How Illinois is staying focused in uncharted territory

For the first time in his 36 years of coaching, he’s reached the biggest stage in the sport of college basketball. And he’s done it at his dream job: Illinois, which hadn’t reached that stage in 21 years. “You enjoy it.

You compartmentalize a lot of it; you understand there’s a job to do. It’s an unbelievable event for the student athletes. I told our guys, now it’s over, we gotta make sure this thing is all about UConn and try to win the next game,” Underwood said on Friday.

Illinois’ locker room found itself full to the brim, with most of the complementary players basking in the attention from a herd of media. Those who would rather bypass the media could enjoy the open locker room time with some Mario Kart. But hidden behind all the lights, littered between the smiles and handshakes exchanged in the pomp and circumstance of the Final Four is the hard work the team put in to reach this stage.

Less than a month ago, Illinois had lost 5 of its last Quad One games, four of them in overtime, including a devastating Big Ten Tournament overtime loss against Wisconsin. That’s the one that broke the camel’s back. “I think the Big Ten Tournament loss kind of did it for us.