2 weeks Ago
To subscribe, click here. Sign up for our daily basketball newsletter here Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team and college basketball at large: Brad Underwood's biggest point of emphasis for his team since the players returned to campus in late August for the start of the new school year has been defense.
The summer was spent putting in the framework of the offense. Then the Illini shifted gears to defense this fall. Establishing chemistry at that end of the court.
Finding out who could really grind. Emphasizing the mentality of, as Underwood has often put it, guarding your yard. The early returns? Maybe not great.
Underwood praised some individual defenders — junior guard Kylan Boswell in particular — but said at Big Ten media day in Rosemont that a team of seventh graders from Champaign could put up 100 on his squad. Hyperbole? Sure. Underwood isn't exactly averse to the notion.
But the Illinois coach got a true look at his team's defensive efforts in the Illini's "secret" scrimmage against Butler (and will again today in the charity exhibition at No. 24 Mississippi). "Some good, some bad," Underwood said about his team's defense against the Bulldogs earlier this month.
"I think that's to be expected this time of year. I thought that we competed. I loved some of the things that our guys did on the ball.
(Butler) is a very, very heavy ball screen team. I thought they ran some actions that really hurt us that we just didn't cover. Scouting (which the Illini didn't do ahead of the scrimmage) will clean that up.
We're not going to go into a real in-depth scout at all with Ole Miss. It's more going to be personnel based so our guys start to dive more into that part of scout. Some good, some bad, and we've got to continue to do the tough things.
That will continue to be challenged (today).".
