Illinois head coach Brad Underwood went to Belgrade, Serbia, this past summer to participate in a clinic with the Serbian Association of Basketball Coaches. In a video of his presentation that was just released on Saturday via YouTube, Underwood used a player from his 2024-25 roster as an example, but not in a positive way. He criticized that player’s ability to be impactful in a team setting, especially on defense, despite his individual prowess.
“Had a young man on my team this year, looked great,” Underwood said. “Individual workout, jump up, shoot three, 6-foot-10, touch the top of the backboard. Looked like the greatest player ever. You put nine other players with him, couldn’t process. Guy would drive by him, he would try to go block it. He could touch the top of the backboard, (but) he jumped when the ball was going through the net.”
Underwood didn’t explicitly name the player in the video, but using his descriptors – 6-foot-10, 3-point shooter, couldn’t process game situations – it’s clear that the only player who fits that criteria was forward Carey Booth. Every other big man on last season’s active roster played a major role, and it’s unlikely that Underwood would characterize them as borderline unplayable.
Booth was expected to be a key rotation piece at Illinois as a sophomore after a promising freshman season at Notre Dame. However, the stretch big man surprisingly regressed in Champaign and looked lost whenever he touched the floor. Underwood gave him 14 DNPs, and Booth only averaged 1.2 points in garbage time, resulting in his transfer to Colorado State ahead of his junior year.
Whether the player in question was Booth or not, what’s most interesting about the video is that Underwood wasn’t the only one concerned about said player. Apparently, fellow players were also worried, and they voiced their concerns to the head coach. Underwood recalled a game last season when the Illini were riddled with illness and injuries, and one of his stars questioned his decision to utilize the unnamed player.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
“We were playing a game this year, and the young man I just talked about that didn’t quite process right … I put him in the game, and my point guard walked over, and he goes, ‘Coach, are we really at that point?’” Underwood said. “They know. So we became immediately only as strong as that player. I had to get him out. I put a walk-on in.”
Underwood’s point from this example was that a single weak link can bring down the level of an entire lineup on the floor. He and one of his leading players were so concerned that a scholarship player was detrimental to the team that he chose to play a walk-on instead, which almost never happens in college basketball.
This brings up natural questions about the chemistry and true depth of last year’s team. One player’s active resistance to playing with a teammate because of a lack of trust in their abilities combats redshirt junior guard Ty Rodgers’ assertion that, “From top to bottom, this (2024-25) team is more talented than the roster we had (in 2023-24).” Simply, it’s not a good look for a team that was supposed to be one of the premier squads in the country last season.
@sahil_mittal24
