Illinois Basketball: Whitman’s Investment Reflects Sustained Success

Since being hired in 2016, Athletic Director Josh Whitman has heavily invested his efforts into the Illinois Basketball program. The Brad Underwood era has been great for Illini athletics, putting them back on the map to a national audience.

Illinois Basketball_ Top 3 Performances by Marcus Domask

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Additionally, the excitement surrounding the program has boosted Josh Whitman’s efforts tremendously on the trail of locking down current and future NIL funding. Which, whether we like it or not, is the future of college athletics. Ever since arriving, Josh Whitman has shown the ability to stay ahead of the curve

According to College Basketball Report (@CBKreport), the Illinois Basketball program generated the most NIL revenue of any team in the Big Ten in 2023. Additionally, Illini Hoops hauled in the 4th most NIL revenue of any program in the nation, following only Louisville ($38.4M), Kentucky ($32.1M), and North Carolina ($31.7M). The Illini Athletic Directors’ rigorous efforts assisted in generating 27.24 Million dollars towards the Illinois Basketball programs NIL fund.

The most revenue generated from men’s basketball by school in 2023 pic.twitter.com/PD5Hg2Jrq2

— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) July 2, 2024

Long-term sustained success.

Certainly, Whitman is ahead of the curve, and attempting to take advantage of changes within college athletics. He has adapted quickly to implementations such as NIL, in efforts to give Illini Athletics an edge in the future. In fact, Whitman has done a great job by giving Brad Underwood a large salary pool for assistant coaches. As a result, Underwood has Orlando Antigua, Tim Anderson, and Geoff Alexander, who have become quite the trio on the recruiting trail. For starters, Antigua did not take a pay cut to leave John Calipari for Champaign. He is being paid as one of the top assistants in the country. In just two months into his second stint, Antigua has landed Tomislav Ivisic and five-star wing Will Riley. He also has Illinois set up to bat for five-stars such as Maleek Thomas and Jasper Johnson.

Tim Anderson has recruited both prep prospects and the transfer portal extremely well. He landed Terrence Shannon Jr, Matthew Mayer, Ty Rodgers, and many more. 

Underwood was able to close the likes of Will Riley, and Kasparas Jakucionis, who would have been very difficult, if not impossible to land without the proper NIL funds and the efforts of his assistant coaches. Together, Brad Underwood and Josh Whitman are growing and nurturing a program that has the capability to be good for a very long time.

Thank you for reading Armchair Illini. For more Illinois Athletics and Big Ten content from Armchair Illini, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  For feedback, questions, concerns, or to apply for a writing position, please email Alex Kyi at alexkyi13@gmail.com.