Illinois basketball set to reach new heights thanks to Brad Underwood, NIL

As the college basketball season has begun with the start of practices throughout the country, there is stability and ongoing success at the top of the Illinois basketball program under coach Brad Underwood.

With five straight 20-plus win seasons, multiple Big Ten championships, four straight NCAA Tournament appearances and NBA draft picks in Ayo Dosnumu and Terrence Shannon, Underwood has started to stack superlative seasons together. Illinois has finished four of the past five seasons ranked in the final AP top 25 poll.

The recent success leads back to a regular basketball debate that for years had gone dormant. Where does Illinois rank among college basketball programs nationally?

Each time there is a basketball head coaching vacancy at the University of Illinois, it’s been a major story. A coaching vacancy at Illinois brings layers of sidebars that go beyond just the potential candidates.

Inevitably, the debate of where the program ranks among all college basketball programs nationally would rage –– mostly among Fighting Illini fans, but also among local writers and talking heads in the media.

It didn’t matter when Bill Self took over for Lon Kruger or who would replace Self when he left for Kansas. Whether it was the changeover from Bruce Weber to John Groce or the days leading up to Underwood arriving in 2017, there was always misplaced conviction among fans of where Illinois basketball stood in the college basketball hierarchy.

“This is a top 10 program in the country,” many fans would shout in conversations and post on message boards. At the very least, they argued, it’s most definitely one of the top 20 all-around basketball programs in the country when weighing tradition and history.

They would point to an overall high level of success spanning 30 years, beginning in 1980 and extending through three decades. That included a stretch of 23 NCAA Tournament appearances in 29 years with a pesky little NCAA investigation that led to sanctions and probation muddling it up in the early 1990s.

They would point to two iconic teams, the Flying Illini of 1988-89 and the Deron Williams and Dee Brown-led 2004-05 national runner-up –– two of the greatest college basketball teams to not win national titles –– and match them up against any team from anywhere and any era.

So be it that Illinois basketball was always included on lists of “best programs to never win a national championship.”

They would point out the rabid fan base, attendance and home court advantage at Assembly Hall, now the State Farm Center, and the fertile recruiting ground throughout Illinois while never understanding why any top-ranked, in-state player would go elsewhere.

Make no mistake about it, Illinois was always relevant and in the national college basketball conversation from 1980 through 2013; there was too much sustained success not to be. But a top 10 or 20 program in the country? It wasn’t that –– at least it wasn’t in the eyes of college basketball coaches and national media.

For many reasons that would add too many words to this column, college basketball coaches –– we’re talking the elite, the ones who would sprint to a top 10 program if the job were to ever open –– simply didn’t view Illinois basketball in that light, particularly when Kruger, Self, Groce and Underwood were hired.

There was a small window there when Weber took over for Self and promptly followed up Self’s short run of success with a Sweet Sixteen and Final Four in his first two seasons.

There were also game-changing prep prospects in the state like Jon Scheyer and Derrick Rose in the years immediately following that 2005 season, along with the Eric Gordon commitment.

That’s when an argument was starting to be made and bubbling up. But it slipped away quickly.

Embedded in this sport through recruiting circles and establishing relationships with college coaches as I have for nearly three decades, the Illinois job simply wasn’t as coveted by coaches as one would think.

No, there doesn’t appear to be an opening at Illinois any time soon when you consider both Underwood’s accomplishments and contract. But it doesn’t mean the aforementioned topic of where Illinois basketball currently sits nationally can’t be analyzed and discussed, because now that top 20 status is entirely valid. Everything has changed.

Let's get right to it.

Illinois has averaged 24 wins a year and gone an impressive 56-24 in the Big Ten over the past four years. That doesn’t match the level of success during the five-year run –– three years of Self and Weber’s first two years –– from 2001-2006, but it’s by far the best since then.

There is still a growing 20-year Final Four drought, but at least the missing lengthy tournament run –– Illinois had not been out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2005 –– came to a halt this past season; Underwood’s team reached the Elite Eight in March.

There have been recruiting successes, both locally, nationally and even internationally.

There is a completely renovated and modernized State Farm Center, which was completed in 2017. And now a $40 million state-of-the-art facelift of the Ubben Basketball Complex is the latest attractive bell-and-whistle.

There are other resources as well to point to, including paying top dollar for the coaching staff.

Those are all important pluses in the grand plan of an elite program, but there is nothing more important, more pivotal, in college sports right now than name, image and likeness. Nothing comes close. And Illinois has been aggressive and at the forefront of the policy since it was enacted three years ago.

Kudos to Illinois Director of Athletics Josh Whitman, the Illinois administration, boosters and donors –– both large and small –– and their respective collectives, which are the support networks for college athletes.

Illinois basketball has prospered and thrived in the single most important facet of college athletics. It can all change in a snap. Everyone is trying to keep up with the Joneses in college sports, especially in basketball and football. And don’t discount the notion that big donors simply could get tired of propping up a program and regularly donating large sums, particularly if the results of the player they paid for or the team’s success doesn’t match the donor’s expectations.

But Illinois basketball is on firm ground and the envy of the majority of high-major programs when it comes to NIL and the overall money for resources.

Quite honestly, part of the problem, or shortcomings, of Illinois not being considered a bonafide top 20 program nationally for all those years when fans believed it to be true, was timing.

Illinois often (maybe not always?) had head coaches leading the program –– and an administration, for that matter –– that simply didn’t want to or, in some cases, refused to break the rules. You as fans can use your imagination as to which coaches and in which era this or that was happening.

There have always been people with money surrounding Illinois basketball who were willing to do whatever it took to raise the program to another level. You know, into that top 10 or 20 level. For whatever reason, whether it be a large alumni base with career success and disposable income or passionate fans willing to invest, that’s just always been the deal and understanding at Illinois.

While it had to be so tempting for a few of those past coaches to delve well past the gray area, they didn’t and the sometimes seedy wishes of the “money people” were often thwarted.

But right now in college basketball? There are few rules to even bend. All the conversations about money are out in the open; it is what is –– pay for play.

Pay players? How much do we have to give? How much can we raise and how fast? Recruiting becomes not only a whole lot different but a whole lot easier, especially for a select few around the country.

“Don’t go be a second round pick on a two-way contract when you can play here for another year for $650,000.”

“That school is offering you $250,000? No sweat! We’ll go $350,000 and add a car as a sweetener.”

How quickly the normalization of NIL has become has been startling.

And the lure of money is only going to be more impactful after the NCAA and Power Five conferences agreed in May to allow schools to pay players directly. The recent agreement will include a revenue-sharing plan that will allow each school to pay approximately $20 million per year for its athletes with basketball programs getting a large chunk of that cash.

This on top of the NIL Illinois has to offer?

This isn’t to take anything away from what Underwood, individually, has done for the program. He’s been the steward of the program, learning and adapting as a high major head coach and flourishing in the transfer portal. He’s built what is now a specific, recognized brand.

While it all matters –– facilities, recruiting, on-the-court success, resources, administrative support and, especially, a competent head coach –– NIL is what sets programs apart now.

As a result, Illinois can now seriously lay claim to it being a top 20 program nationally. Now it has to find a way to solidify its standing and stay there.

But if Underwood were to ever leave –– and the set up at Illinois was the same then as it currently is in comparison to other college basketball programs –– the coaching candidate list for this job would be much different this time around, with even more appealing choices than in past hiring cycles.