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Illinois Basketball: Brad Underwood improves teams in year one

By Rees Woodcock

Mar 9, 2017; Kansas City, MO, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Brad Underwood reacts to a call in the second half against the Iowa State Cyclones during the Big 12 Championship Tournament at Sprint Center. Iowa State won 92-83. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 9, 2017; Kansas City, MO, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Brad Underwood reacts to a call in the second half against the Iowa State Cyclones during the Big 12 Championship Tournament at Sprint Center. Iowa State won 92-83. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports /
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The reason the Illinois basketball team moved on from the previous regime was because they didn’t win games. It is as simple as that.

Hiring a head coach like Brad Underwood will hopefully change that trend and Illinois will start winning once again. This is a program that has way too much pride to miss the NCAA tournament four years in a row.

Improving a team is not new to Underwood, though. While he has only had two head coaching jobs in his career, he can boast he has improved those teams in his first year with the respective program.

In 2012-13, the year before Underwood took over Stephen F. Austin, the Lumberjacks had a good run finishing the regular season with a 26-3 record overall but losing in the conference tournament to Northwestern State.

Head coach at the time, Danny Kaspar, departed for Texas State after that great season and this left an opening for Underwood to take over the team. But how could he take a program that had an 84.4-percent winning rate and improve them?

Well, Underwood did just that by leading Stephen F. Austin to a 29-2 regular season record, a conference championship and an NCAA tournament berth. They also beat VCU in the first round as well.

The Lumberjacks finished that season with a 91.4-percent winning rate and the team became more balanced. They were No. 51 in the country in points scored per game and No. 36 in the country in points allowed per game. He took a really good team and made them great.

In Underwood’s first season with Oklahoma State, he did the same thing just to a lesser extent.

The Cowboys were 12-20 the year before Underwood took over. This was a team that had no direction and was No. 308 in the nation in points per game. But, Underwood took on this task and did a great job getting the program back on its feet.

In year one at Oklahoma State, Underwood improved the Cowboys record to 20-11 in the regular season and this was good enough to get into the NCAA tournament. They went from bottom dwellers to contenders because of Underwood’s leadership.

Oklahoma State also improved their points per game average to 85.7, which ranked No. 5 in the nation this past season.

So, anyone who is skeptical about what Underwood can do, just look at his history. There is proof that he can take a team who has been struggling and make them into an NCAA tournament team in year one.

Next: 3 biggest wins in Brad Underwood’s career

I believe Illinois has the talent to do this next season. Hiring Underwood will help achieve this goal and I believe that we will win.

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