The shots were clanking, the lead was dwindling and very little seemed to be going Illinois’ way as the minutes ticked off the clock in its matchup with Washington on Sunday in Seattle. Then, somehow, circumstances took a turn for the worse.
Clinging to a 75-73 lead with just over a minute left in the game, the Illini hit the floor out of a 30-second timeout with a plan to control the damage of a squandered 17-point lead. Trouble was, they couldn’t get past the plan’s first step: safely inbound the ball.
When Illinois swingman Tre White – positioned in the high sideline corner with the ball – zigged, guard Kasparas Jakucionis – his intended target – zagged. The result was a bad pass into the backcourt and a footrace to the ball that Jakucionis was never going to win against Washington’s Luis Kortright, who snatched the loose ball, converted the layup and tied the game.
“It’s really ridiculous,” Underwood said of the mistake in his postgame press conference. “The inbounds plays, they’re in a zone, just go into the backcourt and get the basketball. And we set the stack and – jeez, oh Pete, I mean, we’ve gotta talk about every scenario.”
The upshot: The Illini hit their free throws – two each from Jakucionis and guard Kylan Boswell – and made the stops they needed down the stretch, preventing Huskies guard DJ Davis (31 points and seven threes off the bench) from playing the hero one more time.
“That’s resilience after that,” Underwood said, referring back to the turnover. “We got a stop, we got a loose ball and then made some toughness plays that we we have to make if you’re going to win close games like this. But we can’t make that out-of-bounds play … that’s just, that’s just a bonehead play.”
In their defense, the Illini (11-3, 2-1 Big Ten) have been guilty of very few of them in critical moments this season. Still, Underwood isn’t letting it slide.
“We did exactly what we had to do down the stretch today, other than the side out-of-bounds play, which is, well …” Underwood said. “I promise we’ll get that rectified.”
