Champaign – Sitting in the locker room after a lackluster first half against Rutgers, freshman center Giorgi Bezhanishvili knew he let his team down.

Scoring only 6 points on 2-of-5 shooting, Bezhanishvili failed to assert himself into the game. He let the Rutgers big men rattle him in the post and stop his aggression.

The 20-minute performance from Bezhanishvili was unacceptable to Illinois head coach Brad Underwood and the standards he holds him to.

“I really let my teammates down in the first half and coach told me that,” Bezhanishvili said. “In front of everybody at halftime, he said ‘Giorgi, you got to have better energy. You have to change your energy.’ Normally I bring good energy, so I told him ‘I got you, coach. I’ll change my energy.’ That’s what I did and that’s what happened.”