As the Illinois basketball team torched Penn in the first round of the March Madness tournament, the program would carry the momentum into beating the VCU Rams in the second round on Saturday, 76-55. While the Illinois basketball team looks to win the 2026 NCAA tournament, it will be led by head coach Brad Underwood, who continues to bring success to the program.

With the Fighting Illini advancing to another Sweet Sixteen with Underwood, he would be asked about that now being a common occurrence. Underwood would get into how that standard set is what “drives” him to keep coaching, even stating that the school should hire somebody else or he should retire if the feeling is they can't win it all.

“It's why I came here. It's why I'm still doing it,” Underwood said, according to Jeremy Werner. “If I didn't think that we could have the ability to get to the Sweet Sixteens and get to and have the ability to win a national championship, and it's hard, that's what drives me. That's everything that drives me…In the first day, I feel like we can't win a national championship. They need to hire somebody else, or I need to retire and go do that.”

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Illinois basketball's Brad Underwood on being built to win a national title

While going far in March Madness has not been a rare sight for the Illinois basketball team, they do want to bounce back after being eliminated in the second round of the tourney last year. Underwood would continue to explain how the team is built to win a national title this year.

“But we're in that mix, and our fans are great, the best in the country,” Underwood said. “We're getting great players, our staff doing an incredible job. Our facilities are incredible. We've got an athletic director that I love. Why would you ever want to leave that? And that's all it takes, all of that to be successful, and I've got it.”

Underwood and the Fighting Illini look to advance in March Madness as they take on the Houston Cougars on Thursday.