Worth the wait: Final Four trip should silence all Underwood doubters

Maybe the best way to appreciate Illinois coach Brad Underwood is to browse his resume.

He spent 11 seasons as an assistant coach at Western Illinois. Not head coach, assistant. For 11 years.

Nothing against Macomb, but no one does that unless they have a serious love of coaching. Underwood talked about it this week on WSCR-FM, ahead of Saturday's national semifinal against Connecticut.

“I spent 10 great years in Macomb,” Underwood said. “It's one of those deals, you're young, all my kids were born in Macomb, my wife taught school there. I worked for a great, great coach in Jim Kerwin. He let me coach and have a say; I felt like I had an impact.”

Before WIU, Underwood spent four years at Dodge City Community College in Kansas, where he coached the team and drove the bus to road games. After Western he spent three years coaching Daytona Beach Community College.

He finally got his first Power Five job in 2006, 20 years into his career, when he became an assistant at Kansas State, his alma mater.

“My journey's different from a lot of people,” Underwood added. “I wouldn't pass on one moment of it.”

With his tendency to stomp around angrily on the sideline, maybe Underwood, 62, isn't easy to embrace at first. But taking the Illini to the Final Four should end all complaints about his coaching ability.

They should have ended already. Don't be so quick to forget the seven years without an NCAA Tournament appearance from 2013-20, or the 19 years without making the Sweet Sixteen. Underwood ended both droughts.

True, he lost in the second round as a No. 1 seed in 2021. The reality is, that team vastly overachieved in a year when the Big Ten was absurdly overrated. Underwood managed to reach that No. 2 ranking and the Elite Eight in 2024 with one second-round draft pick or one late first-round draft pick on each roster — Ayo Dosunmu and Terrence Shannon Jr., respectively.

As the talent level continued to rise, maybe the secret sauce is the full father-son combo. Tyler Underwood is in his third year as the team's offensive coordinator and created the most efficient offense in college hoops.

The next opponent is the game's modern blue blood. Connecticut has won six national titles since 1999, twice as many as any other team. Coach Danny Hurley just won titles in 2023 and '24, senior wing Alex Karaban was a starter on both teams.

UConn is coming off a miraculous 19-point comeback, miracle victory over Duke in the Elite Eight. Don't forget, in the previous game, the Huskies squandered a 19-point lead against Michigan State but sweated out a narrow win.

UConn has the winning pedigree, no doubt. In this Final Four, though, Illinois, Michigan and Arizona are known for their depth of talent and potential double-digit scorers. The Huskies have become more of a three-man offense. In the tournament their leading scorers are center Tarris Reed Jr. (21.8 points a game), Karaban (17.8) and freshman Braylon Mullins (11.8). The other two starters, Solo Ball and Silas Demary, have seen their scoring averages tumble.

Connecticut has height across the board, but Reed, a Michigan transfer, is the only true big. Illinois will try to solo cover the post with the 7-foot Ivisic twins.

This could be a decent matchup for the Illini, because Reed and backup Eric Reibe won't spend much time on the perimeter. That should allow Illinois to sit back in drop coverage, making it tougher for UConn's four tall guards to find open lanes or space to shoot 3s. The Huskies were just 5-for-23 from long range against Duke.

On the other end, UConn doesn't really have a true power forward to match up against 6-9 freshman David Mirkovic. Keaton Wagler and Andrej Stojakovic have a chance to match Karaban and Mullins.

Can the Underwood family outduel Hurley? If nothing else, the sideline reaction shots will probably focus more on the Connecticut side.

“I'm an intense coach, it's not easy to work my games,” Hurley said at his Thursday availability. “But I've also gotten zero technical fouls in my NCAA Tournament coaching career. And I just jinxed myself, oh my God.”

Prediction: It’s possible UConn makes the Illini look a little big and slow, but a slow pace should play in Illinois’ favor. Let’s call it Illini 67-63.