Brad Underwood has coached 229 games during seven basketball seasons at Illinois, so there’s plenty of room for nitpicking if that’s your nature.
Like, even in this uplifting NCAA tournament run to the Sweet 16, the January home date with Maryland was a downer (a 76-67 loss without Terrence Shannon Jr.), and blowing the 68-54 lead at Penn State in late February had critics climbing the walls.
But in trouncing mid-majors Morehead State and Duquesne in Omaha, Neb., Underwood has positioned the Illini for a legitimate Run for the Roses while, with many of his fellow coaches bucking the new transfer-NIL era, he is enthusiastically living on the edge in this turbulent world he’s been thrust into.
There is a growing list of good news.
- Prospective transfers, in seeing the stunning development of Shannon and Marcus Domask, are already contacting Illinois in double-figure numbers this month.
- Shannon joins Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn as a clearcut first five All-American, even though many voters refuse to favor him due to an overhanging felony charge.
- In posting the most Big Ten victories (69) during the past five conference races, and winning two Big Ten tournaments, Underwood is demonstrating a remarkable consistency after the Illini produced 98 wins and 136 losses in an unlucky 13 Big Ten campaigns from 2007 through 2019.
Adjusting his approachDespite a confrontational approach to practices and games, the 60-year-old Underwood has built strong personal relationships with those who fit his style while letting others go their way. Twenty-three recruited players, including Jayden Epps, RJ Melendez, Skyy Clark and Brandon Lieb this past year, have departed with eligibility remaining.
Underwood has shown himself adept at key concepts: (1) He adjusts his system to fit the players, whether it’s Cockburn or Domask, (2) his NBA-like approach is devised to expose matchups, (3) he repeats and repeats what is working, and (4) he emphasizes defense to the extent of starting his five best defensive players.
With a run of 77, 98 and 93 points in the Big Ten tournament, and 85 and 89 in Omaha, his Illini have reached No. 5 in the nation in offensive efficiency.
Few coaches would have reaped the full benefits of an athletic sophomore, Ty Rodgers, who is so lacking in jump-shooting skills. Underwood has seen Coleman Hawkins steadily mature and was quick to clear the floor for Domask’s effective, back-down dribble. And he has used Dain Dainja judiciously in situations where he could be successful.
Underwood enticed Shannon to return this season when a pro career beckoned. There was no evidence that Shannon would be THIS explosive after he averaged 9.8, 12.9 and 10.4 points at Texas Tech. He boosted his average to 17.2 here last season and now shows 23.3 overall with 26-plus in the last 16 games. Shannon’s fierce drives to the rim are the talk of the nation.
Excelling after rough start
Underwood’s term has not been smooth from the beginning and was marked by claims of “verbal abuse, racial harassment and punitive use of the treadmill” in 2018 ... specifically in dealing with Edwardsville freshman Mark Smith, the state’s player of the year.
Underwood, who acknowledged that he swears in certain heated situations (including during games), said that “sometimes you have to call them (the players) on the carpet.”
Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman referred the matter to outside investigators who felt no penalties were warranted, and Whitman was steadfast when two members of the UI Athletic Board, professors Michael Raycraft and Michael LeRoy, raised later questions.
Whitman acknowledged that Underwood “is intense and creates an environment that gets the players to go places (especially on defense) where they don’t want to go.”
At the time, with transfers required to sit out a season, Whitman agreed to a requested waiver allowing Smith to play immediately at Missouri.
Underwood struggled through those early years to build a strong contender that, to this day, hasn’t defeated a Power 5 program in the NCAA tournament. That brings us to Iowa State, a No. 2 seed and an opening 21/2-point favorite on Thursday night in Boston.
