Brad Underwood waited 26 years for a Division I job. Now in Year 39, he has Illinois in Final Four

Illinois’ Brad Underwood coached for 26 years before landing his first Division I head coaching job.

Now in Year 39, the well-traveled 62-year-old is finally heading to the Final Four, where the Fighting Illini meet UConn on Saturday.

He’s doing it in what he’s long referred to as his dream job. In 2013 while in that first DI head coaching job at Stephen F. Austin, he told his administrative assistant about his ambition to coach the Fighting Illini one day. And she wrote it down.

When he was named Illinois coach in 2017, she presented him with that meaningful piece of paper containing his intention to lead this team.

In the place he always wanted to be, Underwood has the Fighting Illini in the Final Four for the first time since 2005, trying to bring home a first national title.

“I’ve been fortunate to be around great mentors, great coaches,” he said. “I just bided my time, found a group that’s magical. We’re living the dream.”

Though he’s living the dream now, it came only after decades of toiling in relative obscurity.

There were four years at Dodge City Community College starting in 1988 where he was not only the coach but the team’s bus driver for road games. Then came 10 years as an assistant for Jim Kerwin at Western Illinois, where he was “not making very much money and raising three kids and literally being gone five days a week.”

The next stop was Daytona Beach Community College from 2003-06, which also was not the most glamorous job but had a nice perk.

“It was an incredible place to help raise our kids, going to the beach every weekend," he said. "And I loved coaching ball in junior college.”

After that he worked as an assistant, first for Bob Huggins followed by Frank Martin, at Kansas State from 2006-12. He followed Martin to South Carolina, where he spent one season before landing at Stephen F. Austin.

“I’ve been blessed along the way because I’ve worked for nothing but winners for head coaches and people who allowed me to grow,” Underwood said.

At Stephen F. Austin he was named Southland Conference coach of the year in each of his three seasons. The Lumberjacks won the league tournament to advance to the NCAA Tournament every year under him.

He spent one season at Oklahoma State, where he went 20-13 and led the Cowboys to March Madness before landing his coveted job in 2017.

After three seasons building the team, he turned the Fighting Illini into perennial NCAA Tournament contenders. This is their sixth straight season in the tournament and the second time in three years that they have advanced to the Sweet 16.

“It’s been maybe a different path than most, but one that I sure wouldn’t — there’s not one step of it that I would give up,” he said. “Because I’ve been beyond blessed to work for great people who helped prepare me to get to these moments.”

His success this season comes after he began prioritizing recruiting in Eastern Europe. The Illini have a roster that includes four players from Eastern Europe and Andrej Stojakovic, who was born in Greece but whose father is Serbian three-time NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic.

The squad is led by consensus second-team All-American point guard Keaton Wagler. The freshman scored 25 points in a win over Iowa to earn South Region tournament MVP and punch the Fighting Illini’s ticket to the Final Four.

Wagler said he knew soon after meeting Underwood that Illinois was the school for him.

“He’s super competitive and that’s what I like about him,” Wagler said. “He hates to lose. I hate to lose. So, it just combined really well. Just talking to him just throughout the whole recruiting process, I knew that this was the place I wanted to be.”

Underwood got emotional as he was cutting down the net after the victory over the Hawkeyes. So many years and all those stops brought him right where he was supposed to be.

Now he’s just two wins away from bringing Illinois to heights never seen before.

“You believe in something so much that it drives me every single day to want to make it happen,” he said.

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Illinois coach Brad Underwood listens to an official during a timeout to fix a broken horn during the first half of an Elite Eight game against Iowa in the NCAA college basketball tournament Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Illinois coach Brad Underwood celebrates with players after an Elite Eight game against Iowa in the NCAA college basketball tournament Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Illinois' Brad Underwood, center, celebrates with players after an Elite Eight game against Iowa in the NCAA college basketball tournament Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Illinois coach Brad Underwood celebrates after Illinois beat Iowa in an Elite Eight game in the NCAA college basketball tournament Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

SPRINGDALE, Ark. (AP) — The former chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board was indicted on charges that he drugged and abducted patients at a psychiatric facility in order to get more money from health care reimbursements, according to an indictment released on Monday.

An Arkansas grand jury indicted Dr. Brian Hyatt in early March on charges that he gave numerous patients strong, mind-altering sedatives in order to keep them at the facility without a medical justification. He is charged with two federal counts of kidnapping and distribution of the controlled substances that he allegedly used to subdue patients.

Seven mental health care workers, administrative employees and nurses who worked for Hyatt also were indicted in early March. Some were charged for allegedly failing to intervene to avoid getting fired, the indictment said. They are accused of neglecting to document patients’ actual conditions in medical records, instead using generic notes in order to obscure the patients’ conditions and conceal the lack of treatment being provided to them.

Other employees charged are accused of directly participating in the misconduct. At least one employee is accused of breaking a patient's collarbone in order to physically restrain her to force her to accept unnecessary treatment. Others allegedly used threats, coercion and intimidation to force patients to accept unnecessary medical treatments, the indictment said, and also used physical abuse to prevent alleged victims from reporting their actions.

The crimes allegedly happened at the Northwest Medical Center Behavioral Health Unit in Springdale, where Hyatt’s medical company was contracted to provide psychiatric services between 2018 and 2022.

If convicted, those charged face a maximum sentence of life in prison with up to five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

There was no attorney listed for Hyatt or the seven employees on Monday night. The Arkansas State Medical Board didn't respond to an emailed request for comment.

FILE - Police cruisers are stationed outside the Arkansas State Medical Board building during a medical board meeting, Feb. 5, 2009, in Little Rock, Ark. (AP Photo/Mike Wintroath)