Illinois' Brad Underwood's 'Biblical' Plan for Limiting Texas Tech's Star Duo

It’s a question frequently asked of a coach headed into a tough matchup: How do you stop their stars? In college basketball, there's a realistic short answer: You can’t; you can only try to slow them down a bit.

That will be the challenge faced by Illinois and Brad Underwood on Tuesday night, and he has obviously given a lot of thought to meeting it head-on.

Illinois' plan for stifling Texas Tech's Christian Anderson and JT Toppin

In a Monday press conference, Underwood shared his top-notch, foolproof plan for shutting down Texas Tech’s uber-talented duo of forward JT Toppin and guard Christian Anderson: 

“Prayer.”

Underwood was only half-joking when describing how the Illini plan to limit Toppin, a 2025-26 National Player of the Year candidate, and Anderson, who is in the midst of a breakout season in Lubbock.

“When you face really good talent, they’re going to make some baskets," Underwood said. "And you don’t want to give them the easy stuff. You want to make it hard. You want to make it stressed. They’re capable of having big nights, but you don’t want [them] to do it because you’re making mistakes. You want to have them earn it."

Underwood's essential point is what every coach knows but not all of them so readily admit: If the other guys are good enough, they're likely going to get theirs. But when you check the box score at the end of the game on Tuesday, check out the numbers Toppin and Anderson put up, the important question will be: How hard did they have to work for it?

Illinois must make life difficult for Toppin and Anderson

For Toppin, whom the Illini will surely be channeling the majority of their defensive efforts towards, how tough will it be for him to get position and make a catch? Can whichever defender draws the assignment on a given play – Zvonimir Ivisic, David Mirkovic, Ben Humrichous, etc. – push Toppin off his spot, take a chunk out of his stamina, frustrate him, drain the clock, maybe even force a turnover here and there?

The key will be making life difficult for Toppin and throttling any offense that runs through him at every possible turn. Bump him on his way down the floor, get handsy with help defenders on digs, be physical on box outs. Toppin needs to feel the presence of an Illini, or multiple Illini, at all times.

Illinois Fighting Illini Kylan Boswell will likely match up with Anderson for most of the game, but whichever defender checks him will need to be physical on and off the ball, forcing Anderson away from his spots and blowing up ball-screen actions between him and Toppin.

Underwood compares Christian Anderson and JT Toppin to Big Ten duo

In fact, that two-man action between Anderson and Toppin – the success of which will be critical in determining Tuesday's outcome – reminds Underwood of a familiar foe from the Big Ten.

“They’re high-frequency guys. They’re going to be in a lot of action together," Underwood said of Toppin and Anderson. "I compare it a little bit to Braden [Smith] and [Trey] Kaufman-Renn [of Purdue]. They’re going to be in a lot of actions together. So you’ve got to understand that they’re going to score points, and so you just got to make it very hard and not give them the gifts that you want to try and avoid.”

Ideally, the Illini’s experience with Smith and Kaufman-Renn will have prepared them, at least to an extent, for dealing with Anderson and Toppin. Regardless, we’ll find out a lot about what this team is made of defensively on Tuesday night – and, in turn, just how high Illinois’ ceiling may be.