WATCH: Brad Underwood receives second technical foul, ejected against Ohio State
Trailing by a dozen in the second half to Ohio State, Illinois head coach Brad Underwood was called for his first technical foul for arguing with the officiating crew. It doesn’t take a lip reader to know the four letter words that came out of the Fighting Illini coaches mouth.
The second, which forced Underwood’s ejection was on an offense foul that he certainly didn’t agree with. He fired up the crowd on his way out after his assistant coaches had to hold him back
Here is another angle.
The tension was building up for several minutes following the first technical. It was almost inevitable he was going to explode on the officials and receive his second, much to the detriment of his team and players. Illinois is now without their head coach and are still fighting to get back into this game. You can catch the exciting ending between the two ranked B1G foes live on FS1.
Ohio State reveals status of EJ Liddell ahead of top-25 matchup
The Ohio State Buckeyes officially revealed the status of their star forward, E.J. Liddellon Thursday night, ahead of their top-25 matchup with the Illinois Fighting Illini. Liddell is in the starting lineup against Illinois, per Lettermen Row’s Spencer Holbrook.
Earlier on Thursday, Ohio State announced Liddell would be questionable for the game as he recovered from the flu. Tonight’s matchup between Liddell and Illinois big man Kofi Cockburn is one of the most anticipated matchups of the year.
Liddell is a leading candidate for Big Ten Player of the Year and with good reason, he’s one of the best players in America. This year, he’s averaging 19.5 points per game, 7.6rebounds per game, 2.8 assists per game, and 2.5 blocks per game for the Buckeyes.
Earlier this season, Liddell couldn’t miss against the Northwestern Wildcats. He was torching the nets early and he rode that all the way to a career-high of 34 points. His hot shooting was a big reason the Buckeyes were able to come out on top against Northwestern, 95-87.
Ohio State is two games back of first place in the Big Ten standings — and 1.5 games behind third-place Illinois. Thursday night’s game could shake up the standings even more, and depending on Liddell’s status, the Buckeyes could be without their best player.
Ohio State is 17-7 overall and 10-5 in Big Ten action this year. Tip-off between the Buckeyes and the Fighting Illini is coming up Thursday in Champaign at 9 p.m. ET on FS1. Illinois will also be missing some players after announcing multiple reserves will miss the conference showdown.