Illinois snaps 21-year Final Four drought using mix of old methods, new concepts and a dash of European flavor

Brad Underwood has built a team that's gelled into a national title contender that will try and win the NCAA Tournament next weekend

Chip Patterson

Mar 29, 2026

1:34 am ET

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9 min read

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HOUSTON -- Illinois coach Brad Underwood got the traditional honors of the final snip of the scissors cutting down the nets in the Toyota Center after Illinois' 71-59 win against Iowa to win the South Regional title and secure a spot in next weekend's Final Four. He climbed to the top of the ladder, cut the net and took a moment to celebrate the achievement. Not as a moment that cements decades of ladder-climbing through the coaching ranks with decades in junior college and as a mid-major assistant, but as a moment for Illinois.

For the first time since 2005, Illinois is headed to the Final Four. And just like that group which was led by Deron Williams, Dee Brown and Luther Head, this year's Fighting Illini have a group with undeniable chemistry and resilience. It's a group that the Illinois fans similarly adore, and so when Underwood paused at the top of the ladder, net in hand, he turned to both sides of an orange-clad lower bowl let them in on the celebration with a couple hearty "I-L-L" calls.

"One of the most fulfilling moments personally that I just had was standing on the ladder with the net, and then seeing our fans," Underwood said still soaking wet from yet another Super Soaker battle with his team in the locker room celebration. "That wasn't about me. That was about our fans, and that was about what's probably going on in Champaign right now, because that's what you believe this to be."

> Job ain’t done. pic.twitter.com/ELg1zt1D7S

— Illinois Men's Basketball (@IlliniMBB) March 29, 2026

Earlier in his career, Underwood told an staffer that being at Illinois was his "dream job." His wife bought his son, Tyler, who is now an assistant on the team, a Brian Cook jersey when he was two years old. He's been intimately aware of what Illinois can be, and how badly Illini fans want to embrace a big-time winner.

"I don't want to sound arrogant," Underwood said. "I've never doubted us getting to a Final Four would happen, I have thought we have had other teams capable. But I also know how doggone hard it is to do it. For that, I just say thank you. I say thank you to everybody involved. And I'm going to get emotional, but I've been doing this 39 years, and you dream about this as a kid, and I dreamt about doing it at Illinois."

Saturday's win against Iowa is a true "program win" for a group that has been as adaptable to the modern times as anyone in college basketball. Underwood and his staff are utilizing European connections and the transfer portal while also remaining true to traditional methods of roster building with high school recruiting and player development. Every box is checked with this 2026 team in terms of how they arrived at Illinois, but once they did get together for the first time it did not take long for them to gel into the lovable Final Four-bound squad that's now two wins away from the school's first-ever national championship.

Dee Brown led Illinois to the 2005 NCAA Tournament championship game.

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A freshman star that makes the right plays

Keaton Wagler had a game-high 25 points in the win vs. Iowa and was named the South Regional's Most Outstanding Player. It's yet another honor to go with the All-Big Ten and All-American and Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors that have come from a stunning debut for a player who was a four-star prospect but ranked outside the top 100 in his recruiting class. Underwood knew quickly in the recruiting process that Wagler would be a difference-maker for the program based on the way he played.

Interestingly enough, Wagler only scored two points the first time Underwood came to see him live in high school. Yet the Illinois coach couldn't wait to call his son and assistant coach, Tyler, to rave about what he had just seen. See, Underwood's relationship with Wagler's AAU coach, Victor Williams, clued him into what an undersized guard out of Kansas could be at the next level.

"The night before he had had 36. The night I went to see him he had two," Underwood said. "They blitzed him, they got it out of his hand, but he made every right play, he was not selfish, he was not a pig, he wasn't trying to force things. He just let the game come to him. Very, very mature as a senior in high school when you're the guy. And he just played the game.

"And so I felt great about it. Did I know a 178-pound kid coming in was going to be this? I didn't. To be the South Region MVP and an All-American is, you know, I would be lying. I'm proud as heck of him, because no one works harder than him, and no one's a better human being than him."

You could see on film that Wagler could shoot it well and had skills that could transl