Tennessee wins because he is lacking important elements………

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Brad Underwood has been concentrating on one thing for the majority of the past week or so.

Defense and rebounding would be the cornerstones of the Illinois men’s basketball team’s success in its tough three

games starting in December away from the cozy confines of State Farm Center: two genuine road games and a top-

tier neutral-site battle.

Would the defense of the Illini move? That’s the query Underwood put out. Given that the season began with six

straight home games, it was a question he was unsure how to answer.

East Coast defense and rebounding made their way there. Overstuffed suitcases containing both. Between Tuesday’s

Top 25 triumph against No. 11 Florida Atlantic and Saturday’s Top 25 matchup at No. 17 Tennessee, and a

commanding Big Ten road victory at Rutgers, a few of those bags were obviously lost.

Either was simply insufficient. In front of 21,678 spectators at Thompson-Boiling Arena, which was packed out,

Tennessee defeated the Illini 86-79 thanks to a combination of their rebounding advantage and guard Dalton

Knecht’s explosive second-half play.

Illinois guard Quincy Guerrier declared, “When we’re locked in, especially on the scouting report and with

rebounding, we can beat the best team in the country.” “Anyone can beat us if we’re not locked in and rebounding.”

For the next game, we must improve.

Of course, disappointment exists. This was not the game we came here to win. We are aware of the improvements we

need to make in order to succeed in such games.

Tennessee (6-3) had a plus-nine rebounding advantage in the end. The majority of that occurred in the second half,

when the Vols turned an Illinois 36-34 lead at halftime into a lead they would capture and hold for the next 15 and a

half minutes.

The bulk of Knecht’s team-high 21-point performance, or 13 points in the second half, came early in Tennessee’s

comeback.

Stops on defense were crucial. The dynamic 6-foot-6 guard from Northern Colorado was one of the main draws in

the transfer portal this winter, and Illinois (7-2) didn’t do enough to stop him.

Underwood remarked, “Let’s be real, Dalton’s really good.” “Next year, he plans to participate in a different league.

Next, you introduce (Santiago) Vescovi and his spectacular shot that blasted out of the corner. Those men are

experienced. Those men are elderly. It wasn’t anything they did as much as just really good players making good

shots.

“I felt we did a good job of protecting them. Dalton gave Terrence (Shannon Jr.) a couple hard shots. Second-chance

points on the glass was the game. clumsily handling the ball and lacking ball toughness. Several of the things that

provided them with second chances.

The Illinois defeat was primarily Guerrier’s fault for rebounding. It makes sense given how much importance

Underwood takes on that component of the game and the challenge he set for his squad last month after they didn’t

put up the kind of effort he expected to see at the beginning of the season.

Tennessee’s advantage over the Illini came from a combination of physicality and mental errors.

We’re okay, Underwood declared. “We’re excellent. It’s a very high ceiling here. This group is entirely new. We are

excellent. We have very high moral standards. Our ceiling is very beautiful. It’s not even close to being touched, in

my opinion.

The difficulty is in consistently matching the offensive prowess against FAU with the defense it played at Rutgers.

The former is the more significant.

We’re getting ready for it, Guerrier remarked. Although we felt that we were better prepared now than we were

before FAU and Rutgers, our preparedness was still good. We need to be more stern and more diligent with the

scouting report. We have excellent defensive play. We ought to identify with that since we are aware of it. That will

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!