By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

April 10, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Joe Clark/IlliniGuys)

As a former coach, one of the things I learned from the classes I took to coach in high school and college was the 24-hour rule, which means not making irrational decisions right after a game or major event. I often relayed that same message to my players and their parents.

That’s exactly what I am doing after the Morez Johnson transfer, as I have been thinking about how Illinois assistant coach Tyler Underwood has been unfairly criticized.

Let me share a bit of personal information and how I can relate to Tyler personally. When my son was in high school, he was one of the best players in the state. By his senior year, he was First-Team All-State in baseball and Second-Team All-State in basketball in Illinois. I was ASKED to coach at his high school, but I was hesitant because of the possible negatives that come with coaching your children at that level.

One of my specialties was drawing up plays quickly I tried to be a student of the sport. During one game once with 20 seconds on the clock, a coach handed me the clipboard and said, "Ked, we need a three from Keelan, make this happen work your magic." I didn't move, didn't grab the clipboard, or even comment. The coach took the board and drew up something himself, it was only a 30-second timeout.

After the game, we met as a staff, and they were very disappointed in me because I refused to let people in the stands see me draw up a play for my son. One coach said, "If you can't be fair, treat your son like any other player, we can't have you on staff." At the end of the season, it was time to move on. Because I knew that no matter how well my son played, how many points he scored, or how many awards he won, I was still his dad.

Tyler Underwood is in a similar situation. It doesn't matter that Illinois, under Tyler, led the Big Ten in scoring for the second year in a row with an average of 83.6 points per game. 

Because Tyler is Brad Underwood's son, he will never get the credit for the offense that he deserves. Let’s be honest, would I like to see more adjustments during games as situations change? Sure. But he's young and has a great basketball mind...and those numbers don't lie.

What people see is Brad "paving" the way for his son, but the fact is, Illinois was a horrible three-point shooting team this year, 16th in the Big Ten at 31.3 percent. Only Michigan State and Indiana were worse.

Imagine if Illinois was a good three-point shooting team and hit 37 percent, which wouldn't even rank in the top five in program history. That would mean another 63 made three-pointers - or almost two per game - and would have lifted the team's scoring average to 89 points per game, third best in team history and their highest output since 1956.

I understand how easy it is to take certain parts of a conversation or article out of context, but Tyler has proven that Illinois can score with the best of them under his leadership.

Coaching with a family member is never easy, no matter what. But in this case, scoring points at Illinois is not the issue.