CHAMPAIGN — Brad Underwood was on vacation when the wheels started turning in April on what would turn out to be a near-complete overhaul of his assistant coaches. A vacation the Illinois coach said he would have to redo with his wife, Susan.
College basketball has changed. The transfer portal — especially now with nearly 1,600 players on the move — means there’s no offseason. Coaching changes only add to the uncertainty level basically baked into every team between April and August.
“There’s no time in today’s world to really take a breath,” Underwood said. “Ten years ago, eight years ago, five years ago — whatever it was — this would be a time we knew what our rosters looked like and things were much more settled. I’ve come to the conclusion to always expect the unexpected, and I’m always going to be ready to roll with whatever comes in any scenario.”
The scenario Underwood faces now is replacing Orlando Antigua and Chin Coleman on his coaching staff after the pair left Illinois for Kentucky.
He’s halfway there after hiring former Illinois guard Chester Frazier, who spent the previous two seasons at Virginia Tech and the seven before that at Kansas State.
That still leaves one spot open on Underwood’s coaching staff, and let’s just say the interest remains high. Underwood doesn’t like not being able to return calls, texts or emails, but he’s had to live with that in the last several weeks.
“I literally have so much interest there’s no way,” he said. “There’s no way I could return them all. Our brand has never been better. I’m floored with the quality of people that have shown interest at all different levels, really, and all different ages. I’m very humbled by that.
“We’re acting like a top-10 program. There’s no doubt about that. … Our brand is extremely strong. That’s one of the biggest changes in the last four years is our brand now has some meaning nationwide and worldwide. That’s something we can continue to sell in all corners of the world.”
Illinois is, in fact, holding down a different spot in the college basketball world compared to when Underwood pieced together his initial coaching staff after being hired in March 2017.
That Illinois was riding a string of missed NCAA tournaments and had basically plateaued as a program in the bottom half of the Big Ten. This Illinois team just finished the 2020-21 season ranked No. 2 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll, won more Big Ten games than any other team in program history, won a Big Ten tournament title and then pulled a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
That success had consequence. It likely sparked the changes Underwood is now working through.
“We’re not going through any of this if we finished eighth or 10th,” he sad. “You guys are probably talking to somebody else, truth be told. This is the new norm. Players are going to come and go at a rate, good players are going to go pro and coaches are going to move on when you’re successful.
“I’ll be shocked in three years if Chester’s not a head coach some place. I think that’s the new norm. I’ve accepted that and I’m ready to go with it, but I’d much rather be doing it from the position we were in winning 16 (Big Ten) games than trying to do it from the bottom.”
Losing two assistant coaches — and possibly a third if the Stephen Gentry back to Gonzaga rumors come to fruition — is the most turnover Underwood has had on a coaching staff without leaving himself. He wasn’t unprepared, though. He makes a point of paying as much attention to other coaches and how they interact and who he likes when he’s on the road recruiting as he does potential prospects.
So Underwood has the proverbial list in his back pocket for situations just like this. Now it comes down to fit, and it’s no different compared to how the Illinois coach tries to build a roster. He doesn’t want like pieces on the court together or like pieces on his coaching staff.
A strong working relationship matters, as Illinois tries to foster the same type of camaraderie and culture that led to such success in 2020-21. And Underwood also has expectations for his assistants. They have to be able to do it all.
“You guys have been around me; you know our (assistants) are active in practice,” Underwood said. “They coach. I think that’s one of the things I demand from a staff is they’re not just a recruiter. … First and foremost, it’s about finding the pieces that fit our culture. Then they’ve got to be able to do their job at both ends, and that’s recruiting and coaching.”
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