INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WCIA) – It was an emotional scene in and around the Illinois men’s basketball locker room after Saturday’s Final Four loss to UConn.

“I can’t hardly talk,” Illini head coach Brad Underwood said. “It stinks.”

Underwood fought back tears when talking with reporters about this team and what the players on it mean to him.

“Please don’t ever judge me for wins and losses,” he said. “That’s not who I am as a coach. Relationships – you want it for [the players.]”

Underwood, asked what he would tell his former self – who waited worked as an assistant coach for more than two decades and had a handful of stops at lower levels – about getting to this place.

“It’s worth it,” he said. “The one thing I would tell anybody is time is wonderful, because of all the relationships… It’s worth it. It’s worth it. There’s nothing wrong with time and paying your dues, and working your tail off.”

He continued.

“It’s not over,” he said. “I want to win one, and I’m at a place where we can do that. [It would] be good to look back and tell [my former self] that Dodge City Community College Coach who thought he had all the answers and didn’t have any – that it will all be okay.”

He says this loss hurts worse than the 2024 Elite 8 loss to UConn.

“I hope this team created memories that last a lifetime for a lot of people, no matter what age,” Underwood said. “It did for me.”

As for the future of this program, his message to the players eligible to return is simple.

“Please come back, let’s go do this again,” he said.

Underwood believes this program is more than capable of building off the success of the 2025-26.

“We’ll find a lot of ways to do that,” he said.”

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