Brad Underwood draws technical foul in first half of Nebraska-Illinois game

Illinois head coach Brad Underwood has been known to lose his temper from time to time. And on Sunday evening against Nebraska, he was furious over a play in which he thought one of his players got bumped driving to the hoop. Officials decided to not call a foul and that set the Illinois head coach off.

Illinois' Brad Underwood is T'd up during this play after a foul wasn't called on the other end. pic.twitter.com/r9KkURJOmL

— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 4, 2024

If you didn’t get to see the play that Underwood was angry about. The clip of that is below.

The call that Underwood believes should've been a foul called on Nebraska giving TSJ a bump pic.twitter.com/CESWRdUE5e

— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 4, 2024

With 6:10 remaining in the first half, Nebraska led Illinois 26-20. The bump above seemed to be relatively minor and it’s tough to understand why Underwood would even be upset enough to get a technical foul.

The Cornhuskers’ sharpshooter Keisei Tominaga already has 15 points, connecting on all three of his shots from beyond-the-arc. And he’s also hit five of his seven shots from the field. He’s been one of the best shooters in the nation the past two years and Illinois is finding that out the hard way on Sunday evening. The Fighting Illini battled back and cut the Huskers lead to one with 4:20 left in the first half.

Nebraska led the game 36-34 at halftime. Tominaga led all scorers with 15 points in the first half. Illinois had a number of players chip in with Marcus Domask (10 points), Coleman Hawkins (nine points), and Terrence Shannon, Jr. (eight points) all stuffing the stat sheet. Shannon had one of the highlights, a strong dunk on a breakaway.

Illinois outrebounded Nebraska in the first half, 21-14. The Fighting Illini wasted little time getting to work after halftime with a 6-0 run to start the second half. They stretched their lead to 47-40 with 16 minutes remaining in the game. With 15:39 remaining, Illinois had outscored Nebraska 13-4 at the start of the second half.

With just under 13 minutes remaining, Nebraska had connected on 9 of their 19 three-point attempts (47.4%).

Illinois currently sits at 16-5 overall and 7-3 in the Big Ten Conference. Nebraska currently sits at 16-6 overall and 6-5 overall. Illinois had won four of their last five games coming into Sunday’s matchup, with their only loss coming in overtime against Northwestern. Nebraska was coming off a huge 80-72 overtime win over the Wisconsin Badgers. Coming into Sunday, they had won three of their last four games.