Former Oklahoma State Coach Punches Ticket to Final Four

The Cowboys can only watch as their former coach gets closer to a national title.

Mar 28, 2026; Houston, TX, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood celebrates after cutting down the net after defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes in an Elite Eight game of the South Regional of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Oklahoma State’s former coach is on his way to the biggest stage in college hoops.

On Saturday night, the Elite Eight tipped off with some intriguing action as the NCAA inches closer to crowning a champion for the 2025-26 season. Among those in action on Saturday night were Illinois and Iowa, competing for a spot in the Final Four.

While the game was competitive for most of the night, Illinois eventually pulled away to punch its ticket to the Final Four for the first time in over two decades. While it might not typically mean much to OSU fans which teams make it to the Final Four, the Illini’s advancement might sting a bit for the Cowboys.

Of course, that’s because Brad Underwood is leading the way for Illinois on the sidelines in his ninth season at the helm. While he’s established himself as the bench boss of the Illini for nearly a decade, he was also the coach at OSU in the 2016-17 season.

Bringing up Underwood’s name around Stillwater is still a sore subject nearly a decade after his departure. While there’s some warranted disdain for the coach around OSU, his 2017 decision to leave for Illinois also marked the beginning of the downfall of the Cowboy basketball program.

After Underwood’s 2017 team in Stillwater, led by Jawun Evans, made it to the NCAA Tournament, the Cowboys have only been back to the big dance one time since. As much as it was Underwood’s decision to leave for Illinois, it was also an indication of OSU’s lack of commitment to the basketball program.

With reports that Underwood felt undervalued and that he believed the basketball program was overlooked at OSU, he bolted for a better situation. Considering the era of NIL and the transfer portal that has come to be in the 2020s, it’s hard to argue with Underwood’s assessment that OSU didn’t take basketball seriously enough.

While the Cowboys are trying to build something with Steve Lutz, there still hasn’t been much traction in getting the program back to being a respectable Big 12 program. Instead of investing in Cowboy basketball in the 2010s, OSU now has to try to catch up to all of the programs around it in an era where money is the name of the game.

After another disappointing early exit in the NIT, the Cowboys will simply have to sit at home and watch their former coach compete for a national championship next weekend.