Brad Underwood excited about resiliency of Illini hoops following OT win vs. Texas
Brad Underwood was feeling good about his team after the comeback win over Texas. Illinois beat the No. 2 Longhorns 85-78 in overtime on Tuesday.
Underwood spoke about how his team is full of surprises and resiliency at the post game presser. Underwood is really excited about this group of players.
“Really good college basketball game and really excited about our group,” said Underwood. “There’s surprises every night.”
#Illini Underwood: Really good college basketball game & really excited about our group. There’s surprises every night.
— Derek Piper (@DPiper247) December 7, 2022
While Underwood stated that he had no idea his team was capable of showing this fight at this point in the season, he felt good about the character in the Illinois locker room.
“Had “no idea” that his team would have the ability to fight back in this way going into the year,” said Underwood. “But knew I liked the character of our team & the guys in that locker room.”
#Illini Underwood: Had “no idea” that his team would have the ability to fight back in this way going into the year. But knew I liked the character of our team & the guys in that locker room.
— Derek Piper (@DPiper247) December 7, 2022
It wasn’t looking good for the Fighting Illini at one point as Texas went on a 16-2 run. Underwood noted that run was about as ugly as it gets, and said that Illinois could not have beaten a high school team during that stretch. At the end of the day the team fought back and that’s all that counts.
“We were about as ugly a basketball team as you could be in that 16-2 run,” said Underwood. “Looked like we couldn’t beat a HS team. But we fight back.”
#Illini Underwood: We were about as ugly a basketball team as you could be in that 16-2 run. Looked like we couldn’t beat a HS team.. But we fight back.
— Derek Piper (@DPiper247) December 7, 2022
Illinois faces Penn State next on Saturday at noon ET on BTN.