Not even a half-season?
And just like that, Skyy Clark — the five-star point guard who was Illinois’ highest-ranked recruit since Dee Brown — is leaving Champaign in the rearview?
“This decision has nothing to do with basketball, but it does have everything to do with prioritizing myself and my family’s well-being,” he shared Friday via social media. “For personal reasons, I need to step away from basketball for the time being — putting myself and my family first.”
For hours before Clark posted that, however, word that his orange-and-blue days might be over blew through Illini country like a tornado.
Fairly or not, some fans were quick to criticize a player for looking out for No. 1 in this fast-moving era of college sports.
Accurately or not, others were blaming Illini coach Brad Underwood for driving a player away.
I’m not doing either, certainly not until more has been learned and revealed.
Clark’s post began, “I want to start by saying I love the University of Illinois, my coaching staff, my teammates and the broader Illinois community.”
Illinois later released a statement from Underwood that referred to Clark as “still a valued member of our program.”
But it’s not hard to figure out why some minds instantly went to Underwood as this report initially spread. Last we saw him, he was blowing up in the faces of players yet again as the Illini, a disappointing 9-5 and off to a brutal 0-3 start in the Big Ten, were losing Wednesday night at Northwestern. If the team’s season could be distilled into an image, it would be of Mount Underwood erupting during a timeout while mortified players avert their eyes.
Any lip readers out there? #DaddyMad pic.twitter.com/iJziCMMI5Q
— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) January 5, 2023
It has been that kind of a season for the Illini. A bit strange. A bit uncomfortable. And at times, where their coach blowing his top is concerned, a bit overwhelming.
“We weren’t playing as hard as we can play,” Underwood said a day before a home game against Wisconsin the Illini simply can’t afford to lose. “And when I feel like I have to lead and kind of fight them, I do that. …
“I’m going to fight, and our guys know that. I’ve been that way. It wouldn’t have mattered this year, last year, the year before [that] — that’s been who I am.”
But last year and the year before that, the Illini were powering their way toward the top of the Big Ten. This time, they’re sinking like a stone. And a team whose biggest on-court weakness arguably has been inexperience at point guard might be increasingly in trouble.
Meanwhile, Underwood is screaming. Is anybody listening?
After Illinois lost badly to Penn State on Dec. 10 in Champaign, Underwood ripped into his players, telling the media it was a team with “zero” leadership. When asked specifically about newcomer Terrence Shannon Jr. — a transfer from Texas Tech — in this department, Underwood stuck out his tongue and made a derisive sound.
Before the next game, veteran Coleman Hawkins was asked how he has learned to adapt to Underwood’s — shall we say — directness.
“Just tune it out,” Hawkins told reporters.
He added: “Sometimes you stop and listen to him talk, and I’m just like, ‘No, come on, let’s just keep going.’ He’s yelling and screaming. Once he yells and screams, like, you’re sitting there listening to it [and] you’re going to think about it all the time. You’ve got to just move on from it.”
A week later, after the Illini played poorly in a victory against Alabama A&M, Matthew Mayer — a transfer from Baylor who won a national championship playing for mild-mannered coach Scott Drew — referred to “internal” problems “between the players and the coaches.” Mayer shared that he had disagreed with how hard Underwood had worked the team in practice in the days leading up to that game.
“I think where me and Coach Underwood might separate a little bit,” Mayer said, “is I have a lot of stuff wrong with my body I’m trying to work on, and he’s a big ‘everything’s mental’ guy. And I think we’re having a miscommunication on that.”
Underwood built this roster, a blend of returnees, transfers and freshmen that, to this point, doesn’t seem to operate at an NCAA Tournament level.
“It has to become about us,” he said. “It’s one of the issues that happens with new guys and young guys: It’s always about them. It becomes an individual [thing]. It’s ‘me.’ ‘I’m not playing enough.’ Or, ‘I’m not shooting it well enough.’ It’s got to become about us. And when it’s us, we’ll win.”
Until then, one only can assume there will be more moments like the one late in the first half Wednesday in Evanston, when Underwood put his face inches from Shannon’s and screamed at him so volcanically he easily would have been heard from the opposite side of Mount Vesuvius.
But is anybody really listening?
