Illinois Basketball: Timeline of Lamont Evans and Brad Underwood

The Illinois basketball team seemed to be gaining some positive momentum. Well, as soon as Illini fans start feeling good about the program, more bad news usually follows.

As many of you already know, there was an FBI sting on the college basketball landscape. Some assistant coaches were arrested and charged with certain crimes. You can see all the charges and arrests by scrolling through Twitter. I even believe “legendary” head coach Rick Pitino is going to be fired today.

In the midst of all this ugly recruiting information coming to light, there was an assistant coach that piqued the interest of many Illinois fans. Oklahoma State assistant coach Lamont Evans was one of the basketball coaches to have charges filed against him. What does this have to do with Illinois, though? Well, Evans was the assistant coach for current Illinois head coach Brad Underwood in the one season he was at Oklahoma State. That is the only reason the Illini are even close to being tied into this situation.

Let me break down the timeline and facts of the case.

The first date that the accusations against Evans occurred was on or about March 3, 2016. During this time, he was an assistant coach with the South Carolina Gamecocks. He wasn’t a part of the Cowboys program yet. So, his shady dealings started before Underwood hired him at Oklahoma State.

Underwood was hired as the head coach of the Cowboys on March 21, 2016. He was previously at Stephen F. Austin and there was no connection to Evans at that time. Underwood needed to put a coaching staff together so he hired Evans, who at the time had a nice coaching history.

The next two dates in the report about Evans’ dealings were April 19, 2016 and February 3, 2017. Both of these dates are in the time frame that Underwood was the head coach of Oklahoma State. But, about a month and two weeks after that final date mentioned, Underwood accepted the job at Illinois. This was on March 18, 2017.

Underwood was only the coach of the Cowboys for 361 days and then bolted for a better opportunity. In that time, his only recruiting class he brought in was the class of 2017 which consisted of Zack Dawson and Latravian Glover. They were both three-star recruits from the same high school in Miami, Florida.

So, before and during the time Underwood was the head coach, Evans was allegedly doing some illegal stuff. This is what makes me nervous. I have a hard time believing Underwood knew about these dealings because Evans was doing it before he was Underwood’s assistant coach and the recruiting class that was signed wasn’t good. But, because Underwood was in the wrong place at the wrong time, he might see some punishment and that makes me nervous.

Next: Brad Underwood’s recruiting pitch to Colin Castleton

There is no prior history of Underwood and recruiting the wrong way. The best player he has ever secured was a three-star at both Oklahoma State and Stephen F. Austin. I truly believe, bias aside, that Underwood didn’t do anything wrong here. He might need to tighten up his grip on what his assistant coaches are doing but that is about it. Hopefully, the FBI and NCAA see it the same way.