Illinois basketball refused to shake hands with Wisconsin: Brad Underwood explains

After the Wisconsin Badgers won a wire-to-wire lopsided game over the Ilinois Fighting Illini 95-74, Illinois head coach Brad Underwood made his way past the scorer's table to Greg Gard and was very animated. He then turned around and walked away as his team refused to shake hands with Wisconsin. It was a weird exchange not only noticed in person but also shown on the broadcast. Leaving fans to wonder, what happened? Or maybe more pessimistically, "how petty." Watch the video of the exchange:

Brad Underwood says that his Illinois has been battling illness and didn't want to share it with handshakes

After the game, Underwood said that he went to Greg Gard after the game to explain that his team had been battling sickness and that he didn't want to do the handshakes for that reason. That exchange at the scorer's table between him and Gard was his way of telling Gard about it. You can see Gard realizes what he's saying at a certain point and gives a thumbs up.

"At the end of the day, we don't have many healthy bodies. Tommy (Ivisic) didn't make the trip with us, he drove up before the game because he said he wanted to try to play. Jake Davis got sick right after pre-game said he wanted to try to start but did not even join us at half-time, he was in the restroom. That's why we didn't shake hands with them after the game, they don't need this. In 38 years I've never seen anything like what's gone through our team. "

Brad Underwood

Therefore, Underwood dismisses any speculation that they didn't shake hands because of some affront caused to them or the embarrassment of getting beat by 21. It was a sickness that's taken Illinois' locker room, and Underwood is not trying to share it with the rest of the Big Ten.