Illinois HC Brad Underwood's snarky jab about Kasparas Jakucionis' foul trouble vs. MSU

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In a clash of two of the best teams in the Big Ten, Illinois basketball fell just short against Michigan State 80-78 in a tightly contested battle. Despite a hot start to the game, Illinois ran into some foul trouble that hurt it down the stretch and allowed Michigan State to steal the win in the final minutes.

The foul trouble became a massive story in the second half when Illinois star Kasparas Jakucionis continued to be forced to sit on the bench due to foul trouble. He eventually fouled out after playing just nine minutes during the game, leaving the Illini without its best player for most of the day.

After the game, Illinois head coach Brad Underwood wasn’t happy with the officiating in East Lansing, via Derek Piper of 247 Sports.

“If anyone in here expected anything different… The best player in the game played 8 minutes,” Underwood said, per Piper. “You saw a little bit of what he could do when he was in the game. Controlling the game with pick n rolls & passes. But today, he didn’t get to play.”

Jakucionis’ fourth foul is the primary one that Illinois fans will have a problem with. He picked up number four with just over 16 minutes to go in the game on a loose ball where it did not look like he fouled anybody, forcing him to sit on the bench for an extended period of time.

All five of Kasparas Jakucionis' fouls today pic.twitter.com/PxCU6GIKLr

— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) January 19, 2025

After the game, even Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo acknowledged that the foul trouble on Jakucionis had a huge impact on the game and on Illinois, according to Emmett Matasovsky of Spartan Shadows.

“Brad Underwood is a good coach,” Izzo said, per Matasovsky. “The scary thing is they did that without Jakucionis. We got some challenges to face still.”

This is a painful loss for this Illinois basketball team, who now drops to 5-3 in conference play while Michigan State stays unbeaten against Big Ten competition. It will now be very tough for Illinois to come back and collect the regular season title in the league, but it has shown over the course of the season that it will be a tough out for anyone when March rolls around.

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