Brad Underwood has had quite the stressful offseason. While it was well known that Ayo would be departing to the NBA, many assumed the Illini would be bringing back everyone else for another deep postseason run.
Unfortunately that assumption was far from the truth.
Illinois lost three key assistants in Orlando Antigua, Chin Coleman, and Stephen Gentry and the unexpected departures of the promising Adam Miller and fan-favorite Giorgi Bezhanishvili. Adding to all of that was the unexpected news that star center Kofi Cockburn was entering the transfer portal.
Underwood has done well to adapt despite all of this turnover.