CHAMPAIGN — A constant truth has emerged to every Illinois men’s basketball team in the Brad Underwood era.

The teams the Illini coach has to lead, the ones he has to light a fire under on a regular basis, are his least successful.

Player-led teams prosper.

Coach-led teams have a way of crumbling.

So, in the wake of an absolute thrashing at the hands of Duke — a 110-67 loss that set a new bar for futility in program history — Underwood made it clear who he was targeting to help pull Illinois out of its February fizzle. To flip a three-game losing streak on its head.

“Kylan,” Underwood said from the Madison Square Garden media room late on the night of Feb. 22. “Kylan Boswell. Kylan Boswell.”

Consider the message received.

Boswell rode the February roller coaster as much as his team did as a whole. A 28-day stretch that saw the Illinois guard put up 14 points in a win against Ohio State to open the month on Feb. 2 and zero in a home loss to Michigan State two weeks later on Feb. 15.

A level of inconsistency Boswell has fought at various times this season. Inconsistency that reminded him a bit too much of his sophomore season at Arizona. A disappointment in so much that he started to doubt himself.

“I don’t want to be like last year,” Boswell said. “I don’t want to be like my old self. I know how good of a player I am regardless if the ball is going in or whatever the case may be. This team needs me to be at my best each and every day. If the ball’s not going in, do something else to help this team win. That’s just been my biggest mentality.”

That focus helped Boswell put together one of his best weeks of the season, as Illinois (19-11, 11-8 Big Ten) beat Iowa 81-61 at State Farm Center last Tuesday night and then defeated No. 15 Michigan 93-73 Sunday afternoon at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound guard averaged 16 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists, while limiting his turnovers and finishing at the rim as well as he has all season in those games. All on top of playing a smothering brand of defense.

It’s what Boswell was capable of all along. He was a high-profile target in the transfer portal last spring for a reason after beginning his college career with two seasons at Arizona. He just needed a reminder. One from Underwood and one from former Illini and current Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Terrence Shannon Jr., who met with the Illini in Minneapolis last month during their road trip to face the Gophers.

“He was telling us that when it came to his approach for these games, all he was thinking about was not letting his man score and then everything else would translate for him offensively,” Boswell said. “I took that from him, and that’s my biggest mentality right now.”

Boswell’s defensive efforts in Illinois’ two wins last week were just as instrumental as the points he scored and rebounds he corralled. He held Iowa’s Payton Sandfort to just seven points on 2 of 10 shooting and helped contain Michigan’s Danny Wolf — a regular double-double threat — to just nine points and five rebounds.

That would be 7-foot Danny Wolf.

“There’s a reason Kylan played 37 minutes,” Underwood said. “We felt really good with that matchup. We knew we could maybe get hurt on the glass a little bit with that, but Danny plays pretty much like a guard. If he wanted to post Kylan all day, we felt good. He got a bucket or two, but we basically just treated him as a point guard and didn’t worry too much about it.”

Locking up Sandfort and Wolf came on the heels of arguably Boswell’s most arduous defensive challenge of the season. With Morez Johnson Jr. sidelined with a broken left wrist, Boswell drew Duke’s Cooper Flagg as his assignment. The future No. 1 pick got loose in the second half — like basically everyone on the Blue Devils’ roster — but the 6-9 Flagg had just six points on 1 of 4 shooting in the first half with Boswell attached to his hip.

“I mean, I’m really strong,” Boswell said. “That’s one of my greatest attributes for me as a player. I feel like a lot of these guys can’t really handle physicality at times. The best thing I can do right now is get in their way, be handsy and sometimes talk a little smack and try to get in their heads.”

That’s Boswell at his confident best. It’s what Underwood was trying to pull from the veteran guard when he challenged him after the Duke game to make this “his team.”

“He’s playing with so much confidence,” Underwood said. “His bravado on the court, I just feel good when he’s out there. I feel good when he’s guarding somebody that they’re going to have a challenging night. He’s finding ways to score in all sorts of ways. That’s fun to see.”

It just took Boswell getting out of his own head — out of his own way. He used last week as a chance to reset. To get back to the player that thrived at both ends in big games against Alabama, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Missouri and Oregon in the first half of the season.

“There’s times throughout the season you get in those mental slumps and stuff like that,” Boswell said. “Start thinking too much. After the Duke game, I just had something different click for me. Just try to be as aggressive as I can.”

It’s a change his teammates recognized.

“Dog,” Illinois guard Tre White said to describe Boswell. “Super dog. Just his versatility offensive and defensively, he helps us go.”

Scott Richey covers college basketball for The News-Gazette. His email is , and you can follow him on Twitter ( @srrichey ).