1 week Ago
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Illinois making it through the nonconference portion of its schedule unscathed was a long shot. An unlikelihood, really, given the slate of opponents Illini coach Brad Underwood lined up for his team.
An almost entirely rebuilt team with 10 newcomers. A new-look team that didn’t have every member on campus together until late August when classes started. And a team that, after Ty Rodgers decided to redshirt this season, only returned a single player from last year’s Elite Eight run.
Winning them all outside of Big Ten play might have been Underwood’s crowning achievement. Right up there with conference titles given the schedule the Illinois coach put together for his generally young, inexperienced team. Underwood hasn’t shied away from putting together challenging schedules in his tenure as coach.
This season that meant trying to cut a wide swath through the SEC. Four regular season games against arguably the toughest conference in the country was Underwood going all in on challenging his team as much as possible. That slate included Wednesday’s neutral site in name only showdown with Alabama.
Playing at Legacy Arena — a mere 56-mile drive from the Crimson Tide campus — made it a de facto home game. There was orange and blue in the crowd, but the majority of the 11,533 in attendance were more interested in yelling “Roll Tide!” Than “I-L-L, I-N-I!” It wasn’t just the location either. Alabama started the season as the No.
2-ranked team in the country — only falling to No. 8 in the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday after last week’s loss at Purdue. Plus, the Crimson Tide are deep.
Just as loaded, talent wise, as No. 25 Illinois but with multiple fifth-year players to pair with their own young stars. So going undefeated in nonconference play hit a serious roadblock in Birmingham.
A 100-87 loss that felt both closer than the final score and, in stretches of the game, perhaps not even that competitive. But, overall, a game Underwood left feeling more positive about his team than typical after a loss. “Championships aren’t won in November,” Underwood said.
“Go ask (Alabama coach Nate Oats). I think they lost five or six last year early, were maybe 6-5 at one time and Nate did a good job of keeping that team together. All of a sudden, they’re in the Final Four.
“This is about growth. ..
. It’s about piecing it together. I liked our fight.
We got down 16-18 and very easily could have hung our head. It’s a lot of process, but we can’t make the fundamental mistakes we made in our fundamental stuff. That was really costly.
” Mistakes like giving Alabama free reign attacking the basket through the middle of the court. A no-no that generated easy buckets for the Crimson Tide. As did double-digit Illinois turnovers.
Eleven missed free throws by the Illini only compounded their issues. Those missteps weren’t constant. They just tended to happen in bunches, allowing Alabama to build a double-digit lead in the first half and bounce back in the second half after Illinois cut its deficit to eight points with 10 minutes to play and again with 3 1/2 minutes to play.
“We got out of character,” Underwood said. “We turned it over three possessions in a row, missed an open look and then missed free throws. Those are the moments you have to eliminate.
We had kind of the same thing in the second half. We got it to eight and then it was an offensive rebound for them and a three and we came down and made two quick turnovers. “Those are the things you’ve got to avoid.
We’ve got to be disciplined. We’ve got to be tougher. I’ve got to help them there.
I’ve got to slow things down and make them execute.” Kylan Boswell called Wednesday night’s loss a “learning experience.” The veteran guard liked how the Illini didn’t fold when Alabama built an 18-point lead in the first half or when the Crimson Tide pushed their advantage to 17 points late in the second half.
But fighting an uphill battle against a double-digit deficit three-fourths of the game put Illinois in an untenable situation. It’s a big ask to mount that kind of comeback. Especially for a new team that’s relying on multiple players getting their first run of high major college basketball.
“That just comes with playing more games — playing games like this — and getting more experience,” said Boswell, who scored a season-high 17 points. “Once we get all of us figured out and know what each of us loves to do and each of us are the best at I feel like we’re going to be a really, really good team. “There’s little things when we cut that lead to (eight) and we had the momentum that we have to feed on that.
For me, I’ve been in moments like that at Arizona. I have to figure out a way to help us learn in those moments. We have to take whatever is given to us — take those opportunities — and figure out a way to win the game.
” So a championship wasn’t won in November for Alabama or lost in the third week of the regular season for Illinois. But it can be a launching pad to more for both teams. “ I feel like it was a really good learning experience playing one of the best teams in the country,” Illinois freshman forward Will Riley said.
“I definitely think it will pay off later. Last year’s team said they lost to Marquette early in the season. They embraced that and learned from that and, obviously, got to the Elite Eight.
”.
