Illini's Close Calls: Postseason Challenges

0:00On March 9th, the Illinois Fighting Illini wrapped up their 2025-26 regular season with a strong 24 wins and 7 losses overall including 15 wins and 5 losses in Big Ten Play. Despite the impressive mark, many say the team under-achieved by dropping 4 out of 5 conference losses in one possession games. Those tight defeats often stem from late game mistakes like fumbling leads against Wisconsin and Michigan State, or letting UCLA pull off a huge. Come back, player heirs, such as bad rebounds, and coaching decisions played a role in several collapses. Coach Brad Underwood pushed back hard on talk of closing struggles, dismissing it outright, and pointing to games where his team pulled away late, like the win at Purdue and the finale against Maryland. Still, Illinois has zero wins in one possession games this season, highlighting real issues in crunch time against even weaker opponents like Maryland. These experiences could help in a postseason, but without owning the flaws, fixing them might prove tough

1:03as the Illini chase deeper runs.