https://omny.fm/shows/thedandakichshow/the-dan-dakich-show-1-15-25?in_playlist=dan-dakich-show
Skip ahead to ~52:30. My thoughts:
Skip ahead to ~52:30. My thoughts:
- First off, I love that Underwood is a go-to coach for these media guys. It shows his stature at Illinois and in the conference.
- Very interesting tangent where Underwood advocates for expanding the college basketball season. Sounds like he'd be fine with adding a month to the season on either end. Very interesting concept for best-of-3 in the later rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Frames it from the perspective of generating more revenue from high fan interest. Normally I resist change but he made a good case.
- It's clear that Underwood is very comfortable with the changing landscape of college basketball. It probably doesn't hurt that he's been able to leverage it to great success.
- Some interesting insight into personality screening on recruits and how he factors that into teambuilding. Marcus Domask as an exemplar. I'd say this factor is helping accelerate the success with the roster turnover this year.
- Good insight into coaching/motivation decisions. You can see that Underwood is a demanding coach but is a little more modern with his motivational tactics than the old school Bob Knight types. He recognizes that it depends on the personality of the team.
- Clearly the 11 AM start was a massive contributor to the USC stinker. Probably also thought that KJ was going to play and the team wasn't fully prepared for his absence. Glad to see that he's recognizing this as a pattern and working on new ways to address it in the immediate future (see: MSU game on Sunday.)
- Underwood is getting older (he's 61 now) but it's also clear that he's motivated by competitiveness and he is not thinking retirement. He's thinking about winning at a high level for the foreseeable future. This wasn't discussed at all but I expect he'll keep going into his 70's. Comes across as a guy that is absolutely in his coaching prime. (Compare that to a guy like Tom Izzo who gives off a vibe that he's from a previous era and maybe could quit any day now.)
