Brad Underwood angry at ‘bunch of crap’ question following Illinois’ regular season finale originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Big Ten Tournament is right around the corner for all 18 schools, which begins Tuesday in Chicago. The Illinois Fighting Illini finished the regular season with a 78-72 win over the Maryland Terrapins in College Park Sunday afternoon and will now earn time off as the No. 4 seed.
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Despite Illinois clinching a triple bye in the tournament, which will see its first game take place Friday from the United Center, Underwood was caught off guard when IlliniGuys reporter and analyst Brad Sturdy attempted to get a pulse check on whether the Illini have found the formula to close out tightly-contested games moving forward.
Underwood was not amused in a now-viral video from Fox’s college basketball account, which has over 100,000 views on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter).
Sturdy’s question, which came a little over halfway into the eight-minute scrum, became briefly contentious.
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“Brad, you have struggled a little bit in close games of late,” Sturdy said. “Does this give you guys confidence because you know you are going to have close ones coming up?”
Underwood’s face quickly became smirk-like as he reluctantly answered the question.
“I think that is a bunch of crap,” Underwood answered. “You can think what you want to think. We pulled away in a lot of those, too. Yeah, next question. I didn’t like that one very much.”
The conversation did not continue from then forward, but fans praised Sturdy for pressing Underwood as Illinois suffered notable close losses to Michigan State, UCLA, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. All four of which were by one possession, and each came in overtime or the closing seconds of regulation.
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There is no margin for error for Illinois moving forward, as the postseason has finally arrived.
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Whether it lives up to its Final Four expectations, though, is a story still to be written.
Only time will tell.
