RIP, John Groce’s suit.

The black trousers to his outfit, which Groce paired with a white shirt and orange tie, met its demise during Tuesday’s 72-64 Illini win over Western Carolina. In the end, its bounds were stretched and threads worn out, as the first-year men’s basketball head coach engaged in a crouch to motivate his team to play stout defense only to publicly and brutally tear a hole through the fabric of the suit’s being.

While the horrifying display wasn’t captured on television because of the Illini’s fourth prime-time blackout of the season, the masses in Assembly Hall got a clear view of the coach’s undergarments.

After the game, Groce prompted Illini basketball sports information director Derrick Burson for the section number that had the misfortune of witnessing the reaping. The team’s families and friends section had a partial view. He then offered his deepest amends and declared the injury untreatable. The suit was pronounced dead at roughly 9:45 p.m.

“Well, the most valuable lesson I learned tonight is to wear dark underwear,” Groce said. “I apologize to all the people sitting behind me.”

If there’s a shimmer of light in this dark hour, it’s that the dearly departed’s untimely end comes with an explanation.

The Catamounts, backed by the 6-foot-8, 245-pound Tawaski King, exposed the Illini’s weak interior defense, consistently getting the ball to the rim and drawing fouls around the bucket in the second half.

“We were pretty good the first half defending him in the post,” Groce said. “In the second half, I thought we laid behind him too much and let post entry passes come into him too much. They got it in there too easily.”

The No. 13 Illini allowed the smaller Western Carolina — a Southern Conference team that is now limping at 3-6 after four road games in its last five — to grab 18 offensive rebounds and score 42 points in the second half on 47 percent shooting from the field and 60 percent from three. Western Carolina scored just 22 points in the first frame, during which the team’s leading scorer, Trey Sumler, was held scoreless. By the 10-minute mark of the second half, Sumler had tallied eight points.

Much of the fuss over Groce’s new system has centered on the team’s fast-paced offense. Plain and simple, the Illlini want to get out and run. That’s why Groce crafted a rigorous conditioning schedule this summer and has constantly emphasized attacking as his philosophy. But he constantly reminds his team that it’s impossible to play in transition without getting stops, and his team couldn’t accomplish that on a consistent level on Tuesday night, straying away from the style of play it likes to execute.

“What you forget is what puts you at the pace that everyone wants to talk about right now — ‘Man, they’re fun to watch.’ — you got to get stops,” Groce said. “You don’t get stops, you don’t get to go out and run. I try to remind them all the time. The toughness, the togetherness and the way we’ve defended, that’s our calling card. That’s our identity.”

With the Illini struggling to contain Western Carolina in the second half, Groce once again turned to the team’s secondary defensive orientation, a 2-3 zone, down the stretch. The defensive strategy was successful in limiting interior penetration against Georgia Tech last Wednesday, and Groce thought it might stop the bleeding on Tuesday.

“We wanted to try and get them out of a rhythm,” Groce said. “The first time we go zone, they drive it and get a layup. We’ve got to be better, and we will.”

So in an effort to motivate his team to buckle down defensively during Tuesday’s game, Groce became animated on the sidelines. Through the first nine games of his tenure at Illinois, he’s never been quiet while coaching, at times punching the scorers table in disgust and jumping up and down to call plays.

On Tuesday, Groce’s excitement proved costly. A good pair of pants passed away on the sideline, a casualty of poor defense and an energetic coach.

Ethan can be reached at [email protected] and @AsOfTheSky.