Brad Underwood on Illini offseason: 'Incredible job of meeting our needs'
Jun. 16—CHAMPAIGN — Summer workouts started Monday for the Illinois men's basketball program. For most of the Illini, at least.
The returning players are back. Terrence Shannon Jr. and Coleman Hawkins are in town after going through the entire NBA draft process and after a much-needed break. Incoming freshmen Amani Hansberry and Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn have arrived, too, to mark the official start of their college basketball careers.
It's the transfers Brad Underwood and Co. are waiting on now. Southern Illinois transfer Marcus Domask made it a point to get to Champaign as soon as possible.
Literally. Domask graduated from SIU on May 13 and was already completely moved in the very next day in Champaign.
"I just wanted to get started," Domask told The News-Gazette on Thursday inside the Ubben Basketball Complex. "I was excited for it. I got to come here and start working with (strength and conditioning coach Adam Fletcher) right away and get in the gym here. I just felt like it allowed myself to get comfortable before we really started up. Back home, I love my family and love my friends, but the resources here for me to continue to get better as a basketball player are just better. I just felt like it was the best for my future to come right away and get to it."
The rest of the transfers, though, have yet to arrive. Oregon's academic calendar extends through this week, with commencement Saturday, keeping forward Quincy Guerrier on the West Coast. Utah Valley transfer guard Justin Harmon "is working on his credits to graduate," according to Underwood.
Then there's Jeremiah Williams. The Iowa State transfer point guard committed to Illinois on June 1 — a move yet to be announced by the team — and is coming off an Achilles injury that cost him all of the 2022-23 season. While CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein reported Thursday that Williams has yet to be medically cleared, sourcing Underwood, the Illini coach declined to comment further about the two-time transfer who would need a waiver to play in 2023-24 when asked by The News-Gazette on Thursday.
"When we get a couple guys finishing up their academic stuff and those obligations and get everybody in here," Underwood said, "we can start to envision how the pieces all fit."
But are those all the pieces for the 2023-24 season? Is the roster complete?
Williams' commitment means all 13 scholarships are spoken for, but Underwood isn't going to close any further roster reconstruction doors.
"We'll see," Underwood said about this offseason being complete. "I don't know. That's the hardest part is it never stops. ... With the fifth-year kids still having eligibility and being grads and still being able to go in, you never know. We've left scholarships open in the past. I don't ever say never. If the next Michael Jordan is out there ... you just don't know. There's no ending point to anything anymore. It used to be very definitive."
The roster Illinois has built to date, though, is one Underwood believes should be competitive in the Big Ten (and thus competitive nationally). Shannon and Hawkins both opting for another season in Champaign certainly helped.
So did, in Underwood's estimation, adding Hansberry and Gibbs-Lawhorn and the moves the Illini made in the transfer portal.
"Our staff has done an incredible job of meeting our needs," the Illinois coach said. "That's the one thing about the portal — it's a smorgasbord. I can go get this and I can go get that. We tried to get older. We did that. We tried to get shooting, and we've done that. We've tried to add winners and character and all of the things that we're about.
"If we're done, we're done. I don't have any idea and probably won't know until August when school starts what everybody else has either, but I've got to think that this team could be really good."
