Deon Thomas On IHSA State Tournament Experience In Champaign: “It made a big impression”

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Brad Underwood was prepared to recruit at a premier national level the minute he accepted the head coaching job at Illinois.

Whether the State Farm Center won back the bid for the IHSA state boys’ basketball tournament could’ve been considered irrelevant for the Illini head coach entering his fourth season leading the program in Champaign. It never was and Underwood remained one of the biggest cheerleaders to get the event back after a 25-year period that saw it played at the Peoria Civic Center.

The IHSA Board of Directors voted in a Monday morning video conference call meeting to return the tournament to the basketball arena on the University of Illinois campus, where it had resided for 76 years from 1919-95.

“Whenever I discuss Fighting Illini Basketball, I always mention the proud history of this program," Underwood said. "Much of that success comes from the rich tradition of high school basketball in this state. Some of the greatest players ever to wear the orange and blue first competed on our campus as part of the IHSA state tournament. We are pleased to welcome the finals back to the University of Illinois, where dreams will come true for the countless players across the state who spend their childhood imagining playing on the court at State Farm Center. There is nothing like the thrill of competing for a state championship and the impact it has on high school teams and in their communities, and I'm excited that will once again happen here in Champaign."

And Underwood’s impression about the importance of bringing back the state tournament back to the State Farm Center was reinforced when he spoke to the Illini’s all-time leading scorer, Deon Thomas.

“It was a big moment for me when I was in high school,” Thomas said. “It was my first visit to a college campus and it made a big impression on me.”

Thomas, who still owns the school’s scoring record of 2,129 points and is the only Illinois basketball player to top the 2,000-point plateau in their college career, told Underwood that his experience of playing in the 1988 IHSA state quarterfinal game at Assembly Hall as a junior at Chicago’s Simeon Academy made a major impact on his decision to sign with Illini one year later.

“It was a big moment for me when I was in high school. It was my first visit to a college campus and it made a big impression on me.” - Illinois all-time leading scorer Deon Thomas on playing in the IHSA state tournament in Champaign in 1988.

The Friday game on March 18, 1988 that ended with Simeon, the Chicago Public League champion, losing in overtime 60-57 to Chicago’s St. Francis de Sales High School was Thomas’ first downstate trip to the school’s Champaign-Urbana campus. Thomas, who also does color analyst radio work for Fighting Illini basketball games, is part of the University of Illinois athletics development team with a primarily focus on his hometown of Chicago as an associate director.

Thomas had 18 points and seven rebounds in the game and the 6-foot-9 forward was named to a IHSA Class AA All-Tournament Team that included the Illinois Mr. Basketball selection Eric Anderson, former NBA Draft lottery pick LaPhonso Ellis and current Missouri head coach Cuonzo Martin. By the time he became a McDonald’s All-America selection and one of the nation’s most coveted prospects, Thomas had already felt the adrenaline emotion of playing on the home floor of the Illinois men’s basketball program.

“Being able to walk into Assembly Hall and feel the emotion of all that was huge,” Thomas said. “Looking back, yeah, it was a major advantage (because) I was then able to walk around what I thought was a beautiful campus and for the first time I was able to see myself being here for college,” Thomas said.

During a 15-year period between 1981 to 1995 (the final year the IHSA tournament was in Champaign), the Illini program had eight eventual signees selected to an all-tournament team. That list doesn’t include Illini stars Kiwanee Garris and Illini recruiting target Ben Wilson, who also starred in the state tournament on the Assembly Hall floor.

Underwood had already been seen making an impact at the IHSA boys basketball tournament in Peoria as he watched Morgan Park guard Ayo Dosunmu, who would eventually become his highest profile signee, win back-to-back state championships in Peoria. Underwood has stated since his time as an assistant coach at Western Illinois from 1992–2003 that having the state tournament in Champaign would be a special moment for his program.

“Yes, we absolutely want to recruit the best talent, and we want to keep them at home. We have a terrific university and one of the greatest communities in Champaign-Urbana in the country for all university towns,” Underwood said. “To be able to show that off and to be able show our program off in our facility — like everybody said, it’s renovated and it’s as classy and as good of a place as ever and it’s such a wonderful place for families — so I’m excited. I think it really benefits our program, and I think it will help enhance what we’re trying to do here in terms of making Illini basketball one of the great, great programs on the national scene.”