'He's on the cutting edge'

CHAMPAIGN Compare this years Illinois mens basketball team to the first one Brad Underwood coached and you have to squint to find any similarities.

Gone is the aggressive defensive style hell bent on forcing turnovers in an on-the-line, up-the-line scheme that Underwood brought with him from his days at Stephen F.

Austin.

The offensive style has evolved, too.

Numerous times.

Tailored specifically to personnel.

Underwoods spread offense gave way to ball-screen action galore with Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn.

Then Booty ball with Marcus Domask.

And now an offense built around a bevy of tall, three-point shooters after an offseason specifically engineered to find players with those traits.

Underwood has proven in his time in Champaign (and that lone not quite year he spent in Stillwater, Okla.) that hes willing to adjust when needed.

To throw out the entirety of a seasons plan and pivot to something that works better.

Like abandoning his aggressive defense after an 0-6 start in his only season at Oklahoma State and going basic pack line, pairing it with a an already tweaked, Jawun Evans-led offense that was the most efficient in the country.

Or last season at Illinois where the full shift to Domask-driven booty ball happened by early December.

Its very data driven, Illinois assistant coach Tyler Underwood said.

If we get enough data points that somethings not working, were going to try to find a solution for that.

...

Last year, I thought we had a pretty good idea where we would be headed offensively, and three games later the data was like, This kind of sucks.

Were not afraid to make those changes.

Were very comfortable with failure here.

We talk a lot about failing.

You have to fail to learn lessons to get better.

I think it shows in our schedule.

Were playing some of the best teams in the country because thats how you truly measure where youre at.

If you get exposed in an area, then you can grow.

At the heart of those changes, though, is Brad Underwood.

His willingness to adjust and adapt isnt necessarily a trait all coaches share.

Some are intent on a specific scheme and system.

Underwood, with two stints as a junior college coach in the late 80s into the early 90s and again in the mid-2000s, was basically built for this era of Division I college basketball where rosters are now rarely the same year to year.

The sheer rate of roster turnover at the JUCO level at least half the team every season meant being willing to tailor a style to the team rather than a team to a style.

Im sure not afraid to change, Brad Underwood said.

I want to win, and if I have conviction the other way is better ...

We had to find a way to enhance Marcus last year make him better.

We had to ease off Terrence (Shannon Jr.), ease off Coleman (Hawkins), in terms of responsibility, and he could handle it.

He was the perfect facilitator for booty ball and everything that we did, and it elevated everybody else.

We had the No.

1 offense going into our last game.

Well change accordingly.

If something doesnt work or we have to tweak something, Im not afraid to do that.

Wholesale changes we do not make.

Were still playing fast.

Were still playing in the open court.

Those things we dont have to change.

The small changes, sometimes, can work out pretty well.

Underwoods willingness to adapt and adjust, even during a season, isnt lost on his players, and they feel comfortable sharing their opinions.

Their thoughts on what works and what doesnt what they like and what they dont arent ignored.

Hes just an open-minded person, Kylan Boswell said of his head coach.

Its kind of hard to play for coaches that are close-minded and dont listen and wont take criticism.

Hes always listening and always willing to make adjustments.

His resume shows that.

That side of him definitely is overlooked, Ty Rodgers added.

I dont know too many coaches where a player can go sit in their office and tell them what they see and they actually listen to them and do it.

Geoff Alexander has seen that side of Brad Underwood longer than anyone else in the program.

Alexander played for him when he was an assistant coach at Western Illinois before joining the Leathernecks as a graduate assistant and working with him.

Alexander also worked for Underwood at Daytona State College from 2004-06 before they reunited in Champaign in 2017.

And Alexander has seen Brad Underwoods willingness to embrace change when necessary go beyond Xs and Os.

Hes seen it in recruiting.

Hes seen it in navigating the transfer portal.

Everything he does, hes on the cutting edge of things, Alexander said.

It goes back to the international piece.

We were just ahead of the game and prepared for this generation of guys who came through that was just a special, special group.

We had been over there.

...

Hes an advanced thinker, and that allows him to adapt ahead of the game.

I think hes as good as anybody in the country at doing that..

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