Brad Underwood, Illinois preview Elite 8 vs. Iowa basketball

Iowa (24-12, 10-10 Big Ten) and No. 3 seed Illinois (27-8, 15-5 Big Ten) meet in the South Region final from inside the Toyota Center in Houston on Saturday evening with a Final Four ticket on the line.

For ninth-seeded Iowa, a win would mean its first Final Four appearance since 1980. This Elite Eight trip is Iowa’s first since 1987.

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The Hawkeyes are hoping to etch their name further into the history books after a March Madness run that’s included wins over No. 8 seed Clemson, No. 1 seed and defending national champion Florida and over rival and No. 4 seed Nebraska.

As tipoff nears, here’s what Illinois head coach Brad Underwood and stars Keaton Wagler, Andrej Stojakovic and Kylan Boswell said about Iowa ahead of the Elite Eight date.

Illinois pregame press conference vs. Iowa basketball

“Well, we’re obviously very excited to be here. It’s a tribute to these guys and their competitive spirit and work throughout the course of a very long season. It’s exciting to see the success of the Big Ten. Obviously we’ve got three teams still playing and we get to play one of ’em.

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“I thought that the league was as good as it’s ever been top to bottom, and that’s being played out. Got a great opponent tomorrow, one that’s obviously playing well, beat the 1 seed in getting here and a higher seed. I think they’re much better than their seed. Well-coached, great point guard, and a team that’s gotten better since the first time we played them.

“So tremendous amount of respect for Bennett (Stirtz) and what he’s done, and then a team that has continued to just play great throughout the tournament. So we know when you get to this point, you’re going to play a high major team or a team that’s played very, very good basketball. You got to play well to win, and we’ve got to continue to ourselves to build on what we did last night and take that to another level,” Underwood said.

Here’s Illinois’ full press conference:

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Publish date : 2026-03-28 17:30:00

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