Another dismal offensive performance and a second straight second-round exit from the NCAA Tournament couldn’t stop Illinois from striking a defiant pose afterward.
After bowing out with a 68-53 loss to Houston on Sunday at PPG Paints Arena, departing Illinois guard Trent Frazier defended the program from Twitter trolls and media critics.
“First I want to say, I read Twitter,” Frazier said “Coach tells us to stay off Twitter, but I read the stories, what everyone says about us.
“I just want to say, unbelievable (season) from this team. No one knows how hard this season has been for us. Coach said in the locker room, from injuries to COVID, from my (pink eye), we’ve been all over the place. Especially lately, Jake (Grandison) being out, he was huge for us late in the season. No one knows how hard this team has come.”
It was a difficult journey for the Illini, but it ended in disappointing fashion. And now it’s over and the road forward is less clear.
All-America center Kofi Cockburn is likely to leave for a chance to play in the NBA, leaving coach Brad Underwood to rebuild around a couple of freshmen in Luke Goode and RJ Melendez. Sophomore Andre Curbelo was benched with six minutes left in the first half and never returned, and it would surprise no one if the flashy point guard Illini fans either love or hate enters the transfer portal.
Goode and Melendez provided a brief spark off the bench for the Illini, but the team shot 34% from the field (17-for-50), committed 17 turnovers and once again was fortunate to have a chance in the second half after a brutal start.
No. 5 seed Houston (31-5) goes on to its third straight Sweet 16 to play the Arizona-TCU winner. The fourth-seeded Illini finished 23-10 and won a share of the Big Ten regular-season title, but the season will be remembered for another disheartening ending.
Or maybe not.
Underwood kept going back to the conference title, suggesting it was as important as a second straight NCAA Tournament flop.
The Illini barely survived 13th-seeded Chattanooga in the first round and came out Sunday looking as though they learned absolutely nothing from the experience.
Cockburn scored 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting in what’s expected to be his final college game. He was the only Illini player in double figures.
“Illinois, what you see is what you get,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “There is really nothing tricky about them. They throw the ball to Kofi. We have always taken pride on how we defend the post.”
Guards Alfonso Plummer, Frazier and Curbelo shot a combined 4-for-21. Curbelo went scoreless and committed two turnovers before Underwood had seen enough. Underwood called it a “coach’s decision,” declining to elaborate.
Even before the game Curbelo was complaining to officials, which Underwood said was about equipment the guard was told to remove.
Curbelo had a black sleeve on his right leg during pregame warm-ups and left for the locker room before player introductions. When he came back out, the sleeve was off.
The Illini started out shooting 4-for-19 and 1-for-9 on 3-pointers, missing eight consecutive shots before Cockburn’s layup with 4:33 left in the first half. A pair of 3s by Goode, a driving layup by Melendez and a buzzer-beating 3 by Frazier kept them in the game, trailing 30-26 at halftime.
Illinois seemed poised for another late comeback like Friday’s when Melendez ran downcourt for an uncontested slam with 8:40 remaining to pull them within four at 46-42.
But Melendez was hit with a head-scratching technical for briefly hanging on the rim, and the Cougars converted the free throw as the crowd erupted in protest.
Underwood called it a momentum changer that the official told him was wrong.
“He told me he never should’ve called it, but in the moment he calls it,” Underwood said. “Maybe it’s personal. I don’t know. But for that play to be called like that when the kid has a full head of steam going 100 miles an hour, and we all talk about safety and well-being of student-athletes? C’mon.
“And to kill momentum like that? Horrible.”
A three-point play by Cockburn made it a two-point game with eight minutes left, but every time the Illini got close, Houston answered.
The Cougars grabbed a nine-point lead before a four-point play by Plummer with 4:52 remaining gave the Illini hope again.
But the momentum was short-lived. Cougars guard Jamal Shead hit a jumper, and Fabian White Jr. made a great play on a ball headed out of bounds, saving it and passing to Taze Moore in one fell swoop for a layup to make it a nine-point game again.
It was all downhill from there for the Illini, who missed their next four 3-point attempts to end the suspense. Illinois finished 6-for-22 from beyond the arc. Moore led Houston with 21 points.
Underwood finished his news conference by going back to the well.
“We won a Big Ten championship,” he said. “I mean, they’re going to hang a banner. We’re going to get a ring. And it’s a Big Ten championship. We happened to have fewer points than our opponent today, and that happens.”
He then went through a litany of excuses, including Grandison’s shoulder injury, Frazier’s bout with pink eye and losing practice time and players to the pandemic.
It’s always something.
“Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way,” he said. “And you don’t get the breaks you need. Last year we were blessed.”
The Illini will be back again. They have enough talent to make another run in 2023.
But hopefully next year’s players learn two valuable lessons from this year’s ending:
Shoot better in the NCAA Tournament. And stay off of Twitter.
