Illinois coach Brad Underwood's scout on Jordan Gainey: 'He's not a (ball) handler.'

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Brad Underwood’s scout couldn’t have been more wrong. The Illinois coach was in the huddle during a timeout midway through the second half during against No. 1 Tennessee Saturday when the FOX broadcast caught him breaking down Jordan Gainey.

“We’re too soft at that end,” Underwood told his players. “We got to be tougher. That whole thing is Gainey. Get there, get over the top of that screen. Get over the top. Beat him to it.

“He’s not a (ball) handler. He’s not comfortable doing that.”

With 5.7 seconds left and the game tied at State Farm Center, the ball was in Gainey’s hand and he was perfectly comfortable with it. He inbounded to Igor Milicic who passed it back, setting up Gainey to go the length of the floor, finishing through traffic with a layup off the glass for a 66-64 win at the buzzer. 

JORDAN GAINEY STONES. TENNESSEE BEATS ILLINOIS AT THE BUZZER. 🍊 pic.twitter.com/SOxJRm1j3N

— College Basketball Content (@CBBcontent) December 15, 2024

Gainey scored a game-high 23 points to lead Tennessee (10-0), helping fill the void left by the foul trouble that sidelined Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler most of the second half. 

Gainey played 18 minutes in the second half, mostly at point guard, without committing a turnover. He scored 18 points after halting on 6-for-10 shooting from the floor, including 3-for-5 at the 3-point line and 3-for-3 at the foul line. And he saved his best for last.

“I just saw my defender keep backing up,” Gainey said, “and he just kept backing up, and he was just dead in the water. And it was too late for them to send a double (team) because probably two seconds left, I was already at the rim at that point. We executed it perfectly.”

Gainey said it’s a play the Vols work on consistently in practice, working on last-second shots in late-game scenarios. 

He got the ball back from Milicic near the Illinois foul line, took two dribbles to get to midcourt, then another to get to the top of the key on Tennessee’s end. He went left with the ball in his hand, using a screen from Cade Phillips at the foul line, then switched to his right and finished with a scoop under the rim, falling to the baseline and sliding into the goal. 

“I looked through the hoop and saw it rattling up there,” Gainey said. “And then it finally went through it and I saw my teammates coming … my teammates ran it perfectly and executed it.”

Rick Barnes: ‘That play has been around a long time’

Forget a play that took 5.7 seconds. Rick Barnes said it was a play that he picked up closer to 50 years ago. 

Barnes during his postgame press conference went back to 1980, when he was early in his career as an assistant at George Mason. The Patriots coaching staff decided to put out a newsletter in the Washington D.C. area to supplement a lacking recruiting budget and “to try to get George Mason on the map.”

“And so I worked with our SID, and we came up with a segment of it where we were going to call it ‘Coach’s Corner,’” Barnes said, “where we want to ask different coaches around the D.C. area or wherever, to put together their favorite play.”

The first time Barnes went out, he ended up at DeMatha Catholic High School, talking to the legendary Morgan Wootten. Wootten coached high school basketball for over 40 years, won nearly 1,300 games, claimed five national championships and ended up in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. 

All Barnes had to do was ask.

“I said, ‘Coach, you’ve been doing this a long time,’” Barnes said. “‘I need you to give me your favorite play.’ And he said, ‘okay,’ and he gave it to me. That’s the play we ran today.”

The play started with Milicic lined up in front of Jahmai Mashack and Darlinstone Dubar near midcourt, facing Gainey at the other end on the inbound. Mashack ran out first toward Gainey, then Dubar, then Milicic. 

Milcic caught the ball in front of the Illinois bench and immediately passed it back as Gainey hit full stride. 

“That play has been around a long time,” Barnes said, “but Morgan, God, rest his soul, it was his play and the first one we put in that newsletter that year.”