It was clear something was off when Illinois coach approached Wisconsin’s Greg Gard after the Badgers’ 95-74 win over the Illini on Tuesday at the Kohl Center in Madison.

After a brief exchange, Gard stiffened slightly and could clearly be seen to mouth one word “Why?”

It was (somewhat) obvious what was happening. The Illini wouldn’t be lining up with the Badgers for the traditional postgame handshake line. The loss was the seventh in 12 games for Illinois (17-10, 9-8 Big Ten) – and a beatdown that got away from the Illini toward the end and seemed to leave Underwood particularly aggravated in the moment. Did he have a beef with Bucky? With Gard?

Hardly. In his postgame press conference, Underwood revealed that the Illini were again – or still – going through widespread health issues: a flu bug that has been passed around the team for several weeks.

“At the end of the day, guys, we don’t have very many healthy bodies,” Underwood said.

Center Tomislav Ivisic and forward Jake Davis were the Illini’s unlucky ones Tuesday, though seemingly no one in the locker room has been safe in recent weeks. Swingman Tre White, guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and forward Will Riley were among those previously affected by the illness. Morez Johnson Jr., who suffered a broken wrist in Saturday’s loss to Michigan State, was also sidelined against the Badgers.

But no one has had been more snake-bitten than Ivisic. In fact, a venomous bite may be about the only malady the Illini big man hasn’t suffered lately.

“Tomi didn’t make the trip with us,” Underwood said. “He drove up before the game because he said he wanted to try to play.”

Ivisic, who has also been sidelined or slowed by mono and an ankle sprain this season, wound up coming off the bench and contributing 20 grueling minutes against UW. Still, he clearly was not himself (seven points, three rebounds, 0-for-4 three-point shooting). Underwood said Ivisic had lost seven pounds due to the illness and took two IVs of fluid before the game in order to rehydrate.

Davis, Underwood said, was sick after pregame Tuesday. But he made a go of it in the starting lineup against Wisconsin and managed to knock down a pair of threes to keep the Illini in it early.

But Davis faded quickly, logged only eight minutes and didn’t even join the team at halftime. “He was in the restroom,” Underwood said.

“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 – with Trey, now Tomi. … Tomi’s literally practiced maybe once in a month, from mono and then the ankle injury and now this.”

Underwood has talked at length about “controlling the controllables” in recent days, but even he admits there is only so much that can be done that the Illini and staff aren’t already doing.

“We’re obviously not washing our hands enough,” he said. “We obviously have to do a better job in our building. We’re three weeks into this now, and we can’t stop it. Maybe it’s their apartments. I don’t know if we need to put them in hotels. I don’t have the answer. We went through a stretch, we gave them all Tamiflu. And then this is a different type, because we did the fever, body-ache thing with a couple guys and now this is the stomach and the other end.”

Underwood was reservedly upbeat about the hand that has been dealt to the lllini – “We’re gonna survive,” he said – but clearly wasn’t wishing those troubles on anyone else.

“That’s why I didn’t want to shake hands with Greg,” Underwood said. “They’re a group, they need to stay as far away from this nonsense as they can.”

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