Brad Underwood is a Kansas native who has spent much of his lengthy college basketball coaching career in the Great Plains, southeast and southwest.

His dream, though, was to one day find himself where he currently is — as the head coach of the Illinois men’s basketball program.

On Saturday, March 28, Underwood helped lead Illinois to a 71-59 victory against Iowa in the Elite Eight of the 2026 NCAA Tournament, sending the Fighting Illini to their first Final Four since 2005.

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After his team’s triumph, Underwood was asked about his career trajectory, which has taken him from the junior-college ranks to the lowest levels of Division I to, ultimately, the Big Ten. Specifically, he was asked about a comment he made more than a decade ago that Illinois was his dream job.

Despite having no obvious ties to the school – he didn’t attend it and had never coached there before he was hired by the Illini in 2017 – Underwood said it was.

“I'm going to get emotional, but I've been doing this 39 years, and you dream about this as a kid, and I dreamt about doing it at Illinois,” Underwood said in his post-game news conference. “Back in the day when my wife bought Tyler, who was maybe two, a Brian Cook jersey, and you knew what a special place this was. And it always has been, and there's been no other thing for me. This is my dream job, and it's very fulfilling to get where we're going.”

Brad Underwood on making his first Final Four:

"I'm gonna get emotional, but I've been doing this 39 years. You dream about this as a kid. I dreamt about doing it at Illinois, when my wife bought Tyler, who was maybe 2, a Brian Cook jersey. It's always been a special place.… pic.twitter.com/2xAOJntPLN

— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) March 29, 2026

Though much of his coaching career has taken place away from the Land of Lincoln, Underwood had experience in the state. For 11 years, from 1992-2003, he was an assistant coach at Western Illinois, about 140 miles west of Illinois’ campus in Champaign, Illinois. The Illini were an NCAA tournament regular for much of that time under Lou Henson, Lon Kruger and Bill Self, opening Underwood’s eyes to the program’s potential.

The experience of watching that from across the state stayed with him. When he was hired as the head coach at Stephen F. Austin in Texas in 2013, he was asked by his secretary to name his dream job. He told her Illinois, which she wrote down on a card, dated and mailed to Underwood when he accepted the position with the Illini four years later.

Though he inherited a program that had gone four-consecutive years without an NCAA tournament appearance, Underwood has restored the Illini to national prominence. Even before it punched its ticket to the Final Four on Saturday, Illinois was in the tournament for the sixth year in a row and advanced as far as the Elite Eight in 2024.

As Underwood will quickly note, he had a lot of helping getting the Illini there, from his coaching staff to the school’s athletic administration.

“I don't want to sound arrogant – I've never doubted us getting to a Final Four would happen,” Underwood said. “I have thought we have had other teams capable. But I also know how doggone hard it is to do it. For that, I just say thank you.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Illinois was Brad Underwood's dream job. Now, he has it in the Final Four