“It wasn’t easy,” Illinois basketball coach Brad Underwood said on Wednesday night following the Illini’s home exhibition win over UIC, detailing the thought process behind a sweeping offseason overhaul. Illinois is remaking its offense for the 2026–27 season by moving away from running set plays to embrace a free-flowing approach.
The stark reality of the 2026–27 campaign is that Illinois has committed to an offensive philosophy where traditional play-calling is essentially extinct.
Inside the Death of Traditional Ball Screens
The most visible casualty of the new system is the conventional ball screen, a staple of modern half-court basketball that has been drastically dialed back in Champaign. Instead of relying on pick-and-roll mechanics to jump-start possessions, the Illini are placing their faith in spatial awareness, constant cutting, and individual decision-making.
The Duality of Brad Underwood.Go behind the scenes with Coach as the preseason begins on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/pzsbvcbUiO
The primary objectives remain mathematically sound: collapse the defense by attacking the paint while stationing shooters in the corners and at the top of the key. Yet, the execution relies entirely on the players’ ability to read the floor on the fly rather than running a scripted sequence from the sideline. It is a calculated gamble on personnel intelligence over mechanical execution, creating an inherently unpredictable scouting report for opposing defensive coordinators.
The Father-Son Dynamic and the 10-Day Conversion
The pivot did not happen overnight. Brad Underwood admitted to an initial 10-day period of heavy skepticism after coming off a highly successful previous season, particularly knowing the roster would look markedly different without Keaton Wagler. However, studying the conceptual symmetry with past spread offenses ultimately won the veteran coach over.
“He presented it the right way,” Brad Underwood said of his son’s pitch. “And I’ll give him credit for that, because it was very similar to a lot of spread stuff that I had run previously and had a lot of success with.”
Delegating offensive play-calling entirely to an assistant has also changed the head coach’s daily rhythm. Relinquishing that burden has allowed him to engage more selectively, giving his voice heightened gravity when he does choose to intervene during practice or game adjustments.
Weighing the Unpredictability Against the Safety Net
While the absence of structured plays fosters a dynamic, free-flowing environment, it introduces valid questions about how the team will generate easy baskets when half-court possessions inevitably stall out. Elite programs frequently lean on baseline out-of-bounds or sideline out-of-bounds execution to manufacture momentum, a facet of the game where competitors like Dan Hurley’s UConn squads have historically excelled.
Whether Illinois retains a handful of SLOB and BLOB sets to fall back on during scoring droughts remains to be seen as the season progresses. Nevertheless, Brad Underwood is no stranger to offensive innovation, having engineered the nation’s top-ranked offense during the 2016–17 season at Oklahoma State.
