String of first-round picks illustrate Brad Underwood’s impact on Illinois – The News-Gazette

CHAMPAIGN — The moment NBA Commissioner Adam Silver reads Keaton Wagler’s name aloud Tuesday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., Illinois men’s basketball history will be made.

Unless every mock draft and talking head has wildly overshot on the one-and-done Illini’s stock, Wagler won’t have to wait long for that moment. Projected as an early-lottery pick, his selection will give Illinois a first-round pick in three consecutive drafts.

That’s never happened in the lengthy history of the program.

It was a close thing in the late 1980s, with first-round picks in 1987 (Ken Norman), 1989 (Nick Anderson and Kenny Battle) and 1990 (Kendall Gill).

Same for the early 2000s with first-round picks in 2002 (Frank Williams), 2003 (Brian Cook) and 2005 (Deron Williams and Luther Head).

But never first-round picks in three consecutive drafts.

It won’t just be a first in Illinois history, either. Recent history will also favor the Illini, with Duke, Baylor and Connecticut the only other teams projected to have first-round picks in 2024, 2025 and now 2026.

A far cry from when Brad Underwood took the Illinois job in March 2017 when Illinois was five years removed from its last draft pick.

“I think in the last several years at Illinois, their talent evaluation and acquisition has been terrific,” ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas told The News-Gazette. “He’s got really good players that fit well together. It’s one thing where you acquire the talent that everybody knows is highly rated and all that. It’s another where you’re a little more creative.”

That would describe how Illinois landed each of those first-round picks.

Terrence Shannon Jr. played three solid, if unspectacular, seasons at Texas Tech before transferring to Champaign, taking the keys to the Illinois offense and turning into one of the best scorers in the country.

Then Illinois went to Spain (via Lithuania) to secure Kasparas Jakucionis and paired him with a reclassified Will Riley to produce the first — and then immediately second — one-and-done first-round draft picks in program history.

Wagler was the follow-up. An under-the-radar, severely under-recruited in hindsight, prospect who wound up Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a consensus Second Team All-American while leading the Illini to the Final Four and establishing himself as one of the elite freshmen in the country.

“Finding a guy that’s going to be a lottery pick and going to the first Final Four in forever is incredibly impressive,” Bilas said. “I don’t want to say I’m surprised, because I’m not, and I’ve known Brad is that good all the way back to the old days, but I think one of the fun things to watch about Brad is how he’s evolved and changed things as the game has changed.

“Not just the game on the floor, but the environment around the game. He’s been in lockstep, if not ahead of it.”

That applies to how Underwood built his last few rosters at Illinois.

Picky in the transfer portal.

Open to international reinforcements.

Selective from the high-school ranks with little regard for recruiting rankings.

There are certainly connective threads throughout the team — positional size, shooting and well-rounded skill sets the must haves — but where the players are from and how they get to Champaign has had true variance that’s tapped into every new market the changes in college basketball have created.

“I think for some older coaches, there’s a tendency to complain and lament the way things are versus the way things were, but there’s never a time where things have stayed the same if you look to any period in the game,” Bilas said. “Rather than spend time complaining, I think Brad’s one of those that spends time looking for solutions and the right way to do it.

“I think they’re very intentional about getting players that have a certain skill level and that are versatile and that are we first instead of me first. Sometimes, that’s not easy to identify. You can be seduced by talent. Brad puts together a team. It’s not necessarily a collection of talent. You certainly have to have talent, but talent that fits together.”

That applied to last year’s team that reached the program’s first Final Four in more than two decades. Wagler was the unexpected freshman star on a team that went heavy on the international front but was anchored by veterans with experience in Champaign.

Underwood’s retention efforts this offseason produced a similar team with five returning rotation players already embedded in the program’s culture. A team that might have a first-round pick to add to the growing list of draft successes.

“Last year, from my seat, was so joyful to watch, and I can’t imagine it wasn’t joyful for Illinois fans,” Bilas said. “Do Illinois fans really care what native language any of those players spoke when you watched them play and they were just about winning and each other? It made you feel good.

“They were a joy to watch. Not just with the way they performed X and O wise, but the way they related to one another. It was a true team. I think they deserve a lot of credit for that. That’s not by happenstance. That was intentional.”