Illinois extends Brad Underwood's coaching staff through 2025

Brad Underwood’s coaching staff at Illinois is staying in tact for the foreseeable future.

Thursday, the Fighting Illini announced extensions for all three assistant coaches — Tim Anderson, Chester Frazier and Geoff Alexander — through 2025. The decision comes after Illinois won its first Big Ten title since 2005, sharing the title with Wisconsin before falling to Houston in the NCAA Tournament.

Anderson and Frazier joined Underwood’s staff after the program saw some serious turnover after the 2020-21 season, including two coaches — Orlando Antigua and Ron Coleman — depart for Kentucky to work for John Calipari. Alexander worked as the assistant to the head coach for four years before becoming an assistant coach in 2021. They’ve become big parts of Illinois’ success, and the Fighting Illini are doing work on the recruiting trail, as well.

Illinois currently has the No. 20 recruiting class in the country from the Class of 2022, according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking. Leading the way for the impressive group is four-star point guard Skyy Clark, the nation’s No. 34 prospect, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. Clark garnered plenty of interest on the recruiting trail, notably from Kentucky.

But Underwood and Co. also got to work in the transfer portal, landing two big-time commitments from the portal. Dain Dainja, a former four-star recruit, joined the Fighting Illini as a mid-year transfer last season after starting the year with Baylor. Then, over the offseason, Illinois got a solid commitment from former Texas Tech guard and Chicago native Terrence Shannon Jr. after rumors connected him to Michigan.

That’s a solid group for the Fighting Illini, who are trying to bounce back from the losses of Kofi Cockburn to the NBA and Andre Curbelo to the portal. For the immediate future, the coaching staff looks like it’ll stay in place, especially considering Underwood signed an extension of his own earlier in the offseason through 2028.