Brad Underwood's Final Four run provides Kansas State a big 'what if?'
K-State grad Brad Underwood will lead Illinois in the Final Four this week. His best player was underrecruited in Kansas, too. What could have been.
MANHATTAN — "What could have been? " will be on the mind of plenty of Kansas State basketball fans when they watch the Final Four this weekend. Illinois will take the floor against UConn at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in the NCAA Tournament national semifinal on Saturday, April 4, at 5:09 p.
m. The Fighting Illini will be led by a K-State grad, whose best player was an underrecruited Kansas high school prospect. Brad Underwood, a McPherson native who played at K-State from 1984-86 and was on the Wildcats' coaching staff from 2006-12, will continue to be seen as the coach who got away.
His best player, Keaton Wagler, attended Shawnee Mission Northwest last year, wasn't pursued by either the Wildcats or the Jayhawks, and is destined to be a lottery pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. Meanwhile, Kansas State missed the last three NCAA Tournaments and is coming off a dreadful season in which head coach Jerome Tang was fired midseason for cause. Casey Alexander's hiring provides hope, but Underwood has established himself as one of the nation's best coaches, when many believe he should be in purple.
Why isn't Brad Underwood the coach at Kansas State ? After graduating from K-State in 1986, Underwood had to climb through the coaching ranks at Hardin-Simmons, Dodge City Community College, Western Illinois and Daytona Beach Community College before landing back at K-State as an assistant under Bob Huggins. After Huggins' lone season at K-State, he stayed on staff with Frank Martin as an assistant.
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