Brad breakup
Day after NCAA loss, OSU Cowboys’ coach signs deal with Illinois.
Brad Underwood stood among reporters Friday in Indianapolis, turning emotional and dreaming about the future.
“I have a saying, ‘Dream big, and then dream bigger,’” Underwood said after Oklahoma State’s loss to Michigan in the NCAA Tournament. “I have a fabulous staff. We’re going to continue to recruit. We’ve got an unbelievable arena. “You’ve got a fan base that I’m grateful for and was fantastic this year in terms of their growth. So I’m not going to put a cap or a ceiling on where I think we can be.”
Saturday he showed up on Twitter, posing in a picture with a sign proclaiming #WEWILLWIN and wearing orange. Illinois orange. In a move that blindsided OSU officials, Underwood bolted Stillwater three days shy of the anniversary of his hiring.
Underwood returned on the team plane to Stillwater Friday night, touching down somewhere around 9:30 p.m., offering no hint of a job change until he informed athletic director Mike Holder he was leaving at 2:45 p.m. Saturday, then delivered the news to the OSU players at 3 p.m.
Then he was gone; signed, sealed and delivered by Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman and holding an airport press conference in Champaign, Ill.
“We are trying to digest this news,” OSU athletic director Mike Holder said in a statement released by the media relations department.
Tough swallow indeed, for Holder and Cowboys fans, who thought they had one of their own, per Underwood himself, a man who frequently reminisced about Henry Iba and Eddie Sutton and the grand old days of Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Underwood led a program resurgence this season, with OSU going 20-13 and returning to the NCAA Tournament. The fan base responded, too, with GallagherIba crowds expanding, highlighted by four sellouts.
Money was a major factor in Underwood’s decision to move on to Illinois. He took a bargain deal to sign on with the Cowboys, earning $1 million in his first season – the lowest among basketball coaches in the Big 12 – and was due a raise to $1.1 million next season, although Underwood was in negotiation with Holder to redo the contract.
Those negotiations were slow to gain traction, however, allowing Whitman to swoop in quickly and close a deal Saturday, a six-year deal that will pay him more than $3 million annually. In addition, Illinois has to pay a $3 million buyout to OSU.
Underwood played the Cowboys card to the very end, too, suggesting a proper time and a place for wooing Jawun Evans back for another season, pushing great possibilities with the bulk of a roster returning and a strong recruiting class on the way, and proclaiming the benefits his team would have with a year in his system to carry into the offseason.
Now, uncertainty reigns, with everything from who’s next in the coaching seat to what the roster will look like next August. And that goes beyond Evans, to possible defections among current players to the high school four recruits signed or committed to come to Stillwater.
Saturday, the mood and the scene shifted. Underwood posed for pictures on Twitter, the one with Whitman in an Illini pullover, and another aboard a jet bound for Champaign, along with a current Cowboys player, albeit his son Tyler.
Once there, Underwood gave a polite nod to OSU, but glowed about his new digs, much the same as he did last March inside Gallagher-Iba Arena.
“There’s not many places I would (leave) for,” said Underwood. “Stillwater was a tremendous place. Great administration. I’m a fan of history and the tradition.
“For this (job)? Absolutely. Not many other places I would even consider that for. The Big Ten is a special conference. Illinois basketball is special.
“The timing was absolutely perfect.”
For OSU, the timing is precarious.
“We’ve got some disappointed players and disappointed fans and students,” Holder said. “Disappointed donors.”
And now Holder must deal with all of that, as he opens a search for an OSU basketball coach, far sooner than he ever wanted or expected.
“The timing’s never good,” Holder said.