Illinois with few answers for inability to stay focused despite NCAA Tournament looming

CHICAGO — The edge felt extra sharp Friday night, with blank stares draping the Fighting Illini locker room as the swirl of frustration, anger and agitation palpably pulsed.

An all-too-familiar sensation was echoed by a disgruntled Brad Underwood, who had very little to say to his team after Illinois’ first crack at postseason play ended in disaster with a 91-88 loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal.

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Add this to the list of games in which Illinois couldn’t hold on to a sizeable lead. Add this to the list of overtime failures (0-4 in overtime). Add this to the list of heartwrecking lows to juxtapose the exhilarating highs from earlier this season.

A season that — barring a monstrous NCAA tournament run — is seemingly bound to end clouded in dissaray.

“It requires more than we gave,” Tomislav Ivisic said. “The game became a lot harder than expected, and they closed a lot harder.”

Indeed, they did, as Illinois was outscored 9-4 in the first four minutes of overtime, with David Mirkovic as the only player to score for Illinois in that period. They also allowed 69 points combined by Wisconsin guards Nick Boyd and John Blackwell in the full game.

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The inability to close out Quad One games has become a defining characteristic of Illinois ever since the team went perfect in January. Illinois is 0-5 in its last five Quad One games and now 0-4 in overtime in the entire season.

“When we make shots, we get casual on the other end, and we think it’s just easy,” Underwood said after Friday’s game. “And today I thought it was a lack of focus.”

“I feel like we lost focus a little bit, and that cost us the game,” Zvonimir Ivisic told TCR.

Perhaps another guy on the team who can offer up a unique perspective as an ‘end of the roster’ piece that mostly helps out in the scout and in practice, AJ Redd.

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“I think a lot of that comes from how good an offensive team we are, we’re making shots and we’re…

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Publish date : 2026-03-17 01:12:00

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