UConn 71, Illinois 62 Postgame
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You’re exactly right A big part of UConn’s offense is predicated on the pin downs. I don’t think we guarded that aspect very well as they hit 12 3’s. The big man has to show and recover. Also the point about Jake not being fast enough is spot on. I felt like we needed a fast start and having your best 5 out there could of helped that.
63 Split
- Mesa, AZ
52 points: 2024 Elite Eight vs. UConn
61 points: Nov. 28, 2025 vs. UConn
62 points: 2026 Final Four vs. UConn
Agree…something very telling in these stats. I looked at all 37 games this year…only two had eFG% (effective field goal %) below 40 (typical range was 45-65). Yep..the 2 games against UConn…both lowest eFG% of the yr, and way below our average. Two yrs ago in 23/24…same thing…lowest eFG% by far was E8 game against UConn. Interestingly, MSU number also on low side of range.
It’s not just a fluke…or bad shooting day by us. Didn’t look at all stats so maybe combo of other things, too…but can’t argue, Hurley is effective coach and somehow has our number. God…I gotta go shower after saying that!
61 points: Nov. 28, 2025 vs. UConn
62 points: 2026 Final Four vs. UConn
Agree…something very telling in these stats. I looked at all 37 games this year…only two had eFG% (effective field goal %) below 40 (typical range was 45-65). Yep..the 2 games against UConn…both lowest eFG% of the yr, and way below our average. Two yrs ago in 23/24…same thing…lowest eFG% by far was E8 game against UConn. Interestingly, MSU number also on low side of range.
It’s not just a fluke…or bad shooting day by us. Didn’t look at all stats so maybe combo of other things, too…but can’t argue, Hurley is effective coach and somehow has our number. God…I gotta go shower after saying that!
God bless him. Genuinely a one of one.
I agree. But I almost think an even better question is why does it have to be one extreme or the other; so often?
It’s either the most ticky tacky thing you ever saw or it’s Thunderdome? Lol
Losing a game is never supposed to feel good or be fun. We have a desire that did not get fulfilled, or an expectation of our self that we fell short of. That is supposed to sting.
But we have to get past both the pain and tears of losing as well as the frustration. Focusing on those things just makes a person miserable and does not get you closer to your goal.
Losing is a Measuring Stick. It shows how you how far the gap is between your desire and where you actually are. And in the case of the Illini... they nearly knocked off the ‘invincible’ Connecticut program that was actually starting to look a bit shaky towards the end – something they are not used to.
Losing can be your friend when you don’t curse your opponent or the refs or the gods or something else and you use that sting of defeat to propel you to get better. That’s what the GOAT Michael Jordan always said. He absolutely hated to lose but he used that as fuel to work harder and get even better. This is how you can turn losing from being just a negative into being something positive.
The Illini have a great foundation and a sound approach to their game and craft. They just need more of what They already have – including adding in some Ballers who have more of a Street-Ball mentality. I’m not talking about undisciplined ball but that kind of street fire confidence with a bit of take-no-prisoners arrogance. The Illini players are all Nice Guys. Nothing wrong with that, but you have to have an Alpha or two with a Jordan-like mentality to get to the Promised Land.
‘Losing’ doesn’t mean ‘Losing’ hates you. It means it loves you enough to sting you to into getting even better.
dude, come on....UConn missed a lot of open looks; we missed a lot of highly contested shots. There was no ball movement, no player movement whatsoever on offense. We match up with UConn well from a talent perspective and the game was there for the taking, but we were seriously outcoached Saturday
Seth Davis has us as number 2 preseason next year....
Seth Davis' Never-Too-Early Preseason Top 25
Hoops HQ Editor-In-Chief Seth Davis shares his early Top 25 NCAA rankings for the 2026-27 college hoops season
www.hoopshq.com
USAFILLINI
- Florida
Was at the game and it felt like we just missed a ton of close look but seemed like we had a good game plan.
What really stood out was how our fans handled it, during and after the game, nothing but class and composure, which UConn fans can’t really say. Honestly think we’ve got one of the best fan bases in the country.
There was a different vibe too, yeah it sucked, but there was still a lot of optimism about what’s coming. Talking with other Illinois fans after the game and at the airport, it’s the highest I’ve seen spirits after a loss like this. I’ve been skeptical of Brad Underwood before, but this feels like the best spot Illinois basketball has been in during my 38 years following them.
What really stood out was how our fans handled it, during and after the game, nothing but class and composure, which UConn fans can’t really say. Honestly think we’ve got one of the best fan bases in the country.
There was a different vibe too, yeah it sucked, but there was still a lot of optimism about what’s coming. Talking with other Illinois fans after the game and at the airport, it’s the highest I’ve seen spirits after a loss like this. I’ve been skeptical of Brad Underwood before, but this feels like the best spot Illinois basketball has been in during my 38 years following them.
Bigtex
- DFW
Been an Underwood skeptic for years. Good at building roster/team but lacked the ability to be a consistent NCCAT winner. I assumed the Domask/Shannon team was his ceiling. Glad to be wrong!!!
After this year, becoming less of skepticl - Nice NCAAT run and love the half time adjustments. F4 is a great accomplishment.
63 Split
- Mesa, AZ
And a shout-out to all on this post-game thread. We all know comments can be negative after a loss…complaints about players, coaches, refs, etc. We got 17 pages so far, and virtually all positive. A credit to all and a signal of the love for this team. Nice to see!!
Homecoming 2019
- Chicago
Good coaching paired with us notoriously struggling with shooting in large arenas
And I didn't even mention his TO's - we cut the lead to 4, the crowd is going crazy, and BU calls a TO? WTF?
Listen, I am happy with the job Brad has done overall given we were dead in the water when he came here. And there are times he does a good job of game prep and in game coaching. But there are also times like last night when his decisions are just baffling.
No doubt the defense was solid and good enough to get a win. However, the one area I thought we could have been better was navigating those screens. Reed had a few plays where his initial post position was way too deep, but he's a beast so that's tough to stop.
This is good data but incomplete. Bad defense on misses is also important. You can't just look at the outcome and assume the misses were all caused by good defense. They missed some open shots. They made 12 because they kept getting good looks.
That game was more of a wrestling match, especially between our bigs and Reed. Both teams shot poorly, but uconn shot a little less poorly.
It was sure fun while it lasted. This team now takes its place in the hall of legends. The sting of losing is softened by the brightness of our future.
It was sure fun while it lasted. This team now takes its place in the hall of legends. The sting of losing is softened by the brightness of our future.
I needed a day to move on before looking closer at some stats, so I'm sorry if this has already been discussed...
Here's our stats compared to our averages against Torvik top 50 (20 games including F4):
Dunks: 0-0 (avg 1.6-1.9)
Rim: 6-13 (avg 11.8-18.4)
Mid: 7-17 (avg 4.5-11.3)
Three: 6-26 (avg 9.6-28.4)
FT: 18-23 (avg 14.4-19.2)
At our average percentages with this mix, we would have scored ~74 points (2-3 more at the rim, almost 3 more 3pt, but ~1 less FT). That of course assumes these looks were as easy as each shot type typically is. I really wish we had player tracking for "openness" and shot distance over the whole season, but at least here's the shot chart for this game:
My first thought looking at Torvik's #s is that it would've been nice to trade some mid-range shots for layups, but this makes it look like most of those were at least fairly close (except the questionable Boswell 17-footer with I think ~10s on the shot clock). The distance on our 3s stands out though, and even our shots at the rim were further out by the restricted arc than they usually are. So maybe even though the bounces were awful, we shouldn't really have expected our usual percentages anyway. I'll leave it to others to say whether our shot selection/distance was our own fault or just what the defense gave us.
Other issues: while we out-rebounded them, it wasn't quite as much as our avg top 50 game (9% advantage instead of 7%), and we only forced turnovers on 6.3% vs our typical 12%.
Aside from these things, our own turnovers were at our average, free throw rates were more in our favor than typical, and we held UConn to a lower eFG% than our avg. We just didn't have much margin even if our shots were falling, and needed to be elite in enough other ways since they weren't.
Here's our stats compared to our averages against Torvik top 50 (20 games including F4):
Dunks: 0-0 (avg 1.6-1.9)
Rim: 6-13 (avg 11.8-18.4)
Mid: 7-17 (avg 4.5-11.3)
Three: 6-26 (avg 9.6-28.4)
FT: 18-23 (avg 14.4-19.2)
At our average percentages with this mix, we would have scored ~74 points (2-3 more at the rim, almost 3 more 3pt, but ~1 less FT). That of course assumes these looks were as easy as each shot type typically is. I really wish we had player tracking for "openness" and shot distance over the whole season, but at least here's the shot chart for this game:
My first thought looking at Torvik's #s is that it would've been nice to trade some mid-range shots for layups, but this makes it look like most of those were at least fairly close (except the questionable Boswell 17-footer with I think ~10s on the shot clock). The distance on our 3s stands out though, and even our shots at the rim were further out by the restricted arc than they usually are. So maybe even though the bounces were awful, we shouldn't really have expected our usual percentages anyway. I'll leave it to others to say whether our shot selection/distance was our own fault or just what the defense gave us.
Other issues: while we out-rebounded them, it wasn't quite as much as our avg top 50 game (9% advantage instead of 7%), and we only forced turnovers on 6.3% vs our typical 12%.
Aside from these things, our own turnovers were at our average, free throw rates were more in our favor than typical, and we held UConn to a lower eFG% than our avg. We just didn't have much margin even if our shots were falling, and needed to be elite in enough other ways since they weren't.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Seth Davis has us as number 2 preseason next year....
Seth Davis' Never-Too-Early Preseason Top 25
Hoops HQ Editor-In-Chief Seth Davis shares his early Top 25 NCAA rankings for the 2026-27 college hoops season
Z made three serious mistakes in his initial minutes, Ben played his best game ever (just needed a stronger blockout on that last rebound), Keaton just needed a bit more Purdue magic on his long shots, UConn guards are quick and leap so long rebounds not good for us, and the missed short shots hurt. I think UConn wins 7-8 out of 10 against us (and 3-4 out of 10 against Duke) but when it’s just one game, there’s a little luck involved. Fortunately, I feel like the refs did a good job, and no one shot us out of the game as have Trent and Matt going 0 for 11 in the past.
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