Brad Underwood on Big Ten title win: 'We talked at halftime that we have to ride Terrence Shannon Jr., Marcus Domask

Illinois is the champion of the Big Ten Tournament after their 93-87 victory over Wisconsin on Sunday. It came off the backs of a tremendous effort from two of their stars who led a great team for the Fighting Illini.

Brad Underwood spoke about his team’s win in Minneapolis during his postgame conversation with CBS’ Tracy Wolfson. He said that their focus was to get the ball to Terrence Shannon Jr. and Marcus Domask and, since the two combined for 60 points, they clearly did a great job of it.

“That duo has carried us all year. We talked at halftime that we have to ride those two,” said Underwood. “We had to get them more shots, we had to get them more opportunities. Those two guys were elite. They do what they do and then we made enough stops when we had to.”

“My hats off to that Wisconsin team. They were terrific,” Underwood said.

Shannon Jr. (34 points) and Domask (26 points, eight assists, seven rebounds) are Illinois’ top producers. Still, as a unit, the Fighting Illini are more than just them as Underwood knows.

“I’ve said all along – this is the most connected team I’ve ever coached,” said Underwood. “They’re connected, they’re great individuals, their character’s high. They’ve always bought in. The veterans accepted the new guys in their roles.”

“Couldn’t be prouder, couldn’t be more happy,” Underwood said.

Now, with that conference title crown on their resumé, Illinois will enter the NCAA Tournament at 26-8. It’s the kind of high note that teams want to be entering March Madness on, especially considering what Underwood thinks they’ve done as of late.

“We’re playing great. We’re playing great,” Underwood said.

“We had the one home loss to Purdue, we had our opportunities. But we went on the road, won two of our last three,” said Underwood. “To come here and beat the best teams in college basketball? I feel great.”

Underwood unlocks extension, bonuses with Big Ten Tournament title

Illinois’ Brad Underwood is set to capitalize financially on his team’s success in this year’s Big Ten Basketball Tournament, unlocking a number of bonuses.

According to USA TODAY’s Steve Berkowitz, Underwood will get $50,000 for winning the tournament title, as well as $50,000 for unlocking an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Perhaps more importantly, the automatic NCAA Tournament bid also triggers an automatic one-year contract extension for Underwood at his base salary rate of $5.3 million. It is fully guaranteed.

Brad Underwood’s contract will now take him through the 2029-30 season.