INDIANAPOLIS — Brad Underwood turned over every stone to build Illinois’ 2025-26 roster. His embrace of recruiting internationally – specifically in the Balkan region – has brought much fanfare, as has being one of just two high-major programs to offer Keaton Wagler a scholarship.
But his roster wasn’t the only part of his program that he designed with intention and unconventional thinking. After Tim Anderson – a Chicago native with deep ties in the state – departed the staff before the 2024-25 season, Underwood took his time on finding a replacement.
Then-Colgate assistant coach Camryn Crocker had no connections to the Illinois coaching staff. His only high-major experience came from serving as the director of player development at Stanford under Jerod Haase for a few seasons before coming back east to the mid-major level. But Underwood hired him in May to be the Illini’s defensive coordinator, and it has paid off. Illinois’ defense ranks its highest on KenPom since 2021, and Crocker has designed game plans throughout the NCAA Tournament run on the road to the program’s first Final Four since 2005.
In the 2022 offseason, longtime Colgate head coach Matt Langel had to replace two assistant coaches who departed for head coaching jobs. Both were former teammates of his at Penn under Fran Dunphy, in Dave Klatsky (NYU) and Mike Jordan (Lafayette). So naturally, he found another former Quaker in Crocker.
Langel talked with Crocker’s coaches at Penn, Jerome Allen, Dan Leibovitz and Mike Martin, all of whom affirmed that he’d be a great addition to the Raiders’ staff.
“Everybody similarly had glowing things to say about the guy as a person,” Langel told Mid-Major Madness. “That’s always what I’m looking for in an assistant coach.”
But Crocker’s time didn’t make him the connection that advanced his career. He simply was part of a winning program, pouring his time in every day to multiple Patriot League championship teams in Hamilton.
That earned him the respect of his staff, and Underwood took notice.
Crocker told Mid-Major Madness that Underwood and staff told him that they’d reached out to a few different people about him as part of their search for a defensive coordinator and heard the same glowing things that Langel did three years earlier.
“He’s so thorough,” Langel said. “He’s very good at delivering a message. A lot of times, coaches have an idea of what the other team is doing, but he’s very good at whittling that down into a message. It’s one thing to have a brilliant mind and a great concept, but players need to execute that, and he’s got a great way of communicating with young people.”
But even on a more basic level, Langel stressed that he’s simply a good person to have in the room.
“He models all of the behaviors that you would want your own children to have,” Langel said. “You can’t outwork Cam Crocker.”
One “hectic” week after Underwood’s first call to Crocker, he accepted the assistant coaching job at Illinois and uprooted his life from upstate New York to Champaign.
But Crocker wasn’t walking into a job just giddy to move up. This was a high-leverage hire at a big-time program. There were immediate expectations that Underwood and the program had for him, and those were made clear to Crocker from the start.
And he’d never been on a staff with coordinators for each side of the ball either, so focusing only on defense was a new idea for the young assistant.
“Throughout your time, you’re focusing on a lot of different things and you’re kind of all hands on deck,” Crocker told Mid-Major Madness. “Whereas here, it’s like, okay, you need to be as dialed and as close to ‘experts’ as you can as far as being able to prepare the guys for what’s to come on the defensive side of the ball.”
Langel said that Crocker viewed the game from a defensive lens, and he helped the Raiders finish with their highest-ranked defense of Langel’s tenure in his second season, but it was sandwiched between two poor defenses.
Colgate’s program has been more known for its offense than its defense. But more than anything, they’re known for their winning culture. It’s why Crocker said that they were the Patriot League comparison for Illinois’ Final Four opponent, UConn.
So being part of winning and getting rave reviews from everybody he’s worked with earned the right for Crocker to join Underwood’s staff, and he’s taken the bull by the horns. He’s flipped the focus of the Illini defense away from preventing threes at all costs and towards preventing threes from the best shooters. But with offense and defense so intertwined in basketball, even for a team that doesn’t have turnovers on either side of the ball like Illinois, it can be hard to separate the tasks so much.
He discussed it with offensive coordinator Tyler Underwood.
“When we were having our initial conversations,” Crocker said. “We talked a lot about how the two sides need to merge together. But at first, it was a challenge (focusing on one side of the ball) because I hadn’t done it before. I was probably a little too hesitant at first just because Coach talked about not wanting to recreate the wheel, and it took time to learn the guys and build their trust, but I’m excited for what they’ve been able to do.”
But he was able to gain the trust of the players.
“He was somebody I could really trust early on,” Illinois stretch forward Ben Humrichous told Mid-Major Madness. “Because of his desire to want to be in the gym with people, wanting to be able to work on games, and helping our minds understand why we do what we do. And he’s been a great asset to me, and also as a complete unit, a collective defense.”
After Illinois lost to Nebraska at home in December, the Illini dropped to 8-3 and had the 40th-ranked defense in the country. Certainly not bad, but allowing 1.3 points per possession was a wake-up call for Crocker.
He called it an “eye-opening litmus test,” and used the time before Illinois next game nine days later against Missouri to look in the mirror and figure out how to build to where they need to be.
“We really buckled down on protecting the rim,” Crocker said. “Using our size. We are the tallest team in the country, trying to eliminate layups as much as possible. It’s a big shift from what Coach’s teams have been in the past defensively, so just being able to advocate for that.”
He credited former defensive coordinator and current associate head coach Zach Hamer as helping him figure out how to approach changing the Illini’s defense, and it has paid off.
Illinois rattled off 12 straight wins to move to 20-3, ended up finishing 24-8 and earning a three-seed before running through the South region of the NCAA Tournament.
That first-round game was a matchup with Crocker’s alma mater, Penn. Even though he’s in a drastically different role based on program stature than he used to be, that matchup reminds him about how it’s still the same approach.
“It’s no different,” Crocker said. “I’m trying to help impact young people’s lives the same way that I was at Colgate, the same was that I was at Stanford, the same way that I was at Northfield Mount Herman, the same way I was when I was the assistant JV coach at Verbum Dei High School.
“I’ll use a Coach Langel quote, but ‘it’s a player’s game.’ I truly believe that, and helping them be able to have opportunities like (the Final Four) and achieve these things, it’s been really special.”
Only now when he wins, a few more people take notice.
“Everyone’s excited for you,” Crocker said. “Everyone’s happy for you and how much your life has changed in a year. And to get an opportunity to coach here and get to a Final Four, it’s a dream for a lot of coaches and different people who participate in college basketball.”
