Head coach Brady Underwood is making his first trip to the Final Four with the Illinois Fighting Illini, after they knocked the Cinderella story of the tournament, Iowa, out of the Big Dance this weekend.
Once that win had occurred, Illinois would await the winner of an anticipated matchup between the East Region’s No. 2 UConn Huskies and No. 1 overall seed, Duke Blue Devils. It was a battle of the country’s top team against coaching mastermind Dan Hurley in what became a March Madness thriller.
That’s because UConn trailed throughout the majority of the game, and by as much as 19 points at some points, making it seem their NCAA Tournament run had ended. However, Hurley’s squad kept fighting back in the second half, chipping away at the lead and making big plays as necessary.
The biggest plays came with UConn trailing by two points with 10 seconds left in the game, as Silas DeMary Jr. and Braylon Mullins forced a half-court turnover for a Huskies steal, and then Mullins nailed a three-pointer from near the logo to snatch the victory from Duke.
Read more: UConn’s Dan Hurley Surprised by Players in Locker Room After Duke Win
After Duke attempted a full-court pass for a miracle shot with 0.4 remaining, the final buzzer signaled that Hurley and UConn had escaped with a 73-72. Soon after all the postgame interviews and celebrating on the court, they cut down the nets as East Region champions.
Meanwhile, Illinois coach Underwood revealed that he missed the dramatic game-winner in the final seconds by UConn. During his appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show,” Underwood admitted to that surprising fact with Eisen telling him, “What? You might be the only one in America!”
“Yeah, my [Sports Information Director]’s to blame,” Underwood shared, adding, “I gotta throw Derrick Burson under the bus. He’s got me doing Zooms- media Zooms. So I’m doing Zooms, and I don’t have the game on.”
He indicated that as he was participating in those media sessions in his office, various staff would “poke their heads in” to let him know Duke was winning the game, so he wasn’t watching it. He also said that after finishing his media sessions, there was a recruit on campus that he had to go meet with.
“I walk down to meet the recruit, and everybody’s just freaking out,” Underwood said. “And then I see all the highlights…I can honestly say I was not watching.”
He called it “epic” once he was able to catch up on what happened in the game, before expanding on his reactions.
“The first thing I thought of was Christian Laettner. I said that’s in the same category. And then I felt bad for [Duke head coach Jon Scheyer],” he said, later adding, “And then I think March Madness. That’s why it’s got the name Madness. Anything can happen, and everything’s crazy.”
Underwood also praised Hurley as a coach for keeping his players competitive until the end, adding, “We played them earlier in the year. We know how good they are.”
His Fighting Illini will have a chance to win their rematch on Saturday in the Final Four and send the Huskies home after they provided one of the most exciting and talked-about moments in March Madness.
Read more: UConn’s Braylon Mullins Has Strong Reaction to Game-Winning Shot vs Duke
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