Brad Underwood Has Gone Global

Brad Underwood was not the leading candidate in my book for “most likely OSU figure to blow up globally in 2016,” but it appears as if that’s exactly what’s happening.[1. It seems like Mason Rudolph, after meeting the Backstreet Boys in Israel last year, would have been the odds on favorite here.]

First there was the Turkish prospect who had Enes Kanter’s blessing that Underwood chased around Istanbul. Now it’s 7-footer from the Netherlands named Lucas N’Guessan who has committed which Kyle B. broke down here.

“The world is a big place and we are literally scouring the world maps to find one more big (player) to give us some depth,” Underwood told Go Pokes. “I feel very good about our perimeter play and the way they have developed in workouts so far and have really gotten after the weight room.”

I told Carson this last week on our podcast, but I appreciate that Underwood is at least seemingly taking huge swings (even if they turn out to be misses). As one PFB reader pointed out, the attitude seems to be spilling over into football as well.

And Underwood hasn’t just tried to solidify his 2016 roster.

“We had minimal scholarships to fill with the current class,” he told Go Pokes. “There wasn’t much play there and there is not a lot of players left out there to get. Our main emphasis of our staff has been to get going with ’17 and ’18 (recruits). Even kids in the 2019 class and establishing that base in recruiting and we are trying to get ourselves in position to have some tremendous recruiting classes.”

It would have been pretty easy for Underwood to take the big money job in April and say, you know what, let’s just keep 2016 where it is and maybe start looking into the future. This was a long year. I need to play some golf.

Instead he’s been pounding on doors and going (literally) all over the world to try and make Oklahoma State’s basketball program (both current) and future better. As a blogger, I find that fascinating, and as a fan I could not be more appreciative of it.