(670 The Score) Two days later, Illinois coach Brad Underwood was still basking in the glow of his Illini winning a share of the Big Ten crown Sunday.
“It was a daunting task,” Underwood said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Tuesday morning. “But it was a lot of guys that worked really hard and continued to grow and bought into playing for each other.”
Of course, Underwood is looking forward too. Illinois is the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and will play Friday at 10:30 a.m. CT in Indianapolis against the winner of the Michigan-Indiana matchup. And beyond the conference tournament, his Illini (22-8) have big goals in the NCAA Tournament, where they lost to the Loyola Ramblers in the round of 32 a year ago.
“I hope we learned some lessons from last year,” Underwood said. “Winning the Big Ten Tournament and then going into the NCAA Tournament, we had our worst practice of the year last year on the Tuesday before we played in the NCAA Tournament. And we were terrible. But I hope we’ve learned from that. This chapter is closed, and now it’s the postseason. It’s time to roll.
Now you’re to the point where no games are guaranteed. You have to go out and perform or you lose it all.”
You can listen to Underwood’s full interview below as he reflected on what his Illini have accomplished and previewed what lies ahead.