If losing wasn’t such a trend right now with the basketball program, then I wouldn’t even blink at this loss. Sometimes bad losses just happen. But, this wasn’t an ordinary bad loss. Head coach Brad Underwood couldn’t afford to lose a cakewalk game. He hasn’t built that inventory of good graces with the Illinois fanbase yet. Honestly, he hasn’t even been close to building that inventory.
Back when John Groce was the head coach of the Illini, I thought that was the dark ages of the Illinois basketball program. Groce led the Illini to four-straight missed NCAA tournament appearances.