Brad Underwood's comparison for this year's Illinois team has fans thinking, what if?

Three wins down, three more to go... The Illinois Fighting Illini are heading to the Elite Eight. The No. 3 seed in the South Region will be taking on a Big Ten foe in the No. 9 Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday evening. One of the reasons why Illinois has been able to keep on dancing has been how locked in this year's team has been under Brad Underwood. He knows he may not coach another team like this.

After the win over Houston, Underwood talked about how a recent practice compared to another...

"We've had one other practice like that in my time here. And unfortunately, the last time we had that practice, we didn't get to play. That was in Hinkle Fieldhouse before the Big Ten Tournament. It was one of those where you just don't want it to end. We were incredible offensively and they were good shots. They were hard, they were guarded well. It was very fun. We were very dialed in. Very emotional practice, very intense. But yeah, we haven't had many of those."

The only other practice that he could compare this one to was before the 2020 Big Ten Tournament.

That team went 21-0 overall and 13-7 in conference play before the entire world shut down suddenly.

Brad Underwood has Illinois on the verge of getting to his first Final Four

Underwood's third season at the helm of the Illini was an inflection point. It would have been his first tournament team leading the program. Every year since COVID, Underwood has won at least 20 games in a season. Furthermore, he has won at least one game in March Madness every postseason outside of the 2022-23 season. All that stands between him and a Final Four would be Ben McCollum.

Illinois has quietly been one of the most steady teams in the country. If not for the Michigan Wolverines being juggernauts at the top of the conference, Purdue winning the Big Ten Tournament, or Iowa having come out of nowhere under McCollum, we would be talking way more about the job Underwood is doing with the Illini this season. What is it going to take for him to cut down the nets?

If Illinois continues to shoot the ball as well as they apparently did in practice before the Houston game, the Illini could have the Hawkeyes up against it. McCollum's team is playing with house money now. They are in untrodden territory. While Underwood has taken Illinois to the Elite Eight before, a trip to the Final Four would finally put the credit on his name that he has so long deserved nationallly.

Right now, it is about taking it one day at a time, as a trip to Indianapolis appears to be on the horizon.