Josh Whitman bear-hugged Illinois men’s basketball coach Brad Underwood after the team’s 63-56 win over Ohio State on Thursday night.

The athletics director's actions reflected many Illinois fans’ feelings over the past week.

The Illini grabbed their first true road victory of the year against the Buckeyes, snapping their three-game winning streak. Illinois has won four straight games and five of its last six.

Underwood has attributed much of this year’s success to improved defense, despite recent impressive individual performances from Ayo Dosunmu, Giorgi Bezhanishvili and Trent Frazier.

The Illini held the Buckeyes to just two field goals in the last eight minutes.

“We have so many different rotations that we can bring defensively in different ways,” Dosunmu said. “Trent’s fast, and (Andres Feliz) is short and strong and then me with my legs. Whatever guard we’re playing against, we try to make their night hell.”

The recent success against conference opponents is something Illinois basketball has not seen in a few years. The Illini went on a four-game winning streak at the end of the 2016-17 season, putting them on the NCAA tournament bubble. But that team closed out the season with losses to Rutgers and Iowa, causing it to miss the tourney.

This year’s Illini are forcing 17 turnovers per game, good for first in the Big Ten and 15th in the country.

Players like forward Da’Monte Williams and Feliz continue to receive plenty of minutes, even without having as impressive box scores as Dosunmu or Bezhanishvili.

“Andres has been as good as anybody on the ball,” Underwood said. “He’s made a tremendous growth in that area. There’s confidence with our guys on the ball; it’s the point of our defense.”

Williams is scoring just over three points per game, but is averaging a little over 22 minutes. The sophomore has helped neutralize opponents’ better wing players and has recorded 20 steals.

Feliz and Frazier helped force Michigan State point guard Cassius Winston to nine turnovers in the Illini’s upset victory on Feb. 5. They also caused seven turnovers from Ohio State guard C.J. Jackson on Thursday.

“We’ve come a long way,” Frazier said. “That’s why I continue to trust coach Underwood’s process. We have guys who have bought into this system. We’re working so hard in practice and getting after each other. We’re rewarding ourselves right now because of it.”

Frazier’s 37 steals leads the team, followed by Dosunmu’s 35.

Bezhanishvili has even recently emerged as the team’s top shot blocker. The freshman is not known for that aspect of the game, but he recorded four blocks against the Buckeyes.

“It’s an aggressive type of thing (Bezhanishvili) is doing,” Underwood said. “He’s not a big taking-charges guy. He’s a guy with long arms and great timing, and I think he’s found something he’s liked a little bit. Obviously his blocks the other night were huge.”

Illinois will take on Wisconsin for the second time this season Monday night. The Badgers beat the Illini in January, 72-60.

The Illini’s game plan going into that matchup was to take forward Ethan Happ out of the game, which the they did. Happ scored just nine points and secured nine rebounds in that game. Illinois could not stop forward Nate Reuvers, who finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

“I kind of know what to expect (against Happ),” Bezhanishvili said. “I know he’ll be fired up because he didn’t have a great game against us. I’m looking forward to the challenge and happy to have another experience against him.”

Mike Gasick covers University of Illinois athletics for GateHouse Media Illinois. Contact him at gasick2@illinois.edu or follow him on Twitter @mike_mgasick.