From McPherson to the Big Ten: Brad Underwood's Journey to College Basketball's Top Stage
The McPherson native leads Illinois into today's Elite Eight showdown with Iowa, one win away from the Final Four
MCPHERSON, Kan. — Brad Underwood grew up in McPherson, spent summers baling hay on his grandparents' farms in north-central Kansas and played basketball at McPherson High School, where he graduated in 1982. Today, he leads one of the most storied programs in college basketball as head coach of the University of Illinois Fighting Illini — and on Saturday, he'll coach for a trip to the Final Four.
No. 3 Illinois faces No. 9 Iowa in the Elite Eight today, March 28, at 5:09 p.m. CT in Houston. A win sends Underwood's Illini to the Final Four for the first time since 2005. For McPherson residents, it's a moment worth watching — because the man on that bench is one of their own.
Born in 1963, the McPherson native has spent nearly four decades in the college game, working his way up from community college head coach to the Big Ten Conference, one of the most competitive leagues in the country. His path was anything but a straight line, but those who know him say the values forged in McPherson never left him.
Underwood began his college playing career at Hardin-Simmons University before transferring to Independence Community College and ultimately landing at Kansas State, where he was a three-year standout and lettered before earning a bachelor's degree in radio and television communications in 1986. He entered coaching as a graduate assistant at Hardin-Simmons in 1988, then served as an assistant at Dodge City Community College before taking over as head coach there in 1990, leading the Conquistadors from 1990 to 1993 and advancing to the NJCAA Tournament twice. From Dodge City, he moved through a series of assistant and head coaching roles at Western Illinois, Daytona Beach Community College, Kansas State and South Carolina — building a reputation as a player developer and program builder willing to pay his dues.
His first major Division I head coaching break came in 2013 at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas. Underwood turned the Lumberjacks into a national story almost immediately, culminating in a first-round NCAA Tournament upset of the third-seeded West Virginia Mountaineers in 2016. That performance put him on the radar of high-major programs. Oklahoma State hired him weeks later, and in his lone season he led the Cowboys to a 20-13 record and an NCAA Tournament berth before Illinois came calling in March 2017.
At Illinois, Underwood has rebuilt a program that had fallen on hard times. His most celebrated season came in 2020-21, when he led the Illini to a 23-6 record, a Big Ten Tournament championship — the program's first since 2005 — and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament's Midwest Regional. The run reestablished Illinois as a relevant national program and earned Underwood recognition as one of college basketball's top coaches.
The Illinois job also became a family affair. His son, Tyler Underwood, played for the Illini from 2017 to 2021 and now serves on his father's coaching staff in Champaign — a continuation of a basketball life that began in Kansas.
Underwood married Susan Price in 1987 in Salina. Susan, a Kansas State graduate, has been a constant through the coaching life's frequent relocations and lean early years. The couple has three children: Tyler, Katie and Ashley.
Those who have followed Underwood's career often point to his Kansas roots as a defining part of who he is. He has spoken publicly about the influence of growing up in a small, agricultural community — the work ethic of farm life, the steadiness of Midwestern values and the importance of community. McPherson gave him that foundation long before any arena or recruiting class did.
For a town of roughly 13,000 people in the middle of the Kansas plains, producing a Big Ten head coach is no small thing — and Saturday afternoon, Brad Underwood will be one win away from the sport's biggest stage. Tip-off is at 5:09 p.m. CT in Houston.
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