38 shots. The Illini turned the ball over 11 times in the first half, 16 overall, and lost the rebounding battle 23-15 before the break.
Underwood called the first half “nauseating” and said he was disgusted by how his team played.
The glass was the biggest surprise. Texas Tech ranks 299th in the country in average height, and Illinois ranks 10th, yet the Red Raiders won the boards 43-32. They grabbed 18 offensive rebounds on 39 missed shots, a rate that would have led the nation last season, and the only player over 6-foot-6 to play more than 15 minutes for them was 6-foot-8 Jamichael Stillwell.
Illinois had led the country in rebounding margin coming in. Brad Underwood said his team talked about rebounding for three days beforehand.
Illinois also played without preseason first-team All-American David Mirkovic and Jake Davis, its best three-point shooter last season. Mirkovic is one of the team’s best rebounders. However, his absence does not excuse the poor effort on the glass against a much smaller team.
Underwood also said he was more disappointed in his veterans for letting it happen. He pointed out that guards Zavier Zens and Ethan Brown, who led the team in defensive rebounds, had only four apiece, and Brown was the only Illinois player with a positive plus-minus.
Center Tomislav Ivisic was the bright spot, with 14 points, six rebounds and three assists, and Brad Underwood praised his leadership.
These slow starts seem to have become a pattern for Illinois. The Illini were also down 19 at halftime of their exhibition against Baylor before a strong defensive half brought them back, and they gave up 22 offensive rebounds in that game. He said the cause could be complacency or just chance, and he noted that Illinois starts two freshman guards in a loud first road game.
The second half looked like a different team, which is what Underwood said too. Illinois held Texas Tech to 8-of-27 shooting after the break, cut the lead to single digits with just under 11 minutes left, and got within 65-64 with 5:30 to go. But the Illini made only 8 of 19 free throws on the night.
“You can’t spot a team 20 and then go 8-for-a-million from the free throw line,” Underwood said.
Even so, Underwood left Lubbock with no doubt about his team. He said he was proud of the fight in the second half and of the comeback from 20 down.
“We are definitely good enough,” Underwood said with a smile, “I mean, that is a good basketball team, and both of us at some point will get some of our best players back.”
Brad Underwood said Illinois schedules road games like this on purpose, since neutral-site games do not offer the same atmosphere, and he liked that his team did not panic in the second half. After the game, he said the Illini did many good things after halftime to build on.
The tests do not slow down. Illinois hosts Sam Houston State on Friday at 6 p.m. CT, then travels to No. 2 Duke next Tuesday to play at Cameron Indoor Stadium, which Woodcock called arguably the toughest place to play in college basketball.
So the night came down to two halves. In the first, Illinois did not match Texas Tech’s toughness, and Brad Underwood said so plainly. In the second, the Illini showed the kind of fight he wants to build on. If they bring that second half to Durham, Tuesday’s loss may end up as the night they learned what it takes.