Wisconsin 91, Illinois 88 OT Postgame

88_ILLINI · Mar 13, 2026

Fortunately I was at work today and couldn't watch the game.
I believe the illini have lost their last 6 overtime games.
Over the past 2 years I have come to expect the football team to win close games, but I have come to expect the basketball team to lose close games. I would say the basketball team has relatively better talent than the football team
So, for me the main difference is the football team is prepared/ practiced to win close games and the in game calls, especially on offense, has helped them win close games. Basketball team is exact opposite. They don't look prepared and in game coaching is poor. Main difference is coaching

Illini-Rule · Mar 13, 2026

The heat is about to get turned up if its a dud next week

What does that mean?

tell it like it is · Mar 13, 2026

Second place is 1st loser said:
For those that have lost their minds completely and have had the hottest of hot takes, go take a shower, have some tea and start coming up conclusions that reasonable eyes have seen as issues since July.

This was never, ever going to be a good team defensively. You don't need to know a ton to look at this roster and see that there is definitely skill and there are scoring threats, but unfortunately, there are two sides to the floor. Our guards are slow, they look stuck in mud against quick guards, they get broken down consistently and it collapses any x's and o's that any coach in the world could come up with.

We coughed up 15 point leads, TWICE, in the same game. Do you know how unlikely that is? We blew a 23 point lead this year, as well and equally as unlikely. What did it? Quick, shifty guards on UCLA and Wisconsin gave our guards fits. We don't have one player on the roster capable of staying in front of their man.

Ultimately, the free throw line beat us. At this end of regulation, they were 19 of 20, we were 8 of 14, missing from ends. If we shoot 70%(including front ends), we're preparing for Michigan right now. This is not the first time where foul shooting beat us. Was it Wisconsin or MSU where we lost in OT shooting 55% from the line?

The rest of the stats were fairly even. Wisconsin shot 10 more threes than us and both teams shot under 25%.

Our guys can't blame anyone but themselves. I know that Brad stuck up for his guys when criticism of losing close games came up. This tape today isn't going to quiet those with the torches.

This 100%. Make free throws and we win most if not all our overtime games.
Why are our legs more tired then the other teams? Especially today. We had a weeks rest, they played yesterday.

FloridaMan · Mar 13, 2026

Second place is 1st loser said:
For those that have lost their minds completely and have had the hottest of hot takes, go take a shower, have some tea and start coming up conclusions that reasonable eyes have seen as issues since July.

This was never, ever going to be a good team defensively. You don't need to know a ton to look at this roster and see that there is definitely skill and there are scoring threats, but unfortunately, there are two sides to the floor. Our guards are slow, they look stuck in mud against quick guards, they get broken down consistently and it collapses any x's and o's that any coach in the world could come up with.

We coughed up 15 point leads, TWICE, in the same game. Do you know how unlikely that is? We blew a 23 point lead this year, as well and equally as unlikely. What did it? Quick, shifty guards on UCLA and Wisconsin gave our guards fits. We don't have one player on the roster capable of staying in front of their man.

Ultimately, the free throw line beat us. At this end of regulation, they were 19 of 20, we were 8 of 14, missing from ends. If we shoot 70%(including front ends), we're preparing for Michigan right now. This is not the first time where foul shooting beat us. Was it Wisconsin or MSU where we lost in OT shooting 55% from the line?

The rest of the stats were fairly even. Wisconsin shot 10 more threes than us and both teams shot under 25%.

Our guys can't blame anyone but themselves. I know that Brad stuck up for his guys when criticism of losing close games came up. This tape today isn't going to quiet those with the torches.

There was also another close stat you didn't mention. They outrebounded us by 1. We came into the game top 10 in rebounding margin. They came in 152nd. That is effort and desire. It also does not help when we have the tallest team in the nation with not 1, but 2, 7 footers who are continually playing 25 feet from the basket.

I agree that the team and staff have no one but themselves to blame. For the last month.

OrangeKrush1981 · Mar 13, 2026

wc_illini said:
The counterpoint is that we're still #5 on Torvik over that span (but a big gap from the 4 1-seeds)

Is Torvik gonna give the Orange & Blue a trophy for being Number Five! Yeah, baby! Number Five! In TORVIK!

BatteredWifeSchwartz · Mar 13, 2026

LvilleILL1 said:
Second weekend or bust, the pressure is on.

Assuming without some weirdness we are a 3 seed, everybody in the fanbase should be in agreement on this.

We should beat every team that is between a 5 and 7 right now (BYU is the only team I’m worried about).

Second place is 1st loser · Mar 13, 2026

Johnny Lawrence said:
This is where I'm at. Today may have finally broken me. If this team loses to (another) lower seed in the real tournament Josh is going to have to have some difficult conversations.

I think you have to look at Brad's extension. No conversations will be had on either end. He's got a lifetime contract. Move on to what could happen(and I think should).....the Euro experiment needs to be toned down a LOT. It's great to have the skill, but the lack of having some true athletes is frustrating. That is a discussion that has to happen. Not sure if it's a lack of sufficient NIL money issue?

OrangeKrush1981 · Mar 13, 2026

... we throw out a bunch of replacement names that are either wildly unrealistic, or have far more warts than brad underwood. I was hearing Pat Kelsey, Sean Miller, and Musselman the past 2 years for crying out loud. It's not to say you should accept certain results, but a lot of illini fans do need a healthy dose of reality of what ....

I agree with this, more or less.

Underwood is a really good coach. I do not think he is a great coach. He is especially good at recruiting and adapting. He is innovative. He also struggles year after year to focus his team (his word, focus, just today ...).

That said: realistically (or even unrealistically), who on this green earth could be brought in to do better?

(But my caveat, above, is no reason for Josh Whitman to not ask our coach: "What's the plan? National Championship or bust? Tell me, my very, very well-compensated basketball coach: how do we get there?")

Second place is 1st loser · Mar 13, 2026

FloridaMan said:
There was also another close stat you didn't mention. They outrebounded us by 1. We came into the game top 10 in rebounding margin. They came in 152nd. That is effort and desire. It also does not help when we have the tallest team in the nation with not 1, but 2, 7 footers who are continually playing 25 feet from the basket.

I agree that the team and staff have no one but themselves to blame. For the last month.

Great call on rebounding margin. They came up with enormous second and third chances and converted. A couple of times, they were threes. Rebounds, by us, would have snuffed out their rally, but instead, it added fuel.

FloridaMan · Mar 13, 2026

EmeraldCityIllini said:
And ill add, the main point here. this is all in the context of the "hot seat" comment, remember.

Everytime we do this on the board, we throw out a bunch of replacement names that are either wildly unrealistic, or have far more warts than brad underwood. I was hearing Pat Kelsey, Sean Miller, and Musselman the past 2 years for crying out loud. It's not to say you should accept certain results, but a lot of illini fans do need a healthy dose of reality of what throughout the landscape has constituted a coach losing his job, but also what is realistic to expect if you move off a coach.

I'll add that Illini fans need to stop settling for very good. This is a top tier job. Full stop. Why do we as a program and fan base not deserve to achieve the highest of accomplishments? We are among a handful of the best historical programs without a modern Natl Championship. With our resources and fan support why is that out of the question for us?

Again, not arguing BU should not be here. But full season results need to start matching talent level at some point.

AssemblyHallForever · Mar 13, 2026

Fire Underwood.

Josh I do not believe was happy with the comment Brad said to him in the tunnel. Josh may need go back channels on who would be interested.

EmeraldCityIllini · Mar 13, 2026

Second place is 1st loser said:
Great call on rebounding margin. They came up with enormous second and third chances and converted. A couple of times, they were threes. Rebounds, by us, would have snuffed out their rally, but instead, it added fuel.

The rebounding thing today backs up your athletic guard point. The rebounds we couldn’t get were the long ones went over the heads of the big men and wings who crashed.

It was mostly Keaton and Davis who couldn’t come up with them.

JJE · Mar 13, 2026

Honestly, after the UCLA loss I kind of had the feeling this team was fading.

For a team that was on a roll, that game seemed like a turning point. I’m not trying to be Debbie downer, but I could easily see this team getting bounced second round.

I miss the days when we had a bunch of dawgs on the team who would take a swing back when they got popped in the mouth.

biglug58 · Mar 13, 2026

This is what this team is missing. Players with cojones

FromTheLogo · Mar 13, 2026

HailtotheChief said:
I think Keaton needs to rest. He isnt shooting 3s or free throws close to earlier this year and increased TOs, 1 of 6 from 3 today and key missed FTs.

Been saying this for weeks. He has referenced it in pregame, post game, his legs are tired!!! I understand he's 18 or whatever, it doesn't matter. He's not a machine and has taken a beating by the opposing teams.

Great coaches in the BigTen have 30+ gametapes to watch. We haven't changed. They have.

STLini25 · Mar 13, 2026

You say that so confidently - but is it reality? How many coaches can you name - that weren't embroiled in scandal - that went to 6 NCAA tournaments in a row that were fired?

I'll even make it easier, how many coaches can you name that went to 3 NCAA tournaments in a row who were fired?

I'm ofcourse leaving out context that would make answering those questions even more difficult, like the fact he went to an elite 8 just 2 years ago. He's yet to be lower than a 9 seed which means a ton of regular season winning, he's yet to lose to a double digit seed so no catastrophic failures like Painter or Bennett or Lloyd, etc.

Calipari is really the only recent answer that comes to mind for me? And that required a catastrophic flameout to Oakland in round 1, a 22-12 season the year prior, and a missed tournament all together in 2021-22 at Kentucky.

It is absolutely not the reality.

And Calipari wasn’t really fired

NarrowJ · Mar 13, 2026

EmeraldCityIllini said:
Pat Kelsey, Sean Miller, and Musselman

Chris Beard, Will Wade

Justkeepshooting · Mar 13, 2026

FloridaMan said:
There was also another close stat you didn't mention. They outrebounded us by 1. We came into the game top 10 in rebounding margin. They came in 152nd. That is effort and desire. It also does not help when we have the tallest team in the nation with not 1, but 2, 7 footers who are continually playing 25 feet from the basket.

I agree that the team and staff have no one but themselves to blame. For the last month.

I don’t think think Second place is blaming the staff at all.

Altuve27 · Mar 13, 2026

Now that I have expressed my anger let me say the final chapter for this team has not been written YET. This team can still make a nice run in the Tournament, BUT Boswell AND Tomi have to SHOW UP! Ivisic, frankly, has had a VERY poor season and Boswell has not been good at all since he returned, especially defensively. He’s been getting routinely SMOKED. Today was not an anomaly for Boswell. Far from it.

FloridaMan · Mar 13, 2026

BatteredWifeSchwartz said:
Assuming without some weirdness we are a 3 seed, everybody in the fanbase should be in agreement on this.

We should beat every team that is between a 5 and 7 right now (BYU is the only team I’m worried about).

Been a lot of this the past 4 weeks with some coulda thrown in lol

OrangeKrush1981 · Mar 13, 2026

I think that's more of just saying. Like, no matter the time and score - focus on the effort plays. I don't think he literally means all you have to do is get 1 rebound in the game.

Mostly, it is Brad Underwood expressing exactly why his teams lose games like today: he himself has yet to figure out how to get his guys to put out the effort needed to win these kind of games. This is a consistent issue. It is an Underwood issue.

Since we're gonna have Underwood as coach until he retires, I am hoping (probably stupidly) that Josh Whitman puts the screws to our stubborn blowhard of a coach and asks him to spell out how, in future, Underwood teams will match Underwood-stated goals: championships.

"Attitude reflect leadership."

Fly Illini Fly! · Mar 13, 2026

OrangeKrush1981 said:
Emotional hot takes, perhaps. Do you, too, as a frequent and assertive poster wonder about the mirror on the wall?

“Mirror on the wall” of what exactly? That we’re capable of losing to a good team like Wisconsin that probably ends up in the 2nd weekend? Yes, I see that “mirror on the wall.”

But I’m not exactly sure why that should surprise me (could argue they have the best collection of wins in the country). And also why that calls for throwing in the towel on a 3seed season.

FloridaMan · Mar 13, 2026

I don’t think think Second place is blaming the staff at all.

Well, he did say they need to tone down the Euro experiment

TooHot4Tots · Mar 13, 2026

Make free throws. They probably take 500 a day. To step up there and miss critical ones, while Blackwell and Boyd combined missed one....that's the game. Those are free points and we got outscored by 16 in that column.....in a game we lost by 3 in OT.

Make the freebies and leave with a W. Miss a bunch and this is the result.

Or just build on 2 different 15pt leads. Its a !!!! coaching job

OrangeKrush1981 · Mar 13, 2026

P.s.....Brad's not going anywhere and we all know it, so cut it off right there. That said, his roster building and Euro ball philosophy has to change unless we are unable to fund for elite guards. We have no foot speed advantage or athleticism advantage anywhere on the floor. That's a personnel issue.

I do not get the point here: since Underwood is going nowhere (true), stop criticizing? I must have that wrong.

In fact, having written that, I think I am incorrect: you attribute the problem to personnel, and attribute the makeup of the roster to Underwood.

That's correct.