Illinois Coach Brad Underwood: Michigan ‘Took Belt Off, Beat Our Behind With It’

No. 3 Michigan went into Champaign on Friday night and had its way with No. 10 Illinois, and Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood knows it. “Demand it in practice. This group wants to win. They care a lot, and, so, that’s not going to be a problem. But the lesson was learned. They [Michigan] took the belt off and beat our behinds [Illinois] with it,” Underwood said about Illinois’ 84-70 loss to Michigan in his postgame press conference on Friday night. “If you like that too much, then you should probably go to the rec center and play.” Michigan out-scored Illinois by seven points in both the first and second half, while leading by as many as 21 points with 6:50 remaining in the game. The Wolverines out-rebounded the Fighting Illini, 30-24. Sophomore forward Morez Johnson Jr., who transferred to Michigan last year after spending his freshman season at Illinois, finished with 19 points and a team-high 11 rebounds for the Wolverines. The Friday night defeat was the Fighting Illini’s second consecutive loss, the prior one being a loss on the road to UCLA on Feb. 21, which saw Illinois blow a 33-10 first-half lead. Illinois is now 22-7 overall and 13-5 in Big Ten play, while Michigan is 27-2 overall and 17-1 in conference play. Michigan stands first in the Big Ten, while Illinois is fourth. The Wolverines (89.0 points per game) and Fighting Illini (84.6 points per game) are first and second in the Big Ten in scoring in that order. FOX Sports bracket forecaster Mike DeCourcy’s latest NCAA Tournament projections have Michigan as a No. 1 seed and Illinois as a No. 3 seed. Illinois has two games remaining in the regular season, those being a home matchup against Oregon on March 3 and a road matchup against Maryland on March 8 (3 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app).