Illinois men's basketball preview | Competitive offseason has Illini ready
Nov. 4—CHAMPAIGN — Brad Underwood turns into more of an engaged observer than an active coach during his team's foreign trips, leaving the actual in-game coaching to his assistants.
It's the approach the Illinois men's basketball coach used when the Illini played in Italy in 2019 and the approach he revisited in August for three exhibition games in Spain.
Chester Frazier, Tim Anderson and Geoff Alexander got one game apiece at the helm. They called the plays. They handled the rotation. Underwood watched, taking notes about where a new-look, older Illinois team stood three months out from the start of the 2023-24 season.
There was only one thing Underwood insisted upon leading up to the trip to Spain. AJ Redd would start the first game. It was a reward for the walk-on guard after the summer he put together in Champaign. A summer where everything was a competition — from shooting drills to 1-on-1 to 5-on-5 to the mile run that's a part of Adam Fletcher's conditioning test.
Redd had the highest winning percentage in that everything-is-a-competition summer, so he got to start against the Madrid All-Stars.
"I want guys to understand that competing is what this is about," Underwood said. "I think they're all very singular in their focus about what they want this team to be, and that's being part of a winner."
Underwood credits his assistant coaches for injecting a dose of competition into Illinois' offseason.
The idea of basketball workouts has evolved. More emphasis is being placed with a player or small group of players getting together with a coach, putting out some cones and working on ball-handling or shooting. Important skill work, sure, but not everything a team needs.
"What we forget to do in there is compete and play," Underwood said. "Many generations of guys, working out was to play pick up. Our staff felt like we needed that. In the summer, we incorporated 30 minutes of pick up."
That would be organized pick up. The Illinois coaches were on the court, you know, coaching. The Illini mixed it up, too, sometimes playing to time and sometimes to score. It helped a team with seven newcomers start to develop a chemistry in a competitive environment.
"I feel like it helped certain players understand their roles, and it helped put guys in certain situations that were game-like," fifth-year senior guard Terrence Shannon Jr. said. "Playing with the whistle and not just playing on our own and unorganized was really good for us."
It was also an offseason approach the returning players hadn't experienced during their time in Champaign. Junior guard Luke Goode said there hadn't been that kind of emphasis on 5-on-5 in either of his first two summers at Illinois. The Illini took it further, regularly meeting up at Ubben Basketball Complex for pick-up games without the coaches present.
"This is the only team so far that has played 5s without having to get it mandatory or having it scheduled," Goode said. "We'll just come in here and play. ... We just played so much basketball this summer. We got to learn what guys can do and what guys can't do.
"So many new guys, I don't want to watch their film, so you don't know what they bring. That's a good way to get a feel, and all those guys, now I'm confident in what they can bring and know how to elevate their game as well."
The offseason competition extended off the court.
Every player on the team completed the mile run in 5 minutes, 30 seconds or less. Justin Harmon's 4:45 broke the program record held by Jacob Grandison and Trent Frazier. Then the Utah Valley transfer saw that same record broken a few days later by new teammate Sencire Harris.
"Most people just usually try to get through that and there's a lot of complaining about, 'We're not a track team,'" Underwood said. "This year, they were all trying to shatter records."
Because everything was a competition. And nobody was bashful about their successes. The level of trash talk was high.
"It gets a little rough in practice," Shannon said. "We always remember what happens the day before. We come into practice with that same intensity we had the day before, and it carries over."
A trademark, perhaps, of an older team with twice as many fifth-year players as true freshmen. A roster that's generated a surplus of what Fraizer called "healthy competition."
"It was refreshing seeing guys working and wanting to compete against each other," the Illinois assistant said. "You lose that a little bit especially when you have young guys. Now, we're an older group. You look to your left and look to your right, and it's a really good player. You have a bad day, that guy is coming for you."
