Champaign – Dating back even prior to the Illinois basketball team’s trip to Italy, head coach Brad Underwood was already pondering the idea of making a change.

He felt it was time for assistant coach Jamall Walker to take a step closer to becoming a head coach someday, a position he’s only served an interim role in after former Illini head coach John Groce was fired. This next step was taken for Walker on August 26 when the program announced Walker was being changed from an assistant coach to assistant to the head coach and defensive coordinator.

Walker was “excited” when he heard the news and is “in a great place,” Underwood said.

“I think we all know that Jamall is in a situation where he’s ready to be a head coach,” Underwood said. “Jamall’s got a tremendous defensive mind. I put him in a situation where he works with me every single day. It can also help him take that next step in terms of being able to sit through the head coach things you have to do in the meetings and the overall projects that we take on. So, I’m excited for Jamall. The timing with just Italy and so on and so forth just worked out great.”

Of course, with Walker taking on a new position within the team, there left a vacant assistant coaching spot. To fill the role, Underwood decided to go with a familiar name he’s ran into throughout his basketball career: Stephen Gentry.

The connection between Gentry and Underwood is rooted back into their separate hometowns in Kansas, and the two have been connected since with Gentry serving as an assistant coach under Underwood at SF Austin for three years and director of player development at Oklahoma State for another year. Gentry was originally on Underwood’s Illinois staff in 2017 as an assistant to the head coach before he left for Gonzaga.

“Stephen is a guy that I’m very familiar with and I say this all the time when I’m introducing him, he’s one of the winningest coaches in all of college basketball,” Underwood said. “He’s a winner and he has a tremendous basketball mind with that and with the fact that he knows what we do. It just made for a perfect opportunity.

“Offensively, he’s really, really good. He’s an unbelievable teacher… he’s tremendous on the court with individual workouts. His attention to detail. He’s the ultimate what I call ‘grinder.’”

Gentry and Underwood both said on Monday one of Gentry’s specializations is his ability to develop players. Gentry’s developed anywhere between low-rated two-star and three-star prospects, to five-star talents into NBA players. He first job out of college was a video coordinator for the Miami Heat with Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra, and it was there he learned to appreciate the details of the game and mold that into an area of expertise for himself.

“That’s one of the main reason’s Brad brought me in, just the coaching and player development, scouting,” Gentry said. “I would say those are my strengths but I’m obviously aware I’m going to have to wear most hats here as well.”

Both coaches also added that Gentry will be essentially taking over Walker’s role in overseeing the guards.

On the recruiting trail, Gentry is best associated with Texas, but as the last several recruiting cycles have shown for Illinois, Underwood has made international recruitment a focal point as well. Gentry will have a hand in that also.

“I think I definitely have Texas ties having been in that state for nine years and I kind of helped open up that Texas-Gonzago connection. We signed three players from the state of Texas there alone. Drew (Timme) which I wish we would’ve lost that one looking at it here. Wish he would’ve been here, but Admon Gilder, Ryan Woolridge. So, I think my base is most certainly Texas, but I’ve signed players from Kansas, Iowa, internationally. So, Brad’s deal is ‘hey go to where the best players are and recruit them.’”

No more shake-ups are expected out of the Illinois coaching staff as the team now appears solidified for the 2019-2020 season.

“We’re going to be as thorough of a staff as there is in the country,” Underwood said. “There will be no base untouched so I’m excited about that.”