Brad Underwood

After Quiet Start, March Madness Gets Big Upset

... over Winthrop. Middle Tennessee was able to chip away at a 13-point deficit to get within 5. -Genaro Armas reporting from Milwaukee. 8:03 p.m. UPSET ALERT: No. 3 seed Florida State is on the verge of an early exit against a double-digit seed. The Seminoles trail 11 th-seeded Xavier 74-53 with about 7 minutes remaining in their West Region game in Orlando, Florida. The Musketeers have controlled the tempo, the scoreboard and, most notably, the 3-point line for much of the night. Xavier is 10-of-15 shooting from behind the arc, making seven more from that range than FSU. It would be a disappointing ending for coach Leonard Hamilton's team, which tied its highest seeding in program history and has two players projected to be first-round picks in the NBA draft. -Mark Long reporting from Orlando, Florida. 8 p.m. Top-seeded Gonzaga fought off a wild Northwestern comeback for a ...

Brad Underwood, Like Baker Mayfield, Knows Bedlam Is Best With A Little Feisty Banter

... OU’s student section. “I said there should be a couple thousand more fans there,” Underwood confirmed Friday as his team prepared for Saturday night’s Bedlam renewal at Gallagher-Iba. Underwood went on to explain that the Sooners, coming off a Final Four season, deserved better than to play an important game in front of such a sparse crowd. Lon Kruger deserved better. “I have so much respect for Lon,” Underwood said. “He’s a guy in this business I think extremely high of and have followed. We’re good friends.”. That’s civility right there. And the hostility. “They were giving me a hard time,” Underwood said of the students, “so I had a little fun.”. “I like having fun,” he told me a few moments later. “That’s who I am.”. That’s who we all should be. The best rivalries are the ones with the most give-and-take, both on the scoreboard and the bulletin board. It’s the spice of sports’ life. Underwood struck on both fronts after OSU defeated ...

Brad Underwood, Oklahoma State Players Preview Michigan

... on the butt when they need it. Sign of a very good player. Q. Coach Underwood, the teams have taken different approach to guarding the pick-and-pop game. Do you think that they remind you of anyone and what is the risk/reward of switching every screen with them. What’s the risk/reward of and the conditions of trying to do something like that. COACH UNDERWOOD: They do a tremendous job of reading whatever you do. I think whatever way you choose to guard them, it’s to a certain extent, you pick your poison. Teams that have switched can give up rebounds. Teams that don’t force you into rotations and you’re talking about four guys or five guys on the perimeter that have great spacing. That’s what makes what they do so difficult is John does an incredible job of spacing the floor. They force you an extra step or two because they can shoot it, and then you’ve got a guy like Irvin who is a very good driver. So you pick your poison with whichever you choose, and you’ve got to make it difficult and not allow them to be as comfortable as they want to be, and then you’ve got to contest shots. Q. Brad, I asked your players something similar. OSU’s only got one NCAA tournament ...

How Much Has Attendance Improved Since Brad Underwood Took Over

... or take. The conference attendance is slightly lower, but I expect the last two crowds to help push the season average attendance over 9,000. But out of the seven seasons in the 2010 s, Coach Underwood will only best the 2014-15 and 2015-16 season. The rest of the seasons hover in the 9,000-10,000 range in total attendance, non-conference attendance and conference attendance. If you are a numbers freak, here are the numbers breaking down the past seven seasons. So even though Brad Underwood has resurrected the program from how Ford left it, the attendance numbers just aren’t quite there yet. Give it time though. This is the first year of Underwood’s tenure. There have been three sellouts of GIA this year with two games to go. There was never more than four sellouts in one season in the past decade, ...

Brad Underwood Will Be The Next Head Coach At Illinois

... vs. Mavericks NBA Tue 4:30 pm PT. NBCSN PFT Live NFL Wed 4 am PT. NBCSN The Dan Patrick Show General Wed 6 am PT. Golf Channel WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Day 1 Golf Wed 11 am PT. NBCSN NASCAR America NASCAR Wed 2:30 pm PT. NBCSN Islanders vs. Rangers NHL Wed 4 pm PT. CSN New England Pacers vs. Celtics NBA Wed 4 pm PT. CSN Philly 76 ers vs. Thunder NBA Wed 4:30 pm PT. CSN Mid-atlantic Hawks vs. Wizards NBA Wed 4:30 pm PT. CSN California Bucks vs. Kings NBA Wed 7 pm PT. NBCSN Bournemouth v. Swansea City Premier League Sat 7:30 am HT. CSN Chicago Boys Basketball: Class 3 A Championship Basketball Sat 7:45 am HT. NBC Sports Arnold Palmer Invitational Third Round Golf Sat 8:30 am HT. Digital Only USSA FIS Alpine World Cup Final: W Slalom Run 2 Alpine Skiing Sat 8:30 am HT. Digital Only FIS World Freestyle Champs: Sierra Nevada FS Halfpipe Freestyle Skiing Sat 9 am HT. CSN California Kings vs. Thunder NBA Sat 9:30 am HT. Golf Channel Tucson Conquistadores Classic Second Round Golf Sat 10:30 am HT. NBCSN USSA FIS Alpine World Cup Final: M GS and W Slalom Run 2 Alpine Skiing Sat 12 pm HT. CSN Mid-atlantic Capitals vs. Lightning Hockey Sat 12:30 pm HT. CSN ...

Illinois Hires Brad Underwood As Men's Basketball Coach

... the Oklahoma State job a day after Stephen F. Austin was knocked out of the NCAA tournament by Notre Dame. Underwood, who is 109-27 as a coach, led Stephen F. Austin to three straight NCAA tournaments, winning two first-round games when he coached the Lumberjacks from 2013-2016. A former Western Illinois assistant coach from 1992-2003, he called the Illinois job a "once in a lifetime opportunity.". "I can't wait to get started with our team," he said in a statement. "Next season can't get here fast enough for me!". Whitman was eager to find a replacement for John Groce, whom he fired last week after five seasons in Champaign. Groce's teams were 96-75 overall and never finished better than seventh in the Big Ten. The Illini missed the NCAA tournament his last four seasons. Whitman sounded enamored with ...

Many Emotions Riding On Warm Reception Brad Underwood Figures To Receive At K-state

... to do? Lose. However, since those NCAA runs in Weber’s first two seasons, losses have mounted. The Cats came up dry the past two postseasons and are merely flirting with the NCAA bubble this year. Those who longed for Underwood are frustrated, at the very least. Was it a slam dunk that Underwood would have come to K-State? John Currie happens to be the same athletic director who could not, for one reason or another, retain Martin. A sour relationship there could have affected Underwood’s desire to work for the same AD. Regardless, Currie is in a position now where he has to at least be contemplating a coaching move, bold or not. Plans hinge on how K-State (17-10, 6-8) closes out everything and what, if any, tournament bid the Cats obtain. With several high-level Division I jobs potentially available, a new hire could be tricky. The right start to such a process would ...

Bill Self, Brad Underwood Should Share Big 12 Coach Of The Year

... discount Self, something his peers might be doing considering they haven’t voted him Coach of the Year since he shared it with Hoiberg. Here are two coaches who would rather smother you with pressure than outgun you from the perimeter. Two coaches who, out of necessity, swallowed their pride and played to their strengths, Underwood by backing off his preferred man-to-man pressure for the sake of more team defense, and Self by attacking offensively out of a guard-to-guard weave to take advantage of Mason, Jackson and Graham’s freelancing. It has been so much fun to watch. It was a blast watching the Cowboys hang tough at Iowa State, same as they did two weeks ago against an OU team that couldn’t miss, or earlier this month as they shot 62 percent to win at No. 7 West Virginia. You beat top-10 teams on the ...

Underwood's Success Comes With Anxiety As Contract Talk Looms Large

... else to think it's elite. I know what elite programs are. You just saw one (KU). We should think of ourselves that way.”. Stillwater had buzzed all day Saturday. Campus, same way. And Gallagher-Iba Arena, for at least the fourth time this season, was rocking like the old days. Excitement had returned. Hope was back with OSU hoops. And with it comes nervousness. For the last several years, OSU had a basketball coach it didn't want, but Travis Ford's arduous contract made a change unthinkable. Now OSU has the opposite. A coach most any school would want. A coach making just $1 million a year, meager by the crazy standards of the profession. A coach whose alma mater, Kansas State, has a fan base that clamored for Underwood last spring and will do so again if Bruce Weber is fired. Meanwhile, OSU has an athletic director who well remembers 2009, when Ford's first OSU team revived the fire for Cowboy basketball, beating Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament and taking top-seeded Pitt to the wire in the round of 32. Those Cowboys were eliminated on March 22; Kentucky fired Billy Gillispie on March 28. ...

Illinois Stuns By Taking Brad Underwood From Oklahoma State

... three years with the Golden Bears. He went to the 2016 NCAA Tournament and lost as a No. 4 seed in the first round. Martin has held three previous positions as head coach, spending three years at all three schools (Missouri State, Tennessee, Cal). He has made two NCAA Tournaments in nine years, highlighted by a Sweet 16 appearance with Tennessee in 2014. For more on Martin’s move,  head here. Missouri Tigers. Out: Kim Anderson. The Tigers fired Kim Anderson after three seasons in which the program was not competitive in the SEC. Anderson had a three-year run that resulted in a 27-68 mark. Missouri’s gig is interesting because the fan base is passionate, but its overall standing in the universe of college basketball is unknown. Now in the SEC, the hope is that this can be a top-five job in that league. In: Cuonzo Martin. Martin will sign a seven-year deal. He grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois, just over the Missouri border. It’s approximately two hours from Missouri’s campus. Martin brings with him a reputation as an exceptional recruiter. This could include a move ...

What Brad Underwood Had To Say After Oklahoma State's Quarterfinal Exit Against Iowa State

... of their major deficiencies. We didn’t take the rebounding lead until late, late in the half. Again, that’s one of the things we talked about was points in the paint, getting them off offensive rebounds. We didn’t go.". Q: How concerned are you about your defense going forward. Underwood: "I’ll be glad when we don’t see Big 12 teams. Just simply because Iowa State’s going to make a lot of teams do that because of their ability to score. That’s an old team led by an NBA guard. Great guards, we’ve had stretches during the year where we’ve been terrific defensively, but they force you to be good offensively. I’m probably as much concerned about the offensive end, running better offense, to help our defense. Because we took so many quick shots that were mid-clock and we were out of sorts and we’ve got to get back to running a little better offense.". Q: You’ve got a great point ...