Column: JUCO, a charity exhibition and the March Madness' invisible string benefiting Illinois basketball

MILWAUKEE - Illinois basketball head coach Brad Underwood was in the middle of an answer about making a March run with a new team.

What would that mean for a coach who finally earned his status at the top of the Big Ten last season with an Elite Eight run? Well, for starters, Underwood wants to make a run with every team he coaches. 

That's the goal, no matter wh-"Ask him about his Dodge City defense," a voice rang out from behind the gaggle.

It was Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard.

"Dodge City defense," Beard repeated to clarify.

"Hey, it was fricking spectacular compared to that bulls*** in Fort Scott," Underwood said. "God."

This is what happens when two long-time coaches who cut every single tooth and molar in their careers to coach basketball find themselves in Milwaukee with Sweet Sixteen berths on the line. They have to reminisce about their days at Fort Scott Community College and Dodge City Community College. 

The road was long, but that did little to limit the banter between two former JUCO coaches who pride themselves on their lessons learned.

"We were an offensive team," Beard replied.

"Hey, you played in the rodeo arena," Underwood said. "The dust was so bad we couldn't even play."

Of course, the basketball gods put both these guys – who squared off at the junior college level in a game that's been lost to time – in Milwaukee. There's an invisible string that ties everything together, let alone the coaches.

The invisible string was near tangible at Fiserv Forum. It could even help Illinois as it aims for consecutive Sweet Sixteen berths for the first time since the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

Fate tied the string back in the 1990s in a game between Fort Scott and Dodge City. The exact date resides in a book somewhere in either Dodge City or Fort Scott. Archives for anything before the year 2000 are, at best, dubious.

That doesn't dampen the memories of that dang arena in Fort Scott. 

"Half of it was an indoor rodeo arena, and the dust – the wind would blow and the dust was blowing," Underwood said. "Every 10 seconds, they had to mop the floor. I mean, I shouldn't say anything. I was at Dodge City, the cowboy capital of the world."

Beard and Underwood had long and winding roads to their present day mantles in Oxford and Champaign.

As fate would have it, they've intertwined a few times. It happened twice in the 2017 Big 12 season when Underwoods' Oklahoma State Cowboys – the irony is not lost here – took on Beard's Red Raiders. 

Underwood won both games and was hired at Illinois shortly after in 2017. Beard remained at Texas Tech and earned a berth in the 2019 National Championship Game, falling to the Virginia Cavaliers and Tony Bennett's redemption arc.

The two were able to revisit it all in October 2024. Ole Miss and Illinois played in a charity exhibition game in Oxford. The Rebs won. Proceeds for the game went to the Child Appointed Special Advocates of North Mississippi.

Now, here the two are with adjacent locker rooms in Milwaukee. 

It was one of five games Illinois played against the SEC this season between the preseason, regular season and postseason. Sunday will mark the sixth.

Underwood has been open about how those games – against Tennessee, Alabama, Ole Miss, Missouri and Arkansas – steeled the Illini in a rollercoaster season. It pays off even more knowing Beard's Rebels beat Kentucky on February 4, 2025.

Ole Miss nearly topped the century mark in points against Mark Pope's Wildcats, winning 98-84. Pope is in his first year coaching his alma mater. That job opened when long-time coach John Calipari departed for Arkansas.

The Kentucky job is the kind of coaching position that opens once every decade and a half. Calipari, Adolph Rupp, Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith all won national titles there.

Speaking of that invisible string, there was a moment Underwood's name arose for that UK opening. It never really materialized – Pope was hired away from BYU – but it made sense after Underwood's Elite Eight season.

Pope's hiring meant assistant coach Orlando Antigua left Lexington. Underwood hired him before the 2024-2025 season. 

"You still watch in support and when you're not going up against them, you root for, you root for success," Antigua said. "There's a lot of people in Lexington that I've been able to build relationships with. My daughter graduated from there. She watches every game. You know how that goes. So you still root for them when you're not in a competitive venue against them."

That led to an offseason where Underwood landed five-star recruit Will Riley, who poured in 22 points against Xavier in the Illini's first-round win.

Riley recalled Saturday when Kentucky recruited him, saying he knew the coaching staff well. Underwood's persuasion won out.

"I just felt the fit," Riley said. "I just knew it was the right fit for me."

That fit might make all the difference on Sunday with Riley playing at a high level as Illinois and Kentucky play for the first time since 1984.

Underwood was playing at Independence Community College then. All of Illinois' current players were not alive. 

That 1984 game, a 54-51 Kentucky win over Illinois, was also a game that ushered in neutral sites for NCAA Tournament games starting with the 1985 tournament. Putting it simply: Illinois-Kentucky basketball is the reason why Illinois-Kentucky basketball will play in Milwaukee on Sunday, where JUCO pals Underwood and Beard can commiserate and reminisce.

More of those ties and binds will come to fruition on Sunday.

"We're just a bunch of JUCO guys coaching ball, and we get to live out our dreams," Underwood said. "That's what this thing's about – just as much for coaches as it is for players."

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