Illinois’ Brad Underwood storms out of press conference after calling out officiating blunders

It has been a week to forget so far for Illinois Basketball. It started on Saturday as Illinois lost in overtime to Michigan State. Head coach Brad Underwood was clearly not happy with the officiating in that game, but kept calm. After a loss to Wisconsin in overtime, Underwood was indignant.

Underwood made his feelings about the officiating in the game Tuesday night, storming out of the press conference after some quick remarks, according to Scott Richey of The News-Gazette.

“We’ll send the missed out of bounds play the first play of overtime, which was egregious,” Underwood said after Tuesday’s game, speaking of sending a play to Terry Oglesby, who coordinates officials for the Big Ten.

The out-of-bounds play happened early in the first overtime, after Illinois had already blown a 12-point lead to Wisconsin in regulation, and allowed Wisconsin to take the lead. The Badgers would go on to win the game 92-90 in overtime.

“We will definitely send in the 10-second call that happened. (Wisconsin was) 5 feet from getting across halfcouft, and there’s a 10-second call and we’ve got guys who missed that,” Underwood exclaimed as his anger grew.

The Illinois coach has been critical, but diplomatic, for the most part this year when it comes to officiating. He has not been happy with how Keaton Wagler has been officiating, and also noted numerous calls he felt were wrong over the past two games. Still, the anger boiled over on Tuesday night.

“I don’t know what to do with it. I’m done talking with people. I don’t get calls (back). I’m frustrated as heck. I’m very frustrated because it changes so much from game to game. We had a guy (Tuesday) we haven’t had in two years — two years — doing a league game. Two years,” the coach finished before abruptly leaving the press conference.

The Illini have dropped two straight, all on the heels of Illinois moving into the AP Top 5 and winning 12 in a row. Meanwhile, Underwood will be looking to get his team prepared to play against Indiana on Sunday, while also hoping he is not getting a fine from the conference.

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