Illinois coach Brad Underwood on having too much talent: “That’s a cop out”

CHAMPAIGN (WCIA) — The influx of talent for Illinois basketball in the Brad Underwood era is historic. All five of the top ranked players in the ‘recruiting rankings era’ dating back to 2000 are Underwood recruits, including seven of the top 10 prospects, according to 247Sports.

Class of 2024 5-star recruit Will Riley tops the list, followed by Morez Johnson (Class of 2024), Ayo Dosunmu (Class of 2018), Adam Miller (Class of 2020) and Skyy Clark (Class of 2022). More talent usually means more success, which has certainly translated for Underwood and the Illini in his seven years leading the program. Illinois is the Big Ten’s winningest team the past five years winning 69 conference games, the most in school history in a five-year stretch.

Multiple players have come and gone, that’s life in the transfer portal era, with 10 new players on the team this year alone. But Underwood isn’t entertaining the thought that you can have too much talent on a team.

“I’m not going to buy that you can have too much, that’s a cop out,” Underwood said. “People that say that are people that don’t have it and we’ll figure it out, it always works itself out and I hope we have a group where we’ve got eight, nine, 10 guys who are starters and let’s go compete. You don’t perform in practice, just come sit, I’m good with that. I like having that talent to know there’s not a huge drop-off there.”

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