So you admit Underwood didn’t coach the team up.
I said it about 40 times last season: For all Underwood’s talk about positionless modern basketball, he and his staff went out and built about a very traditional roster. A roster built to win in the B1G, which it did at a high level, but not one built to match up well with the likes of Baylor or let’s say a UCLA. Or *gasp* Loyola.
So my main criticism isn’t really his coaching acumen but rather the roster construction. I get that Illinois doesn’t get first pick of the guys they want and you can’t turn down guys like Kofi.
So he and the staff reworked their entire scheme around having a guy like Kofi and managed to win the B1G by half a game, blow out the league runner up by 23 at their place without Ayo, win the BTT, and land a 1 seed.
Then the B1G got absolutely pantsed in the tourney against quicker more athletic teams with non-traditional bigs and better three point shooting. Underwood went out and got Payne and Plummer to address those needs to shore up the roster. Guess we’ll see what he can do with them.