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Illinois’ Brad Underwood comments on Michigan’s B1G title: ‘No one’s won more games than us’
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Brad Underwood stopped just short of calling his team the B1G regular season champion this year. The Illinois head coach certainly implied it after a Saturday afternoon win over Ohio State, though.
The Fighting Illini continued their hot streak on Saturday, taking down No. 7 Ohio State 73-68 in Columbus to end their year. Illinois finished the season with a 20-6 record and a 16-4 mark in B1G play, good enough to lock up the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament next week.
Illinois sits behind only Michigan, which is 14-2 in league games with one to play — a road contest against Michigan State on Sunday. But Underwood isn’t convinced the Wolverines are the best team in the B1G, especially after a recent 76-53 drubbing of U-M in Ann Arbor without Ayo Dosunmu.
After Illinois’ win, Underwood implied his team should be the conference champion.
“I know we won 16 games and we played all 20 of them,” Underwood said, per Jeremy Werner of Illini Inquirer. “We all knew this would be a unique situation with an unbalanced schedule…but I know this, no one’s won more games than us, and we played them all.”
Because of the unique situation this year, the B1G made the decision to determine a conference champion by winning percentage. With Michigan’s blowout win over Michigan State on Thursday, the Wolverines secured their spot as the top team in the league.
Underwood’s argument is justified, as Michigan will end the year having played three fewer games than Illinois and the Fighting Illini owning the head-to-head advantage.
Perhaps that slight from the B1G will serve as additional motivation for Illinois heading into the March Madness.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB