If you’re an Illini fan today, you’re probably somewhere putting your feet up, basking in the glow of an epic come-from-behind football win and an iron-fisted basketball beatdown, and patting yourself on the back for a hard day’s work rooting on your favorite nationally ranked programs. Oh, and you’re undoubtedly asking yourself a question:

Who in the world is Ed Cooley?

Unless you’re a die-hard college basketball fan, you can be forgiven for scratching your head over the name. Cooley, the current coach of the Georgetown Hoyas and previously a longtime head man at Providence and Fairfield, doesn’t do a lot of business in the Midwest, or anywhere else – like, say, the NCAA Tournament – where you might have seen him often.

More to the point, what does Cooley have to do with the Illini? It’s a fair question – one that a lot of observers were asking in the wake of his postgame press conference after his Hoyas’ 82-65 win over Saint Francis on Saturday.

Ostensibly, the subject of conversation was Hoyas guard Jayden Epps and his glowing defensive performance against the Red Flash, but it was the Illini (and, by implication, coach Brad Underwood and his staff) who wound up catching strays from 700 miles away.

Here’s a quick sound bite:

You may remember that Epps – a top high school prospect out of Norfolk, Virginia, a few years back – signed with Illinois and played his freshman season in Champaign. Had a pretty good year, too: averages of 9.5 points and 1.5 assists in 31 games, including 11 starts. But Epps bounced out of Illinois through the transfer portal – and wasn’t the first or last in the Underwood era – and landed at Georgetown.

Perhaps Cooley felt Epps was underappreciated in Champaign and thought he was defending his guy. Maybe he even thought he had been mistreated. But the message wasn’t a response or reaction – it was delivered unprompted, without further context or explanation. it was a calculated shot wrapped in an offhanded remark inside a monumentally dumb decision. Neither Cooley nor Epps gained anything from the comment. It just came off as sour grapes.

Cooley must have recognized as much – or been instructed by an administrator that he had better – because he quickly apologized for the indiscretion. Sort of:

“My comment today was said in jest with one of my players, but I admit it was a poor choice of words,” Cooley posted on his X social media account. “I have the utmost respect for the University of Illinois, its men’s basketball program, coaches and players.”

For his part, Underwood blew off the beef when asked about Cooley’s comments in the postgame presser following Illinois’ 87-40 shellacking of Maryland Eastern Shore.

“My guys told me about it,” Underwood said. “That’s not even worth wasting my time on. I don’t know what he’s referencing that about. Jayden had a productive freshman year here. But I’m not getting into all that. I’ll let our fans have some fun with that, which I’m sure they probably are. But I’ve got Arkansas Little Rock to worry about and Arkansas to worry about and Northwestern to worry about and everybody else to worry about. I mean, I don’t read [the media’s] stuff, I’m sure as heck not gonna read his.”

Illini fans will surely have less tolerance and longer memories for this sort of thing than Underwood himself, so of course we’re rooting for an Illinois-Georgetown NCAA Tournament matchup. Because what’s March Madness without a little extra chaos?

Instant Analysis: Illinois Basketball Dominates Maryland Eastern Shore 87-40

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Associated Press

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Will Riley scored his 19 points in the second half and No. 25 Illinois beat Maryland Eastern Shore 87-40 on Saturday.

Kylan Boswell added 13 points, Tomislav Ivisic had 11 and Morez Johnson Jr. finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Illini (4-1), who shot 25% (10 for 40) from 3-point range but committed just nine turnovers.

Tre White grabbed 11 rebounds and Kasparas Jakucionis seven for Illinois, which outrebounded the Hawks 59-38.

Jalen Ware scored 10 points and Christopher Flippin had 10 rebounds for Maryland Eastern Shore (2-6), which had its lowest point total of the season. The team’s previous low came in 102-63 loss to Vanderbilt on Nov. 4.

Illinois is unbeaten in four home games. Maryland Eastern Shore is winless in six road games.

Takeaways

Illinois: Coming off a 100-87 loss Wednesday to No. 8 Alabama, the Illini had no trouble dominating the overmatched Hawks. They led 35-15 at halftime and extended the lead to as many as 52 points in the second half.

Maryland Eastern Shore: The Hawks couldn’t match Illinois’ height and depth and were slowed by 15 turnovers.

Key moment

After struggling at the start of the game, the Illini went on a 17-0 run over a seven-minute stretch to move in front 25-8 with 5:15 to go in the first half.

Key stat

Maryland Eastern Shore struggled from the field, shooting 22% (15 for 68), including 5 for 20 on 3-pointers.

Up next

Illinois hosts Little Rock on Monday. Maryland Eastern Shore plays at No. 20 Arkansas on Monday.

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The women’s Illinois basketball team continued to impress on Friday night with another big win.

Coming into the game, the Illini were 4-0 and had already beaten a top-25 program in Florida State and a good team in Marquette. We were on top of the world.

It would be understandable for a letdown game to happen. Illinois didn’t let it happen, though. We came out of the gates firing, and Oregon State didn’t have answers.

Illinois played well in both halves. We took a 10-point lead into the halftime locker room and quickly expanded on that lead in the third quarter. By the game’s end, Illinois managed to secure an 85-66 win over Oregon State.

Coming into the game on Friday night, Illinois has been able to hold their own when it comes to the rebounding department. But this wasn’t an easy matchup, as Oregon State is a good rebounding team as well.

Despite Oregon State having some great size, the Illini were tough on the boards. We were able to pull down rebounds at a rate that I was impressed with considering the opposing team had a 6-foot-7 center starting.

Illinois finished the game pulling down 36 rebounds compared to Oregon State’s 34 rebounds. Five of the 36 rebounds were on the offensive glass too, but we didn’t have a ton of opportunities considering the team shot 54.7% from the field.

The thing that impressed me the most about Illinois’ rebounding ability on Friday night was the size differential. Oregon State trotted out a 6-foot-7 center and a 6-foot-5 forward. We limited those two players to just 12 rebounds in 42 minutes of game action.

I think a big part of the great rebounding effort on the part of Illinois is the fact our frontcourt is strong and athletic. It is hard to move Kendall Bostic off her spot, and she does a great job boxing out. The same can be said for Brynn Shoup-Hill. Both players were quicker than anything Oregon State had in the frontcourt too.