‘Need to play with more nasty’:How Illinois got bullied in dud against No. 3 Michigan

CHAMPAIGN —Kylan Boswell sat at the podium while emerging from a flashbang. As the mist subsided, the irritation in his eyes grew. It was like he had seen a ghost.

“I feel like I let us down tonight. I can’t afford this type of stuff for the team. These guys lean on me, and I lean on them.” Boswell said after No. 10 Illinois’ 84-70 loss to No. 3 Michigan.

It was a total failure for Illinois.

Since the day the schedule was announced, fans had emphatically gotten out their Sharpies and circled this game on their calendars. With the drama enhanced by the return of Morez Johnson Jr. It ended with Michigan walking away with a Big Ten title in Champaign.

For the longest time, it seemed Illinois was destined to meet the Wolverines on Friday night for a riveting Big Ten matchup with monster title-determining consequences. But as the day drew closer, the stakes diminished. Yet even as the game was happening, all signs were pointing to an emphatic conclusion until the wheels fell off early in the second half.

“We can’t let a team come out here — especially in our home court —and just bully us the way that they did,” Keaton Wagler said.

Maybe a loss at the hands of this particular Michigan team was expected. After all, they are a top-3 team in the country and are now the Big Ten regular-season champs. There’s no question they are among the elite of the elite. But to lose a game in this way… for Boswell, this reality never seemed to be in the cards.

“From being hurt to playing again, you feel like you’ll never experience that feeling we had against UConn. We knew they were really good, but man… they really just dominated us tonight,” Boswell said.

Another stunning loss. The second straight one. With it, Illinois drops to 4-4 in February after going perfect in January.

Why did this all unravel?

Underwood’s diagnosis?

“That physicality, that ‘nasty’, that’s on me. I’ve got to do a much better job at getting us much nastier in that situation. “When we scrimmaged Florida, we had way more fight against them than we did tonight, and they’re more physical than Michigan. And we didn’t have that tonight because we’ve gotten a little bit.. maybe.. content. And that’s on me.”

The frontcourt was at the center of a lack of nastiness. Minus David Mirkovic, bigs Tomislav Ivisic, Jake Davis, and Ben Humrichous only combined for eight rebounds. Zvonomir Ivisic had zero.

“It always catches you, it smacks you in the face, and it doens’t feel very good. I don’t like saying this about my team very often, but they played harder than we did, they played nastier than we did,“ Underwood explained.

The next step is addressing the shortcomings that led to a near-disastrous February.

“I’ve got to get that rectified, and it all starts with Kylan and Tommi [Ivisic],” Underwood said. “I’ve got to demand it in practice, and this team cares a lot, so that’s not going to be a problem.”

After Boswell put the onus on himself, Underwood agreed.

“Good,” Underwood said. “Kylan Boswell can go do everything Yaxel [Lendeborg] can do; it’s my job to get him there.”

But another name worth mentioning was Andrej Stojakovic, who also disappeared in this game. After back-to-back turnovers in the middle of the first half, he was pulled from the game. He only checked in for seven more minutes in the second half and made little to no impact — even on the defensive end.

“We need his athleticism and his length… I don’t care if he scores a point, I don’t. He’s going to score some points for us on some night… I’m not trying to be critical of him,” Underwood said. “His nastiness and ability to go rebound are huge for us.”

Going forward

Underwood hopes this loss can re-ignite some fire that’s been lacking in February.

The frontcourt needs to learn from Michigan’s frontcourt.

“Morez owned it, Morez got every ball,” Underwood said.

Wagler has made a reputation for himself as a player who lets the game come to him. Indeed, he did, but Michigan disturbed the flow of the game and forced a couple of bad turnovers.

“I thought that we got a lot of offensive rebounds that typically Illinois gets,” Michigan head coach Dusty May said.

During a season full of as many magical moments as there have been as many heartbreaking ones. This one is bound to be remembered.

“We’ve got to remember this feeling because two from now, there’s no more opportunities, really, we gotta take care of business,” Boswell said.

Illinois has two more regular-season games remaining.