Careful with the word “should’ve.” As I said previously, toe stubbings happen. Doesn’t mean no one sees them, they aren’t painful or embarrassing. And god forbid Underwood get even a tiny bit of criticism over losing a local kid whose never played at a high major.
By all means, criticize Underwood for missing a kid he spent a ton of time and resources on, that's totally fair.
The idea that he deserves extra criticism because the kid's from Oswego and has been at a mid-major is what I took issue with, because that's silly and is based entirely on an assumption that an Oswego kid must have some kind of special fondness for Illinois basketball - even though Illinois basketball has been mediocre as hell for most of his life.
I will say, I worked in a high school athletic department during the Groce era. Even had one of our kids play at Illinois. I did not notice any particular affinity among the kids for Illinois basketball. A few of them followed it; most didn't anymore. The big basketball heads I knew followed a little, but they were more into the teams in the tournament every year - the Kansas' and Kentuckys and Gonzagas. Obviously a big difference from when I was in high school. But it makes some kind of sense - Illinois has not been good during these kids' lives until very recently.
You look at this from the perspective of someone from your background and never consider that maybe someone who DIDN'T come of age in the 80's and 90's would view Illinois basketball quite differently than you do.
From the time RayJ Dennis was 5 years old until we hired Underwood when he was 16, Illinois made the NCAA tournament three times. He almost certainly does not remember Illinois ever being in the Sweet 16. That's a very, very different program than the one you and I were looking at when we were 16.
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