Here’s what Brad Underwood said at Illinois basketball media day

College hoops season is officially — almost — here.

B1G teams have been holding their media days this week, and it was Illinois’ turn Friday afternoon. The Illini are coming off their first B1G championship since 2005 and were a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. However, they were upset in the 2nd round by 8-seed Loyola Chicago 71-58 — a loss Brad Underwood is using as motivation for this season.

But Illinois’ roster looks a little different this year. Ayo Dosunmu was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Draft and freshman standout Adam Miller transferred to LSU. Kofi Cockburn is back, though, which is huge. B1G Sixth Man of the Year Andre Curbelo, super-senior Trent Frazier and more playmakers also return from last year’s team.

Here’s what Underwood had to say as he met the media for the first time since practice started earlier this week:

#illini Brad Underwood: It's excited to get started with this group. I've been anxious and looking forward to this for a long time.

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Brad Underwood: "I'm excited for this group because I think they have accepted the challenge of remembering what that last game feeling was and knowing … how abrupt your season can end and how distasteful that can be. This group has taken that very seriously."

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Brad Underwood: "We got to be tougher than we were a year ago. We have to be mentally more consistent. We can't just be when things are good, things are easy. We got to fight through more of the tenacious moments, the downtrodden times."

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Brad Underwood: "We dealt with some expectations last year. We know we have them again. We're excited about that."

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Brad Underwood: "I literally just watched the last game, the Loyola game. It's taken me a while to process all of that."

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Brad Underwood on Loyola loss: "I still don't have a great explanation. I'll just leave it at this: they just outplayed us."

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Brad Underwood: "We can't let that happen again."

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Underwood: Austin Hutcherson "is unique. There's nothing he doesn't do or can't do. He can play the point. We've been playing him a lot there through the fall."

Terrific athlete, can pop over little guards, good catch-and shoot guy. Know he hasn't done it yet for us

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Underwood: Talked about the Loyola game a lot today with his team. "We have to understand there are certain elements we have to learn from that."

Can't forget that feeling, a horrible feeling.

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Underwood: Alfonso Plummer "one of the best shooters I've coached, period."

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Underwood discussing how this team will shoot more threes and make more threes.

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

Will play even faster tempo because of this.

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Underwood: "The Orange Krush, I can't wait to get them back. …We got the best homecourt, not only in the Big Ten but the country."

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Brad Underwood: This team is going to be a better shooting team than last year's team, I don't think there's any doubt about that, from the 3-point line.

— Joey Wagner (@mrwagner25) October 1, 2021

#illini Brad Underwood: Coleman Hawkins has gotten stronger, added 25 pounds.

— Joey Wagner (@mrwagner25) October 1, 2021

"I'm really, really excited about his development. He's had as good a last two weeks as I've ever seen Coleman have."

— Joey Wagner (@mrwagner25) October 1, 2021

#illini Underwood on leadership: Frazier provides it in practice and "Curbelo has an alpha personality."

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Underwood: Vaccination for team "still a work in progress" but program is "very, very close to perfection."

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Underwood: If I give one guy at A+ in offseason improvement, it's Omar Payne.

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021

#illini Underwood: Omar Payne gives team great versatility and got to find ways to get him and Cockburn on the court together not just separate.

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 1, 2021