After the final bell sounded on a brisk November afternoon in Manhattan, Kan., Tyler Underwood exited his fifth-grade classroom and hopped on his bike.

Weather permitting, he and his neighborhood friends would take the short ride to school every morning. As if they were too cool for moms and minivans -- despite Tyler being a self-proclaimed momma’s boy years later.

But at day’s end, he wasn’t heading back home.

Instead, he pedaled over to the Kansas State basketball facility to watch his dad’s team practice. Brad Underwood was in a new role as an assistant coach, while his buddy Frank Martin took the reins from Bob Huggins as the head man after the Huggy Bear returned to his alma mater for the West Virginia job.

Inside the gym, there was a fierce intensity and muzzle-lacking language spoken from a dictionary of words that didn’t show up at Tyler’s school spelling bee. There was also mesmerizing talent that would awe more than just an 11-year-old.

The Wildcats had a consensus top-five freshman class in the country led by No. 1 overall Michael Beasley and fellow five-star Bill Walker. To a collective fan base who loved hoops as much as they hated Kansas, this team was their best chance to return to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 12 years.

Beasley was soon to be on-court Superman for Tyler and onlookers of all ages, as he shattered the program’s single-season scoring record. The future No. 2 overall pick went through practice putting the rim's flexibility to the test, abusing any defender in sight and occasionally firing off on Martin for trying to dial him back.

Not long after the ball stopped bouncing for the day and the players ventured to the locker room, Tyler popped open the door, grabbed a seat next to Beasley and the two would catch a couple episodes of SpongeBob together. Or 10.

This was a regular occurrence, but not in any way a normal experience for your typical fifth-grader.

“Mike was a great kid and Mike always took time for Tyler,” Brad Underwood said. “We had him over for Christmas dinner and him and Tyler were playing video games together.”

College Hoops 2K8. Christmas Day. Underwood living room.

Beasley stayed loyal to the Wildcats with his team choice, but with one small alteration.

“He would make himself a 99 overall and just shoot every ball with himself,” Tyler Underwood shared with a smile.

The 26.2 points per game scorer probably didn’t need to make too many tweaks to achieve that rating. As for Tyler, he rocked with the loaded Jayhawks team. Not exactly a popular choice in that household.

But winning and getting under people’s skin aren’t things to apologize for when it comes to competition in the Underwood family.

Real-life Kansas didn’t apologize for it either. Bill Self’s Jayhawks arrived in Manhattan just more than a month later with a 20-0 record and a program winning streak of 24 straight in meetings at Kansas State -- predating Brad Underwood’s playing days in the rivalry.

Tyler was a wide-eyed ball boy at the Bramlage Coliseum that Thursday night with Beasley, Walker, Jacob Pullen, Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Sherron Collins and a sold-out crowd of 12,528 fans all under one roof.

“I always remember it was pretty cool walking out on the floor at Kansas State in front of a packed house and you’re playing Kansas and you see your son sitting there as a ball boy,” Brad Underwood said. “He’s out there mopping up the sweat of a lot of really good players.”

The high-octane battle was toe-to-toe for the first 27 minutes of game time, but then, K-State’s freshmen trio took over. Walker three. Pullen three. Beasley dunk. The arena shook with mounting anticipation that the rivalry oppression was going to end that night.

Beasley, Walker and Pullen combined for 67 of the Wildcats’ 84 points with each reaching the 20-point mark. And Walker’s two-handed throwdown with 37 seconds remaining was the exclamation point.

Before the clock even hit zero, a stampede of thousands charged towards center court -- with Tyler caught up in it all. To this date, it’s still the loudest environment he’s ever witnessed.

Long before that night, Tyler’s dream was woven to be on that stage and play at that level. He wanted to wear the jersey back as a two-year-old trying to heave up shots after his dad’s games at Western Illinois.

Similarly, Brad aspired to be that head coach with pros on the floor and winning at the peak of college basketball’s competitive threshold. He and his family grinded through the journey to get to this particular point, and there was so much more to go.

When father and son finally found each other to embrace, it’s hard to imagine there was anything else on their minds beyond that precise moment. But the shared passion was evident. Their dreams were conjoined.

Neither could know exactly where their paths were headed through the game of basketball. And in Tyler's youth, it physically pulled them apart more than it brought them together. The job description required Brad to be in other gyms rather than the one Tyler played at.

"A really, really hard job is being a father when you’re a coach. I go see everybody else’s kids but not my own," Brad Underwood said. "That was pretty much the case with Tyler growing up -- really until I became a head coach at SFA."

Both accepted that difficult reality -- taking the sacrifices with the rewards. And whether they knew it or not, the game was destined to repay them for lost time and make the imaginable real.

"It was always kind of their dream"

Brad Underwood is self-aware enough to admit that he’s not the easiest coach in the world to play for. He also knows that his relentlessly demanding style works.

Still, that comes with tongue-lashings that spare no embarrassment for any given individual. Exert half-hearted effort on a certain day, and you’ll have a pit bull barking in your face -- while you’re left to wonder how close the chain will let him get.

Tyler would know that better than any prospective player. Not only that, but it’s his dad. So why sign up for it?

“Because Tyler gets it,” Susan Underwood -- Tyler’s mother and Brad’s wife -- said. “He knows Brad does what he does to bring out the best in the players. Tyler understands it better than most people. Tyler also knows what a really good coach his dad is and believes in what he does.”

Tyler averaged 21 points per game as a senior at Nacogdoches High School in Texas, where he set the school’s single-season and career three-point record in just two years. He visited Wofford the previous summer and he was familiar with their program during his one year in Columbia, S.C. when Brad followed Martin to South Carolina. He also took an unofficial visit to SMU, where he received some interest.

Meanwhile, Brad tallied a 61-8 record with two Southland Conference titles in his first two seasons as a D-1 head coach at Stephen F. Austin. And in May of 2015, he announced that his son would be one of three walk-ons joining the program.

“Just growing up, I’ve always been a fan of his teams,” Tyler Underwood said. “In high school, I had a really good relationship with Thomas Walkup at SFA and some other guys on the team. Obviously, I wanted to play for my dad. But having a relationship with the guys on the team already, those guys took me in and said ‘let’s do this’.”

“Thomas was a guy that impacted a lot of us. He impacted me,” Brad Underwood said. “You find very few people in this profession that are magnetic and you’re drawn to them. Tyler and Thomas were really, really close even though Thomas was older. That was a really good one for your son to copy and emulate.”

But with respect to Walkup, who was the best player Brad had as a head coach pre-Jawun Evans, this was still a decision that had to make sense between father and son.

“I never pushed that. That was all him,” Brad Underwood said. “I think he felt comfortable. And it felt good for me. It was a belief for me that, ‘yeah, my son thinks we’re going to win and wants to be a part of that’. We had the discussion of what happens in practice and the locker room needs to stay there and doesn’t always need to go to Mom and doesn’t need to go to the dinner table. He’s been really mature about how he’s handled that.”

“When it came time to make his decision, you saw his passion for what he wanted to do. So, as a father, you want to help nurture that and help grow that. We talk to our players and we talk to my own kids about finding a passion in life and being able to embrace it and challenge it and fight for it. And he’s done that and I’ve been able to be a little piece of that. So that’s pretty cool.”

Tyler tore his ACL late in his senior season, which forced him to redshirt as a freshman at SFA. But he got to go along for the ride with his dad for another conference title and NCAA tournament berth.

And behind a 33-point explosion from Walkup, Stephen F. Austin pulled the 3 vs. 14 upset in the first round against Huggins and West Virginia. Tyler didn’t have to sift through a swarm of people to find his dad after that big win. Instead, they shared the same sideline.

Next came the move to Stillwater, where Brad continued to work his magic. He took over a 12-win team and turned them into a 20-game-winner. Tyler also made his collegiate debut, as he appeared in 11 games and totaled seven points.

The Underwood family returned to the NCAA tournament yet again, where the Cowboys lost a 92-91 first-round slugfest against Michigan in Indianapolis. Illini athletic director Josh Whitman and his wife, Hope, flew a private jet down to Oklahoma the next morning with the plan to return with a new head coach. And the rest is history.

“It was kind of a whirlwind those couple days there. But when I first heard about it, I was excited,” Tyler Underwood said. “I was born in Macomb and I remember when my dad coached at Western and I came down to Champaign for a game and they had Dee and Deron. I remembered the fans and the program they had there, so that made me excited to come back here.”

Now, you find Brad and Tyler on the same practice court in a different shade of orange. Dream-living and dream-chasing side by side.

“It just seems very natural,” Susan Underwood said. “It’s great because, growing up, that wasn’t the case. Tyler would be one place and Brad would be off another place. It’s good. It’s really good. It’s like it was meant to be that way.”

“There’s no place Tyler would rather be than right there with his dad. It was always kind of their dream. Back when he was a little boy, it was always his dream to one day get to that point where he could play Division I basketball, and to have his dad as his coach is even better. It’s really been a family journey. We’ve been on this journey together.”

Like father, like son

Offseasons aren’t really off in the world of major college basketball.

For Brad, he’s the head coach at Illinois 24/7, 365 days a year. Even at this time, that comes with balancing workouts, recruiting, film study and appearances. Oh, and keeping the wife happy by taking her to see Hamilton.

For Tyler, he’s a 21-year-old athlete living the college life. Workouts, homework, co-ed congregations at West Quad and games of Fortnite. It’s a busy life.

But the Underwood boys still find time to gather around the big screen at the house once a week to watch an NBA playoff game on a warm night in May. It’s not your typical entertainment viewing, though.

The way they consume the game, think the game and talk about the game is outside the realm of a standard hoops fan. They’re dissecting actions and schemes that are adaptable to the way they want to play in the Big Ten.

Golden State is their ultimate fix as hoops junkies. Positionless lineups with five guys who can dribble, pass and shoot. The ridiculous ball movement that lacks reasonable explanation beyond telepathy. And of course, the shot-making. But really, it’s more about the shot-creating that leads to those makes.

It’s studying Golden State’s usage of Draymond Green as a small-ball five and how torturous that is to guard. The Warriors will put him at the top of the key with a cleared out lane and shooters spread around the perimeter, where he can drive a mismatched big. Or it’s the off-ball action out of that look, where back-doors are easily attainable when defenders cheat out to the line too far.

Maybe it’s taking a look at certain ball and player movement that can set the table for favorable matchup isolation. Golden State likes to use a spread overload with Kevin Durant in the mid or high post on an island. When the catch comes at the elbow, it resembles the pinch post entry in the reversal of the Underwood spread -- minus the hand-off and two-man game that follows.

Or in Game 1, Boston ran a dribble hand-off towards the wing and followed it with a high-post screen ‘n roll that ignited a triangular attack. The Cavs hard-hedged the screen to stop the drive, but that forced LeBron James into a position to help on the roll -- which freed up the shooter on the wing. Bang, three points.

You may not have seen much of it last year, but Underwood’s offense has triangle principles that can be utilized -- especially when he’s trying to get a hot off-ball shooter another three.

As the ball goes through the net in Boston’s TD Garden, the mind is off and running… Scoring an idea in the first seven seconds following a make.

Okay, Trent runs the dribble hand-off to Ayo on the wing, who then comes towards the high ball-screen out of the pinch post. That frees him up to get feet in the paint, where he’s most effective. Drive to the hole and get fouled. Dish to the rolling big if his man overhelps. Maybe a lob to Samba. Or if Trent’s man jumps the roll, we’ve got an uncontested spot-up trey on the kick-out. Money.

Tyler has the gift to process in that way as well. And whether they’re sitting together or sending texts from the house over to Green Street, Brad wants to know what his son is seeing.

“This time of year is really fun. We sit and watch NBA games together. We talk at night on actions that happen,” Brad Underwood said. “I’ll send him a Euro League game and say: ‘Here, watch this. Tell me what you think.’ He’s becoming a guy I enjoy talking basketball with, not just coaching every day.”

After his playing days conclude, there’s a good chance Tyler follows his dad into the family business.

“I think he wants to get into the profession and it’s my way of helping him grow and develop that way,” Brad Underwood said.

Beyond just thinking the game like a coach and having a drive to really be a student of the game, Tyler has also shown an ability to connect and teach.

“I think Trent in particular was a guy that Ty spent a lot of time with,” Brad Underwood said. “He can help guys understand stuff. Maybe understand it in a different way than I explain it.”

“That kid is something else,” Tyler said of Frazier. “He’s my guy. He’s come a long way.”

But Tyler isn’t just around to drop knowledge. He’s there in practice every day to battle the All-Big Ten freshman team selection. And it’s clear to see how the competitive edge he plays with is hard-wired in from his dad’s basketball DNA.

There’s a sense of fearlessness. Desire to win. Journeyman scrappiness. Aimed and executed trash talk. And a smooth blend of confidence and swagger.

Both will be the first to tell you that it doesn’t all come from Dad. In fact, Mom is said to be the one who hates to lose the most of any in the family. And Tyler’s 6-foot-2, 180-pound frame is much more of his mom as well.

“Physically, I wish he had my body and he’d be big and strong,” Brad Underwood said. “I was a pretty decent athlete. But when he’s 50, he’ll be grateful that he’s built more like his mom.”

Brad takes a swig of his Starbucks iced coffee double-pumped with swagger before continuing from his office at Ubben.

“But I shot it better,” he adds on with a grin as he leans back in his chair.

Man of the house

Just as Frazier had to grow into the go-to guy on the court last season earlier than most around the country, Tyler had to step up at an early age with his mom and two younger sisters, Katie and Ashley, at home and his dad constantly gone.

And he’s done it at an All-Star level.

“He’s a great son. He’s probably a better brother,” Brad Underwood said. “Growing up as a coach’s kid, he always kind of had to be the dad or the man of the family because I was gone all the time with two younger sisters. He’s pretty protective of his mom.”

“Dad was gone a lot recruiting. You grow up and it was just me and my mom a lot,” Tyler Underwood said. “We definitely have a special relationship.”

Even now, not a day goes by without Tyler texting or calling his mom or one of his sisters to check up on his three ladies at home.

“His sisters adore him. He is the best big brother. He checks on all three of us girls every day. If he talks to me, he asks how the girls are doing,” Susan Underwood said. “He’s always been that protective big brother, or even for me because Brad was gone so much. I don’t know if he felt that he needed to do that or it just naturally kicked in for him. But he’s good in that sense.”

“They will say I check in on ‘em too much,” Tyler said of his sisters. “Katie is going to be a freshman here (at U of I). I don’t think she’s too excited about me being this close to her.”

But they’ve been lucky to have a big brother by their side moving from one stop to the next throughout their youth.

“When you move around a lot, there’s a lot of summers where you don’t know anybody,” Tyler Underwood said. “So me and my sisters have always been real close because we had to hangout a lot in the summers. You try to be there for each other, especially with them being younger and they didn’t always understand why we were moving.”

And through it all, he’s made that his top priority. Then, focusing on adapting himself.

“He’s finding his way,” Brad Underwood said. “He’s a kid that went to three high schools and he’s on his third university. There’s a lot of adapting there. He’s been forced to do that. He’s been forced to grow into those and meet different people and play on different teams. Hopefully, in the long run, that will help him. But he’s got friends everywhere. I’m really proud of him that he’s not bashful. He’s not in his own world. He can go talk to adults and be just as comfortable.”

It’s not the coach talking anymore when it comes to this subject.

“He’s still finding his way as a man, but I think he’s on the right path. The dad thinks he’s a pretty good kid.”

“We came here to win”

The Underwood family has settled into life in Champaign. They love it here. But that didn’t make Year One exactly comfortable when it came to the on-court results.

Brad and Tyler knew this was going to be a building project. Not necessarily to the extent of the Extreme Home Makeover that has ensued since March 1.

But whatever the means, the expectations don’t change. They’re here to win. And Tyler is ready to contribute what he can to that effort in a more active role next season and beyond.

“Whatever they need from me,” he said. “I’ve always been confident in my abilities. I’ve played with pros my whole life. I’ve been around pros. Just help the young guys. We’re going to have so many freshmen. Help them get adjusted to the system and college life. Be a leader. Whatever it takes to win.”

“He would have helped us last year,” Brad Underwood said. “He’s a smart player that maybe doesn’t have all the physical attributes that you want in a high-major player, but he has a pretty good brain and IQ and feel. So we’ll see how all that goes.”

The returnees have put in a good spring, and they’re all still in town to work on their game and take classes during the early summer session. That’s a good sign for the level of dedication in this year’s group.

Individual development is of supreme importance, but the overarching focus has been hammering down the culture and setting the standard for what this program represents and exerts on a daily basis.

“That’s what this spring was really about for us. Continuing to build on that winning culture. Guys getting into the gym on their own and working hard,” Tyler Underwood said. “Last year was a lot of new things for guys. There was an adjustment period with how my dad wants things done and what they were used to. Now, everybody knows what’s expected and we’re just building from there.”

“All the guys we have now want to be here. I think it’s the tightest this group has been since I’ve been here.”

The Illini may not lean much on Tyler’s statistical production next season, but they will be relying on his influencing presence.

“We’ve got to have his leadership. I think he was really good this past year of sitting on the sidelines and talking to guys,” Brad Underwood said. “He’s been a part of a lot of winning. Now, I think he has to understand that it’s okay for him to be a leader. He’s going to be one of the older guys on this team. That’s a challenging piece when you don’t play. You have to pick your spots. This year, it will be a little different. He needs to have a little stronger voice in that locker room.”

Whatever it takes to win. Tyler stood up with his dad as Brad delivered his introductory press conference last spring. He heard the assuring words about what the Illinois basketball program is and will be again.

For him personally, it was a return to the building where he saw his dad coach against Dee Brown and Deron Williams when he was seven years old.

“It just really came full circle when he came here. He had the jerseys when he was little,” Susan Underwood said. “He was Dee Brown in the driveway with the headband -- imitating what they did on the court.”

He may have been young -- but like a kid growing up in the ‘90s with Michael Jordan -- he knows.

“When we made the decision to come here, it was for the opportunity to be one of the best programs in the country,” Brad Underwood said. “And him being a part of that was exciting for both of us.”

“We came here to win. He remembers it vaguely. I remember it vividly. But he was smart enough to know how important basketball was at Illinois and how much success and the players. It was pretty reassuring to know your son wants to be a part of that at this place, because the potential is through the roof.”

In an all-out, everyday effort to realize that potential, the ability to sit down and reflect isn’t always there. But Brad is coaching at the place he deemed to be his dream job years before taking the position. Tyler is at the high-major D-1 level, where his dream of going from ball boy to ballplayer was realized.

And Brad and Tyler are living out those dreams in unison, as the game has pulled them together on the court more than they ever were when Tyler was growing up. Like it was meant to come back around that way.

In less than six months, Tyler will sit in the locker room with his teammates on the night of the season opener. And he’ll get to trade in the jeans and button-down for the home white throwback threads.

Headphones will be in place as he sits at his locker and zones out with his eyes fixated on the blue carpet. A big Drake fan, Tyler will vibe to the playlist while he visualizes that first time his dad points to him to check in at the State Farm Center.

The words will provide the answer to how the journey reached this unforeseeable destination for that kid who used to ride up the practice court with a bike and a dream.

“God’s plan.”