First-year defensive coordinator Camryn Crocker continues to earn praise from his boss after Illinois holds Houston down in one of the program’s best results on that end of the floor.

March 27, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

HOUSTON — Asked how Camryn Crocker got this new group of Illinois players to buy into his defensive philosophy and teachings, Kylan Boswell summed it up fairly succinctly.

“If we didn’t do it, we ran,” Boswell said. “So, yeah, pretty simple.”

Crocker was hired in May after conversations between him and Illinois ninth-year head coach Brad Underwood centered around the thin margins of turning the Illini defense from good to great. Crocker’s offseason questions about the defensive end of the floor was how a younger and new assistant coach would get these group of players to collectively agree on the system differences and philosophical changes.

“Whether it’s Xs and Os or being able to relate to us as players, Cam is just a rising star as a coach,” Illinois veteran wing Jake Davis said. “I think the coaching staff has 100 percent trust in what he’s doing with our defense. Day one, he forced us to buy in and showed us that his knowledge is off the charts. If you can prove to us players that you know what you’re talking about, it’s 100 percent buy-in from that point.”

Crocker wasn’t afraid of the challenge of a little-to-gain but a lot to lose type situation where men’s basketball is taken very seriously in Champaign-Urbana. There is an argument to be made that in the 2025-26 season the margin of a possible regression was more than possibly greater than the Illini defense reaching that elite status needed to contend for Final Four or National Championship Game.

“(Underwood) and I talked in depth how things were already going extremely well in this program so let’s understand something here, it wasn’t about recreating the wheel,” Crocker said. “My task was to continue this program on a trajectory. I was ecstatic about it. Having a chance to work for him. (Underwood) has won everywhere he’s been. You’re coaching in the Big Ten with an incredible staff and incredible players. I’m in the midst of this celebration right here [in this locker room] just so appreciative to be in that moment.”

Underwood admitted Wednesday this transition of handing the defensive philosophical changes over to Crocker wasn’t an easy or smooth process for the ninth-year Illini head coach. Underwood said the hiring of Crocker has forced him to get uncomfortable with not reverting back to his past values on that end of the floor.

“Well I've been forced to change a lot. I mean, night and day, to be honest, that's the one thing I haven't done is stay status quo and it hasn’t been easy for me or for Tyler (Underwood), our offensive coordinator or Cam on defense,” Brad Underwood said. “I think that COVID forced me to think about how to do things different…so I first started going to coordinators, defensive guy and an offensive guy back then. I loved it. I thought our attention to detail was much better. It was one voice they were constantly hearing. And then we've just continued to grow that responsibility through analytics and AI and everything else through this process. You see the best example of this when you used to alternate coaches and from scout to scout, you might miss something.”

Illinois (27-8) advanced on Thursday night to face Big Ten rival Iowa (24-12) on Saturday (5:09 p.m., TBS) in the 11th regional final in program history after holding Houston (30-7) to 34 percent shooting (22 of 64). The Illini also owned the glass, 43-34, and limited Houston to two free throw attempts for a 10-point difference from the line.

The way Illinois will cover Iowa’s ball-screen and offensive action on Saturday night is likely to be a complete reversal of the hedging and way Crocker’s plan of physically hawking the Houston guards to face tough mid-range and short jumpers from the Cougars bigs.

“I think we’ve improved throughout the year at taking the plan to the court in games and executing at a high level and that’s good because Iowa is going to put is in a different type of situations,” Crocker said. “There’s going to be different problems that we’re going to have to solve on the fly.”

Crocker acknowledged Friday that Illinois’ positional size throughout the lineup and length near the rim, which bothered Houston into just seven field goal attempts at or near the rim on Thursday night is a healthy starting point for any defense.

“Tall people,” Iowa head coach Ben McCollum said half jokingly when asked what he sees with the Illini defense in this NCAA Tournament. “I’m seeing a lot of tall people. I mean, they have just got such elite length. They're more keep you in front than trying to get in passing lanes but they don't foul a lot than some of the other teams that we've played.”

In the midst of Illinois holding the No. 2 seed Cougars to their season low for points in a half (22) and the ninth-fewest allowed in a winning NCAA Tournament game total in Illinois program history, Crocker was seeing currently the most connected and best executing defensive performance in the first 20 minutes against defense-minded Houston.

“You feel the excitement of the opportunity (of getting to the Final Four) but at the end of the day, it’s a players game and all you can do is put them in the best position to have these type of experiences and moments,” Crocker said. “This is a bond they’re creating. I hope people who know us and support us can see how they care about each other. It’s starts there. You can’t have connectivity on a team where they don’t care about each other.”