Coach Brad Underwood Gets Full Court Pressed By Spicy Wings ｜ Hot Ones [cEZYyno5BrU].webm.wav.txt

 - Yeah, it's good.
 (laughing)
 - So--
 - I'm glad to see it's bothering you too.
 - Yeah.
 (dramatic music)
 - Hey, what's going on everybody?
 For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans
 and you're watching Hot Ones.
 It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.
 And today we return to my alma mater,
 the University of Illinois for a Hot Ones special
 with Illini basketball coach Brad Underwood.
 He's a man we're crediting and trusting
 with returning Illinois to its former glory
 coming off a season that included 16 conference wins,
 a Big Ten tournament championship.
 My coach, Brad Underwood, welcome to the show.
 - Sean, welcome back.
 It's great to have you back on campus.
 - It's great to be here.
 And you know, this is the first time
 that we've ever done anything like that.
 And it's because the team last year,
 I like many Illini fans, we fell in love with that team.
 And that's what led to this homecoming of sorts,
 but enough sort of a puffy small talk.
 Let's break it down to brass tacks.
 How are you around the spicy stuff?
 - Good, I like hot.
 I like, you know, it's,
 I don't know what my tipping point is yet,
 but I got a feeling we're gonna find that out.
 But I tend to migrate to hot and we'll go from there.
 (dramatic music)
 Okay.
 Fair, fair, I like it.
 I'm gonna lick my fingers.
 - Really just marinating that one.
 So an important part of your coaching journey
 is the wild maze that it took for you to get here.
 Working as an assistant coach for 26 years
 before getting your first head coaching job.
 From math tutor to travel agent,
 what are some of the more bizarre duties as assigned things
 you had to do outside of your job description
 working as an assistant coach?
 - You know, really my first coaching job
 was as the head women's cross country coach.
 Now, if you know anything about me, I hate distance running.
 I wasn't any good at it, I never did it.
 And yet here I am as a graduate assistant coaching basketball,
 but I'm a head division one cross country coach.
 And when you're a junior college coach,
 everything from doing the laundry,
 sweeping the floor every day before practice,
 I was literally kind of a jack of all trades,
 handing out $5 to go to McDonald's for your happy meal
 after the game, we did it all.
 So it's all part of the journey.
 - And then I'm sure that they all had their role,
 but reflecting on that time when you're working
 at junior colleges and mid majors,
 is there one stop on that six state nine university trek
 that you think disproportionately impacted
 or shaped the coach that you are today?
 - Yeah, I think at Western Illinois,
 I spent 10 years there.
 It's why I sit here today,
 because I realized how good a job the Illinois job was
 while I was at Western, but we didn't have a ton of staff.
 I was it, and then we hired one other coach
 along with our head coach.
 So you learned everything.
 I traveled a great deal.
 I learned to recruit, scout,
 and I cut my teeth really in the profession there.
 Could smell the difference.
 Definitely a step up.
 - Right, typically we'll do the 10 wing gauntlet,
 but today, it's a steep ramp up for the special
 with coach Underwood.
 - I've got a feeling we're, by the looks at it,
 I got a feeling we're getting hotter quicker, no doubt.
 - That's what's happening.
 So I wanna take this wing to get granular
 about the X's and O's and full disclosure,
 I got a little help coming up with these questions
 from one of my best friends, Coach C,
 who heads up the girls varsity program at Glenbrook North.
 You need a bucket at the end of the half
 and you need a bucket at the end of the half.
 What is your internal calculus,
 generally the things that you're thinking about
 when writing up a perfect sideline play?
 - Yeah, I think first of all, time and score.
 Who's the matchups?
 Who does the other team have in?
 Who do they have guarding the guy
 that I would like to get going?
 So we've practiced that.
 We know, hey, we're gonna run this, this, and this,
 and we're gonna run it to that guy,
 and it really happens about that quick.
 - Do you have a guiding philosophy
 when it comes to working the refs,
 or is that kind of communication
 based on emotion?
 - We see our officials a lot,
 so we know how they call a game.
 I think that there's certain guys that we say,
 "Oh no, we've got 'em on the road.
 We're in trouble.
 They're homers.
 You're fighting, you're grinding,
 so emotion can be a part of it."
 We know who the officials are.
 We study 'em a little bit,
 but we try to give them the benefit of the doubt
 on most nights.
 - And then I know that you have to rifle
 through decades of experience and games,
 but is there a trick play
 that's maybe the most memorable
 or one that you're most proud of
 that you pulled off in a meaningful game?
 - I don't know if it was a meaningful game.
 That would be, 'cause it was not,
 but we did the barking dog trick.
 We lined up on a baseline out of bounds play,
 three guys across in front of the ball
 and a guy standing right behind 'em,
 and all three guys dropped down on their knees,
 start barking like a dog.
 Everybody looks down, we throw the ball to the guy,
 and we lay it in.
 So, unfortunately, in the Big Ten play,
 we don't get a lot of--
 - The barking dog might not work at the Big Ten level.
 - Yeah, it's probably not gonna work.
 I don't think Iz is gonna let that one fly
 at East Lansing or Matt in West Lafayette,
 but I think the one thing we try to do
 is be as creative as we can.
 We've got a full court baseline out of bounds,
 which got a lot of attention last year,
 'cause we stood everybody out of bounds
 as they were pressing us,
 and just stepped in and caught the ball.
 - Right.
 - And so we try to do a little,
 try to be a little creative on that side of things as well.
 - And then finally, what is it that you find sacred
 about the spread offense?
 - To me, it's the ultimate team-based offense.
 It gets everybody involved.
 You know, in a perfect world,
 you want five, six guys averaging double figures.
 That's easy to do in that offense,
 because everybody gets involved.
 You can take an average player on the offensive side,
 and he becomes a threat,
 because he can cut and make a layup.
 It's a team game.
 We've led the country in assist running it.
 That part of it's pretty special.
 (upbeat music)
 Little kick in that one.
 We're progressing at a nice rate.
 - Yep.
 Accelerating quickly.
 - I'd get that one in a,
 I'd get that in a restaurant.
 That's good.
 - Wow. - I like that.
 Yeah.
 - And that's a powerful sauce right there.
 - Yeah, that's pretty good.
 - Coach Underwood, I'm impressed.
 - I gotta remember the name of that.
 I didn't know that was a pepper, to be honest.
 - I've a friend, Chili Klaus.
 I gotta introduce you guys.
 So he'll teach everything you need to know.
 - That's good.
 (laughs)
 My, I got a little aftertaste coming out.
 - Yeah, yeah, it grows a little bit.
 So one of my all time favorite Illini players,
 Giorgi Bajanashvili,
 he described the rebuild as a beautiful struggle.
 What sorts of things do sports talk radio hosts
 or diehard fans,
 what are the things that they maybe don't fully understand
 or appreciate watching their team through a redefining,
 through a rebuild?
 - That's so hard because we live in a microwave society.
 Everybody wants to win right now.
 And there's no shortcuts to success and to winning.
 And the one thing we've tried to do here
 is lay an unbelievable foundation,
 great character in our program, great guys.
 But along that way, there's gonna be some speed bumps.
 You have to not be afraid to handle them
 and try to never divert from where you wanna go.
 There's no substitute for success.
 And I believe that's laying a great foundation
 and working really hard.
 - Maybe I'm fishing for a game or a moment here,
 but at what point in the rebuild did it start to bear fruit?
 Like at what point did it become fun again in the locker room?
 - Yeah, Michigan State game here, year two,
 we had nine new guys, Sean, we were a young team.
 We'd had a really tough start to the season.
 Ayo Desumu hits a shot from the top of the key,
 didn't have anything to do with coaching,
 it was kind of a broken play.
 And he just jumps up and makes it.
 All the stands empty, there's people on the floor.
 So they got to have fun winning.
 They got to enjoy that moment
 and see all the hard work paid off
 and there was a reward for it at the end.
 That was the one moment that changed this thing.
 That's no joke.
 That one definitely gets your attention.
 We'll have a sweat going here in just a minute.
 - That's what the people came to see.
 - Mm-mm-mm.
 - We're cleaning that wing.
 - Don't know if I would eat a second one of those.
 - Yeah, yeah, maybe this is, it's good for today, but.
 - Wow.
 - We'll take the bottle back with us.
 - Yeah, that's a good, good idea.
 - What do you see as the biggest difference
 in the selling points that would persuade a recruit
 in the '80s and '90s versus today?
 - Whew, not to eat that hot.
 No, I think the one thing is, you know,
 in '86 we had no three-point line.
 We had no shot clock.
 Whew.
 Take another little sip of milk on that one.
 - You and me both.
 - You know, back in the day,
 there was four corners offense Dean Smith.
 There were certain ways to win.
 A lot of teams played more zone.
 Great aftertaste on that one.
 Whoa.
 - Doesn't stop.
 And then we live in the age of analytics.
 Can you give me a metric that when you first started
 redefining the program here, something that stood out to you
 and then how did you go about reversing the trend?
 - Whew.
 Yeah, I think there's a couple points.
 You know, when I first came to Illinois,
 you know, we played a pressure-style defense
 and it was very, very aggressive.
 And the one thing that happened was we fouled a lot.
 We were 333rd my first year in fouls committed.
 We changed and the next year we were 13th
 in the country in that stat.
 So, you know, I think we're always evaluating
 how we play, what we do,
 is there a better way to do it?
 So it's just a great tool to use.
 - All right, Coach Underwood.
 - Oh boy.
 - You don't have to if you don't want to.
 - Well, I'm not gonna let you do it and be called soft.
 So.
 - I had a feeling that was coming.
 - A dab or?
 - Yeah, I kind of went a little crazy,
 but don't do what I did, but that looks good.
 - Let's go.
 - Let's go.
 - Mm-hmm.
 (soft music)
 - Whoa.
 - Yeah, it's good.
 - So.
 - I'm glad to see it's bothering you too.
 - Yeah, listen, we're both going through it together.
 We're sharing this experience,
 but thankfully, Coach Underwood,
 we've reached the end of our spicy meal together.
 It's the homecoming that I always thought it would be.
 The homecoming that I always dreamed it would be.
 So with that in mind, Steven, drop the curtain.
 - Awesome.
 Awesome.
 That's awesome.
 - What does it mean after almost two years
 of an empty arena from a coach's perspective,
 from a player's perspective,
 to once again fill this place up again?
 - Yeah, that was the worst thing about last year.
 It was our fans and their passion at 15,500 in here.
 And they didn't get to experience that team
 and see that personality and how much fun they had together.
 That we can never get back.
 But we've got the best fans.
 We're sitting here at half court in an arena
 that is special when it's full.
 It's gonna be full every night this year.
 And you're gonna see guys with, like Kofi,
 guys like Andre Carbello and Trent Frazier,
 DeMonte Williams, guys that have a lot of sweat equity.
 And they play for these colors, the orange and blue seats.
 And that's fun.
 And our fans understand that.
 They're educated fans.
 And after being gone for a year,
 it's so nice to know they're coming back.
 - Coach, I-L-L?
 - I-N-I.
 (clapping)
 Thank you.
 - Thank you.
 You crushed it.
 There we go.
 - There you go, nothing to it.
 Nothing to it.
 (door slams)
 - Woo!
 (dramatic music)
 - Hey, what's going on Hot Ones fans?
 This is Sean Evans checking in
 with a very exciting announcement.
 You know, after 16 seasons,
 I'd like to think that we perfected the Hot Sauce Symphony.
 And now I gotta hand it to us.
 We perfected the packaging.
 It's the custom made Hot Ones official 10 pack briefcase
 now available at heatness.com.
 Take a look inside.
 It's so pretty.
 And the perfect gift for the spice lord in your life.
 Just get some friends, make some wings,
 bring some ice cream, and be careful around the eyes.
 Heatness.com, heatness.com, heatness.com
 to get your hands on the custom made
 Hot Ones official 10 pack briefcase.
 I know I love it.
 (kisses)
 [MUSIC]