Good Morning, Illini Nation: Defensive focus | Sports | news-gazette.com – News-Gazette
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Updated: October 23, 2022 @ 10:19 am
College/Prep Sports Reporter
Scott Richey is a reporter covering college basketball at The News-Gazette. His email is srichey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).
Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team:
Believe it or not, Illinois’ defense was ahead of its offense as practices began for the 2022-23 season. “Way ahead,” according to coach Brad Underwood.
That doesn’t exactly make the Illini unique. Most coaches would probably say the same thing about their teams at this point of the season. That Underwood had his team focusing almost exclusively on the defensive end throughout summer workouts only furthered their progression at that end of the court.
“I’ve been really pleased defensively,” Underwood said. “We’re still learning because of our youth. About 95 percent of the mistakes we make are because of a lack of communication. Not talking. It’s one of the great challenges with freshmen is getting those guys to communicate.
Our mistakes are happening there, but they’re getting better. They’re understanding our terminology. They’re understanding our positioning. I think the game is starting to slow down a little bit for them. There’s still tons of room for improvement, but I like where we’re at and I love the potential for this team on the defensive end with our length, our speed.”
Scott Richey is a reporter covering college basketball at The News-Gazette. His email is srichey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).
Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Il…
Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Il…
Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Il…
Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Il…
Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Il…
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