Illinois coach Brad Underwood baffled by pathetic free throw shooting, soft rebounding failures vs. Texas Tech

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It was a horrible performance from third-ranked Illinois on Tuesday night against Texas Tech. Texas Tech led wire-to-wire in the 84-78 victory over Illinois.

Illinois shot well from the field against Texas Tech, hitting 50 percent of their shots, but that was about all they did well, something that head coach Brad Underwood pointed out after the game, according to Jeremy Werner of the Illini Inquirer.

“Weren’t tough enough to make free throws. Never in my lifetime have I seen 8-for-19 from free throw,” Underwood said.

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The Illini went to the line 19 times, but shot just 42 percent from the stripe. Meanwhile, Texas Tech hit 23 of 26 free throws, shooting 88 percent. Illinois lost by just six, and if they shot 80 percent from the free-throw line, Illinois would have won the game. It was not the only issue for Illinois on the night, as they struggled in the rebounding game as well.

“I’m tired of watching us get shoved. I’m tired of us giving up rebounds. It’s a one-possession game and they get three shots. We got to be better,” Underwood added. “We got to make winning plays and part of that is rebounding. We talked about it a lot for two days.”

Illinois lost the rebounding battle 43-32. The bigger issue was on the offensive glass. Texas Tech came away with 18 offensive rebounds, while Illinois had just ten in the game. Part of the rebounding issue is the fact that David Mirkovic is still out of the lineup after offseason foot surgery. That is something else Underwood pointed out.

“We can’t be reliant on Mirk when he comes back to rebound. We got to be better than that,” Underwood said.

Tomislav Ivisic led the way in rebounding, but had just six rebounds. Meanwhile, Jamichael Stillwell dominated the glass for Texas Tech. He came away with 13 rebounds in the game, including six on the offensive glass.

Illinois looks to bounce back from their loss on Friday when they host Sam Houston.

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