I needed a few days. After Brad Underwood’s Fighting Illini lost (in DISMAL fashion) to the Kentucky Wildcats in the second round of the NCAA Tournament……I needed some time to cool off. I needed some time to let the actions of Sunday marinate inside of me, so that I didn’t write an article that I was going to regret.

But now, with it being Wednesday (as of writing this)……I think it’s time to talk about it.

Final: [3] Kentucky 84, [6] Illinois 75

— Illinois Men’s Basketball (@IlliniMBB) March 23, 2025

The Fighting Illini, for those of you who were unaware, came into this game as a 2.5-point favorite over Mark Pope’s squad. It was sort-of an even match-up, based on the rosters that were being put on the court. But to some folks (especially Vegas), they thought this was going to be a close game, with Underwood’s squad coming out on top.

But NO, that obviously did not happen. This team ended up pissing down their leg in DRAMATIC fashion, which lead to Illini fans asking themselves; “WHAT ARE WE DOING?!?” It was a god-awful performance by the orange and blue, where they turned the ball over 14 TIMES (6 on Jakucionis’ watch alone), which lead to 26 points by the Wildcats. They couldn’t play defense, there was no help off of the pick-and-roll, and their passing was lackadaisical at best.

They just…..looked…..BAD! The entire time I watched this game, I was just reminded of last year’s Elite 8 clash against Dan Hurley’s Huskies. You remember that, right? It was when the UConn went on a 30-0 run, which lead to Illinois not scoring a SINGLE POINT in almost an hour of real time.

Two games, two horrible performances, and two opponents who took advantage of the mistakes.

The only good part about this whole debacle of a game though, had to be the electricity that was Kylan Boswell. The former Arizona Wildcat took the game into his own hands; putting up 23 PTS, 6 AST, and 3 REB in 38 minutes of play. He was a leader, and turned into the living embodiment of “You go, we go!”

You, we go (apparently) #Illini pic.twitter.com/UJuqvg4327

— Kellen “KellDawg” Sherman (@KShermanSports) March 23, 2025

The only problem though……was that this team did not “go.” Besides Tomislav Ivisic, who was the only long-range threat on the team (which was CRAZY TOWN, to say the least), Boswell was the only person to get excited about on Sunday. He was the only member of the team that did anything worthwhile. But it wasn’t enough to overcome Kentucky.

Simply put; it has been a BAD string of tournaments for Brad Underwood as a head coach, and the school needs to address it this off-season. Sure, some guys like Boswell and Tre White are rumored to be returning next year. Sure, Underwood is a great recruiter, and he’s going to bring in another top-tier group of guys to compete next season. But we NEED an elite X’s and O’s coach to be added to this staff. We need someone to take those duties over, so that Brad can worry about the other stuff.

Everything about this program is solid at the moment. But we just need someone that can help solidify the basketball-part of the team, if that makes sense? You can’t go multiple tournaments shooting yourself in the foot, and expect to change things with recruiting. Something is broken, and we need to fix it.

But in the end, as always…….what do I know? I’m just a guy from the Midwest, with a beer and a laptop, trying to make sense of this world.