NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - ILLINOIS VS ARKANSAS

March 16, 2023

Brad Underwood

RJ Melendez

Terrence Shannon, Jr.

Wells Fargo Arena

Illinois Fighting Illini

Media Conference

Arkansas 73, Illinois 63

THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Coach Brad Underwood and Terrence Shannon, Jr., RJ Melendez.

Coach if you would like to give us an opening statement.

BRAD UNDERWOOD: My hat's off to Arkansas. They were better today and they were assertive early. I thought their defense early was the difference. We had a hard time getting into offense, and then every time we made a run we missed a layup, we turned it over, or missed free throws.

We had opportunity. I love our team. They fought. They never hung their head. They never quit. We forget that we're one of the youngest teams in the Power Five. We forget we lost so much from the last couple teams.

So to put a group together and have them fight and compete speaks volumes to these young guys and their character. You know, we knew there through would be ups and downs. The guy to my right here, RJ Melendez, probably went through one of most interesting seasons, and to see him finish it off today was unbelievable.

He showed his ability and what he's going to be in the future.

Terrence came in and had an All-League year, no doubt about that.

But turnovers were the key. Give Arkansas the credit. The one thing that was probably the most disappointing things was three offensive rebounds for us. Arkansas deserves the credit. They played better than we did today.

Q. Brad and also Terrence, you wanted it to be fun. You said that, a few times players said that. Also, kind of free and easy. It looked more like difficult, kind of strained or hard for much of the game. Are you disappointed with how you guys came out? What the energy level was? The compete level and all that?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: I think the one thing that you, again, give Arkansas some credit. The one thing we fought to do all year is get started. I think we went through the first three possessions and didn't run anything, and all of the sudden there are live-ball turnovers and you're behind.

It becomes -- when you're playing uphill that quickly and you do that in the NCAA Tournament it's a challenge. I thought we prepared very well. I thought we had good practices.

But, again, there's value in having been out there. We threw a lot of guys out there, played a lot of freshmen, as they did, but we didn't execute very well and got off to a tough start because of that.

TERRENCE SHANNON: He pretty much said it all. I mean, we -- it's always disappointing when you lose, but, I mean, we could have got out to a better start, like he said.

We didn't run our plays the first couple possessions. But, like he said again, it's been like that all year. We just didn't find a way to start and play the full game.

Q. For RJ and Terrence, obviously you guys have talked about how the season has had its share of ups and downs. What are you guys going to learn from the season to take forward?

RJ MELENDEZ: For future seasons we just gotta not make these mistakes again, because it cost us last year as well. Simple mistakes. A lot of turnovers in the first half. We can't let that happen, and we just gotta make sure we always stay connected as a team.

Like never let go of our emotions. Just keep 'em in the game and make sure we listen to Coach and everything he says, because he has a purpose for every single play, and we didn't run the first three plays like he says.

It's our fault, kinda because he's calling them and we're not listening to him or we're not doing 'em.

So we gotta be better, listen better, and be mentally tougher.

TERRENCE SHANNON: Something I can learn -- something we can learn as a team is probably doing a better job of following Coach's game plan. Throughout the year we had a lot of games where the Coach would tell us what the other team would do, and they would do it and it would be because of our mistakes.

So just following the game plan better is something that I've learned -- that we learned a lot this year as a team.

Q. Brad, you mentioned the turnover within the roster. How important is it to you to have continuity going forward, and the guys that played today will be with you going forward?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: In today's world you have very little control over that. We hope so. I want everybody in that locker room back.

But, again, yeah. I mean, it's -- there's -- we'll have conversations and we'll hope that everybody is back. If they do, we're going to be one of the top teams in the country.

But, you know, it's a process, and everybody has to understand the process. When they don't understand the process, they transfer.

So if they do, getting guys like Terrence who become All-League, Alfonso Plummer er last year, Matt Plummer, All-League. We will go find guys. We hope we don't have to do that very often, because we got a couple of guys that are damn good players and guys that have grown a bunch and hope they're all back.

Q. Coach, what did you think of the pace of the game? Would you have like it to have been slower?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Absolutely not. We're good in transition. These two guys right here are awesome in transition. You've got to make good decisions when you play fast.

I enjoyed the pace. You can't turn it over 17 times with that pace, and, yet, we've got to find that defining moment when, okay, it's not there; now you gotta run something.

But, you know, half-court execution hasn't been a strong suit all year. It's one of the areas that we really have to grow in as a group and as a team and as a program. We went from one of the most efficient teams in college basketball the last three years to one that's struggled in the half-court this year, so the pace was great for us.

Q. Coach, you talked about being more efficient offensively. If you need to go into -- losing guys like Matt you're going to need to fill up roster spots. What are you going to look for to fix that wound to improve?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: We have signed some guys we feel really good about. I think there is no doubt we finished last in the Big Ten in shooting from the three-point line. We were not a very good shooting team and that becomes a must.

We will continue to evaluate. We probably need some depth up front and some pieces there, but we will figure all that out as we go. And we like the young people we have signed and have them coming into our program. We will continue to go find -- we've got a great staff and we will continue to go find rock stars in the portal like we have the last two years.

Q. Brad, what did you see from RJ when he took the game over there midway point in the second half, 8-0 run? And RJ, what were you feeling in that moment?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: No offense to RJ, but the RJ we were going to get all year long, and that's meant to be funny, RJ. I'm so proud of this young man. I am. Only he knows the true struggle that he's had. It's been real. Everybody has talked about it. He's felt it.

He's an elite shooter. He's an elite player. To gain that confidence, I hope this is a springboard for him into what becomes a great, great off-season, with Fletch and then makes that jump.

You know, when you become a junior you're familiar with everything, and then you're confident, to end it like he did today, that was pretty special and I couldn't be happier. I couldn't be more proud. I've got a lot of really positive things going with RJ because he's -- we talk all the time. When you have a speed bump in life you always come out better on the other side, and that was evident today.

Q. You guys were describing, you know, breakdowns, essentially, whether it's slow starts or not running stuff, not listening, one of the players said. It's March, high stakes, big opportunity. Can anybody take a stab at why? What was the problem? Why was it like that?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: I think it's one of the real inconsistencies of a new team. I think it's -- partly of a young team. I think anytime you're seven, eight, nine, ten seed you have probably had a lot of that, inconsistencies and finding that.

We were high volume, high octane early and turning the ball over 20 times a game, and not very much floor balance.

I think there's a variety of reasons numerically and analytically that that happened, but let's not forget there are a lot of new faces in that locker room, and team chemistry -- these are wonderful young guys, and team chemistry isn't built in a day.

It takes a little bit of time. I'm happy the places we've gotten to and the things we've accomplished. But, again, there was -- there were some challenges and some shortcomings and teams didn't guard us at the three-point line, and teams take other things away, and all those manifest themselves into some complications that you have to deal with.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.