Illinois Basketball: Brad Underwood brought consistency to Illini recruiting

The college basketball world has been taking notice of what the Illinois basketball program has been doing for the last few years.

In the 2010s, the Illini got away from winning. We missed numerous NCAA tournaments and became an afterthought when it comes to the top teams in the country. But all of that changed with the hiring of Brad Underwood.

As soon as Underwood took the job, he instantly improved many areas of the Illinois program. The main area that improved was recruiting. This couldn’t have improved without a great coaching staff around Underwood, though.

That great coaching staff under Underwood departed the program, and many Illini fans thought the team would struggle to bring in the top talent due to the departures. That didn’t end up being the case, as the new group of assistant coaches hit the ground running and were able to bring in some of the best talent into the country.

Through the last six years of recruiting in the Underwood era of Illinois basketball, there has been one word that comes to mind.

Brad Underwood brought consistency to Illinois basketball recruiting.

Especially in today’s version of college basketball, recruiting consistency is the name of the game. That is something Underwood has specialized in during his time in Champaign.

I also believe lack of consistency was one of the downfalls of the previous coaching regime. They couldn’t consistently bring in the talent to compete at the highest levels, and the result was six straight missed NCAA tournaments.

With the class of 2022 pretty much buttoned up, I took a look at the six recruiting classes under Underwood compared to the six recruiting classes prior to him arriving at Illinois. The findings showed consistency.

The class of 2022 is finishing as the No. 3 class in the Big Ten. In the six recruiting classes Underwood has brought into the Illini program, five of the classes have been ranked inside the top five in the conference. The only class that didn’t rank inside the top five was in 2019 when Illinois pulled in the No. 10 class in the Big Ten. But Kofi Cockburn also arrived from that class, so I don’t put too much stock into the low ranking.

When you look at the prior six recruiting classes before Underwood’s arrival, you will see a lack of consistency. Illinois would have three out of six classes rank inside the top five in the Big Ten. In the other three recruiting classes, the Illini would finish No. 14, No. 8, and No. 14, respectively.

On a national level, Illinois also remained consistent with recruiting. Five out of Underwood’s six recruiting classes ranked in the top 30 in the nation. Again, the only one that didn’t was in 2019, and it brought Kofi to the Orange and Blue.

In contrast, the prior six recruiting classes only had three classes inside the top 30 nationally. Two out of the other three classes ranked No. 56 and No. 110 in the country, and the other classes didn’t register because we didn’t land a single player.

It doesn’t look like recruiting is going to slow down anytime soon for Underwood and the Illini either. The 2024 class already has a top 50 recruit in Morez Johnson, and ZZ Clark has pledged as well. It doesn’t come as a surprise that Illinois is a competitive program once again. There is a strong correlation between great recruiting and success.

Underwood understands this concept. The ability for him to bring consistency to Illinois recruiting is why we are one of the best teams in college basketball.