From: Will Leitch
To: Tommy Craggs
So, if you’ll forgive me, after the biggest win of the Brad Underwood era (a category without much competition), I’d like to talk briefly about this:
I like to see people happy, and those are some happy people. That win was a longtime coming. Their dancing isn’t all that different, all told, than what I was doing after Illinois beat Maryland last weekend. I’ve watched every one of these stupid games, these 14 losses before February, and I needed to blow off some giddy steam myself.
It still… maybe looks a bit odd? Not the players going nuts, but Underwood himself, skipping around as his team makes it rain on his Matt Foley suit. We don’t see him relaxed often, so I suppose it’s reassuring to know that he is at least capable of smiling. But a hardass, usually too-hardass, coach that goofy after a win that brings his team to 6-14 can’t help but darken a little part of this cranky old man Illini fan’s soul. Is this how far we have fallen? Are we rushing the court if we beat Rutgers now? It’s possible we are? I’m kidding myself: We really have fallen that far.
That said: That second half was more thrilling, and more inspiring, and more impressive than the Minnesota blowout. It was the first time we truly saw them, on the road, take control of a game — for the signature Underwood relentlessness at last take hold. I’m not sure it’s going to lead to any more wins in the next week or so, and that Michigan State game (which I’ll be in Champaign for) could be a gruesome watch. But that does feel like the shape this will take, when it happens, if it happens: Lead guards creating, big dudes knocking it around underneath, wings able to drain one when open or cut to the basket when they overpursue. And that overall aggressiveness that makes every opponent grumble when they see you on the schedule. I don’t know if it’s going to work. But for the first time, I see how it might work. With only six wins to cheer for, I’ll take what I can get.