It is hard to push back the detractors because there are numbers to show that the first two years of the Underwood rein hasn’t been good. Year one he was 14-18 and last season the record dipped to 12-21. While the record tells a story, it doesn’t necessarily tell the entire story.
Underwood was hired to lead this program in March 2017. Illinois was coming of four-straight disappointing seasons in which John Groce couldn’t manage to lead the team to the NCAA tournament. Change needed to be made. Not only were we losing a coach, but we were also losing a lot of production that did manage to get us to 20 wins that season.