BIG TEN BASKETBALL MEDIA DAYS

October 7, 2021

Brad Underwood

Illinois Fighting Illini

Men’s Head Coach

BRAD UNDERWOOD: It's exciting to be back here. We're looking forward to a COVID-free year I hope. Again, hats off to the Big Ten for pulling off what was an incredible season last year on so many fronts. I would like to start by thanking them.

We're excited about our group this year. Obviously that starts with the return of Kofi Cockburn deciding to come back, a guy that we think is a candidate for National Player of the Year. Then more importantly a couple of guys, Da'Monte Williams and Trent Frazier, two guys who elected to come back for their super senior years. We're excited. We're looking forward to that.

We have the addition of five new guys in Alfonso Plummer, Omar Payne, and three freshmen, Luke Goode, RJ Melendez, and Brandin Podziemski.

We're excited, have a great schedule. As always the Big Ten is going to be better than it's ever been, in my opinion, from top to bottom. It's the best league in the country. We're excited to take on the challenge of the great coaches, the great venues, get back to fans in the stands, and look forward to being back here in one of the great facilities in one of the great cities in all of college basketball. We're proud to be here in Indianapolis.

Q. (Question regarding Kofi Cockburn.)

BRAD UNDERWOOD: I'm never going to tell Kofi he can't do something. I know Kofi, the way he's driven, that will be something that he'll strive to do. Those are big shoes to fill. We've had a lot of great, great players there.

I love the fact he's thinking that way. He's working that way. He's had a very, very productive summer, which he didn't have last year. I think that's something that should be noted. None of our guys had an off-season last year. That excites me for a guy like Kofi that we started this in September of last year, now this year he's had an off-season, he's had a summer, and then a fall pre-season camp. I'm excited and glad to hear that Kofi is thinking about those things.

Q. Five years ago when you took this job, Illinois was playing here on Wednesdays a lot in the Big Ten tournament. Now you're expected to contend at the top of the conference. What were some of the key reasons that you have been able to take that ride?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: I don't think we ever wanted to settle. I think we had an idea of what we wanted to do. That started with recruiting guys who were winners. I think it started with understanding that it's character over characters. I feel tremendous about our culture.

I don't think we rushed the process. I think we tried to expedite it in the best way we could. We never put anybody ahead of the foundation of our program. I hope that lasts over the course of time. It's one of the most impressive things about this league, is some of the steeped cultures and traditions that some of these programs have.

We're trying to build that. We didn't want to take any shortcuts in doing that. I think those are some of the key things that we had, along with taking an everyday guy mentality to the practice court every day.

Q. Obviously you've had a lot of staff turnovers this off-season. Can you speak about what the new guys have brought to the table.

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Yeah, a lot. It's always a challenge. It's been a little bit different this year because of the return of so many veterans. It's not just going to the court and we're blind. These guys have filled in, they're very smart. Chester Frazier, obviously a guy that wore the are uniform at the University of Illinois. He brings passion, unrelenting work ethic. Geoff Alexander has been a guy that behind the scenes has been an integral part of our success and our growth. That one just made sense. He knows everything we're doing.

Then the addition of Tim Anderson, a guy that is a gifted workout guy, has great relationships with our players, and is learning our system as well. A very, very good staff. I love the chemistry of our staff. Excited about the future with them.

Q. Not too many teams can match the sheer size and mass of Kofi. How do you think he matches up in situations?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: I really only worry about that a little bit in our league games or our non-league games. If you look at the bigs in our league, this is a league that has second to none in the quality of bigs. Teams do try to take him out a little bit. I think people don't realize how gifted Kofi is athletically. He can really move his feet. Straight line running, Kofi is our second fastest guy on our team. He's got great feet. That's from playing soccer in his youth days.

That's something that doesn't truly worry me. He's gotten much better at being able to play on the perimeter, then getting back into rebounding. That's where we need him the most.

Q. With such a great talent like you just explained and expressed with Kofi, he obviously could have went to the next level, into the NBA. Sometimes do you kind of maybe sit them down and talk to them about going to the next level before they're ready as opposed to staying in college? Do you play any part in helping them make the best decision for them?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Only when asked. I think that's one of the things that we try to do, is inform them and let them go into the education process on their own with their own people. We did that with Kofi.

Also with the understanding that we have an unbelievable relationship. When that time came, he asked me what I thought. We talked about that a great deal. Kofi is an extremely intelligent young man.

Again, it wasn't just about the basketball. Sometimes the business opportunities on the business side of that have to factor in. Those were all factors in Kofi's decision.

Q. Omar Payne, what attracted you to him in the transfer portal? How does it fit in the front court? Opportunities for him for Kofi and him to play together?

BRAD UNDERWOOD: Yes to the last part. Omar has been tremendous throughout the summer, throughout our first couple weeks of fall practice.

Omar is an elite athlete. He's a guy that we have not had at 6'10", he has a 7'5" wingspan. Not knowing what Kofi's status was going to be, we knew we had to have a guy capable of playing in ball screens with Curbelo and Trent Frazier. He is elite at those. He's as quick twitch an athlete that we've had. But I've been very, very impressed. He's gained 20 pounds. He's a guy that has tremendous touch. He's been a big, big surprise in that area.