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Illinois Basketball: Evaluation of Illini head coach Brad Underwood

By Rees Woodcock

Nov 23, 2021; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood reacts to play against the Kansas State Wildcats during the second half at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 23, 2021; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood reacts to play against the Kansas State Wildcats during the second half at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports /
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Illinois basketball
Dec 18, 2021; Champaign, Illinois, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini guard Trent Frazier (1) along with teammate Alfonso Plummer (11) watch the action with head coach Brad Underwood during the second half against the Saint Francis Red Flash at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Johnson-USA TODAY Sports /

I can’t believe I am saying this, but the Illinois basketball team just finished up the fifth year under Brad Underwood.

It doesn’t feel like Underwood has been the head coach of the Illini for five years. For some reason, the previous regime is still pretty fresh in my mind. But it has indeed been five seasons of basketball where we have seen a lot of ups and a sprinkle of some downs.

I wanted to evaluate where we are as a program under Underwood. I looked at three key metrics for the program, which include winning, recruiting, and postseason success.

Here is the evaluation of Illinois basketball head coach Brad Underwood after five seasons.

Winning

With each of the three metrics, you can’t just look at the five-year window that Underwood has been with the program. You also have to look at what he inherited from the previous regime.

In the final two years leading up to Underwood taking over the program, the Illini averaged 15 wins in the regular season. What we were looking at was a below-average team. That is what Underwood was stepping into.

The first two years of the Underwood regime were rough, though. A 14-win regular season followed by an 11-win regular season was understandably worrisome. Year three was going to be the deciding factor whether or not Underwood was going to work at Illinois.

Year three rolls around, and Illinois starts playing the way we all knew they could play. The players Underwood brought in started to gel, and Illinois would win 21 games in the regular season for the first time since the 2012-13 campaign. COVID ruined everything that year, but the foundation was there. Could Underwood build on that foundation?

The next season saw another 20-win campaign for Underwood, which included winning 11 out of the final 12 games. Five of those 11 victories were against top 25 programs as well. So, that made for back-to-back 20-win regular seasons for the first time since the 2005-06 and 2006-07 campaigns.

After the 2020-21 campaign, Illinois lost their best player in Ayo Dosunmu to the NBA, Giorgi Bezhanishvili left and is playing in the G-League, and the best freshman on the team left for LSU. This was going to be a test of whether or not Underwood could keep Illinois competitive.

Underwood passed that test with flying colors this season. He took a team that lost big minutes from the year prior and had a third-straight 20-win regular season. Illinois’ 22-win 2021-22 campaign was great, and so was the Big Ten regular season title they won. This was quite an accomplishment and proved that Illinois was here to stay.

Overall – A

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