Imrem: It helps if Illini's Underwood has urban edge
The thing to watch for Monday during new Illinois basketball coach Brad Underwood's introductory news conference is whether he has an urban edge.
Underwood is a promising hire who bolted Oklahoma State after one season … actually he is because he bolted Oklahoma State after one season.
In big-time college athletics, being ruthlessly ambitious is an asset.
(Perhaps the Illini consider Underwood to be retribution for former coaches Lon Kruger and Bill Self being plucked away sooner than later.)
Illinois traditionally hired coaches who look like they fell off tractors instead of Department of Streets and Sanitation trucks.
The Illini need a coach who is comfortable pounding concrete, will establish relationships with AAU coaches and can straddle the line of recruiting propriety without getting caught straying over it.
Illinois can win by tapping other talent pools, but landing top Chicago players sure would help.
Soon after Illinois announced Underwood, the Mac Irvin Fire AAU team tweeted an endorsement of the hire.
Consider that Underwood's first Illini victory.
Hey, maybe this native Kansan, who played at Kansas State, knows Chicago better than we realized.
My first choice for urban renewal in Champaign wasn't realistic: Rhode Island coach Dan Hurley of the famous basketball Hurleys.
His brother Bobby, a former Duke and NBA player, currently coaches Arizona State. His father Bob is a legendary New Jersey high school coach.
The Hurleys know the inner city. They have lived there, played there and coached there.
Give me a guy like that.
Danny Hurley turned down the Rutgers job a year ago and reports are that his family is embedded at Rhode Island.
Don't underestimate how important that is. Whispers are that the wives of many prospective coaches don't want to live in Champaign.
So Hurley wasn't coming to Illinois any more than Archie Miller, Gregg Marshall and Buzz Williams were.
That makes a coach like Underwood good enough, considering the Illini program became so much less attractive the past decade under Bruce Weber and John Groce.
Initially it was "Brad Who?" Then I recalled it was Underwood who took Stephen F. Austin and OK State to the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons.
The man can coach … but can he win with players he recruited rather than inherited?
At Illinois that means having the urban edge to land Chicago-area talent.
Just to be safe, Underwood should go after Jerrance Howard as an assistant coach.
Currently at Kansas with Self, Howard is from Peoria, played and coached for the Illini, and has a reputation as an outstanding recruiter familiar with Chicago prep basketball.
Now back to Underwood, 53, who has been an assistant to Bob Huggins and Frank Martin, disciplinarians with hard-nosed teams.
Underwood also is full service: Oklahoma State averaged 85 points this season, and some of his past teams were known for defense.
The first challenge will be to retain Groce's highly ranked recruiting class. Add these players to a solid core of returnees and the Illini should make strides right away.
I'm a hard-to-please Illinois alum but will give Brad Underwood a chance to prove he's at least a little bit urban.
mimrem@dailyherald.com