INDIANAPOLIS — Illinois coach Brad Underwood became a meme last April, dressed up in an orange jumpsuit with a flat cap on in an AI photo that originally surfaced on the internet.

The message appeared to be that Underwood had recruited a group of Eastern European players by masquerading as a Balkan citizen. Underwood surprisingly played along with the joke in November, dressing up in an orange jumpsuit and jaunty cap on the team’s trip to New York to play Connecticut at Madison Square Garden.

When I asked Tomislav Ivišić about the meme Friday before practice at Lucas Oil Stadium, the 7-foot-1 Illini center just grinned.

“That was amazing,” he said. “But it would be even better if he coaches one game in that.”

Did you ever ask him?

“We did a long time ago,” Ivišić replied.

And what did Underwood say?

“Uh, maybe.”

When Illinois takes on UConn on Saturday in the opening semifinal of the Final Four in Indy, the Illini coach and ringleader will go head-to-head against Dan Hurley, a two-time national champion whose fiery reputation makes Underwood’s demeanor look almost passive in comparison.

But in the state where Bobby Knight became famous as a psycho coach who won at any cost, Underwood and Hurley are toned-down versions whose bark is worse than their bite.

At least that’s according to interviews here with several Illini and Huskies players, who universally concurred that the media versions of Underwood and Hurley are not really an accurate portrayal of their personalities.

“He’s pretty chill with us behind the scenes,” Illini forward David Mirković said of Underwood. “I’d say he’s always like that. He’s just so smart that during practice, he can control when he’s mad at us and knows the perfect way to motivate us and get into our heads and when to be mad and angry. But behind the scenes, he’s cracking a lot of jokes, probably more than all of us, I’d say.”

Illini star Keaton Wagler agreed that there’s a funny side to Underwood away from the court when he’s teaching instead of barking at officials.

“On the court, he’s like that all the time,” Wagler said. “But after practices, games we win, he’s a lot more chill and likes to mess with guys … when he’s not yelling at everyone.”

Even at Wagler?

“Yeah, everyone gets yelled at,” he said with a smile. “There’s no getting out of that.”

Hurley is obviously more well-known than Underwood after back-to-back titles at UConn in 2023 and 2024, and his temper tantrums with officials are legendary. After Connecticut lost to Florida in the Round of 32 last year, Hurley was walking to the locker room and complaining about officials as Baylor players were waiting to take the court for their game against Duke.

“I hope they don’t f— you like they f—– us, Baylor,” Hurley said. “I really hope they don’t.”

That viral video made some fans think of Knight, who always found someone to blame for a loss other than himself and sometimes even went berserk during a win.

As the Tribune’s Illinois beat writer in 1991-92, I covered an Illini-Indiana game in Bloomington, Ind., in 1992 where Knight reacted to a dwindling Hoosiers lead by throwing a cup of water on the court and making assistant Dan Dakich mop it up with a towel. Knight also picked up a chair and slammed it down, screamed at his players to “stay out there” on the court during a timeout, grabbed two players by their jerseys and repeatedly hollered at his assistants.

And that was just in the final four minutes of a 76-70 Indiana win.

That style of coaching has gone the way of the dinosaur, but some old-school coaches continue to berate officials and players and generally make a scene. It’s not for everyone, but just like the Illini players who defended Underwood, UConn players believe Hurley is simply sticking up for them.

“A lot of people misinterpret who he is as a person,” UConn guard Silas Demary Jr. told me Friday. “I feel like behind closed doors, he’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever been around. … He’s going to keep you even-keeled, he’ll tell you when you’ve been doing bad and when you’ve been doing well.

“People mistake his passion during games. You only see his coaching on the hardwood, and you’ve got to see the message instead of the tone. The message is more important than the tone. He’s pushing us to be the best and know what the standard is — to win.”

You didn’t go to Indiana without knowing about Knight. Ditto UConn and Hurley.

“Coach Hurley is Coach Hurley,” UConn forward Jayden Ross said. “What you guys see is what we get all day, every day. The things he’s able to do for our team to get us to play at our best, that’s his ultimate goal. He has a lot of unique ways to get us to be playing at our best and get the best version of ourselves. At the end of the day, we can appreciate what he’s able to do to max out our potential.”

Hurley’s headbutt of an official after Braylon Mullins’ game-winning shot against Duke on Sunday was the latest example of “Hurley being Hurley.” Both Demary and Tarris Reed Jr. said Friday that they both have been on the receiving end of one of Hurley’s headbutts after games, while Ross told me the players all have joked about it.

“We know at the end of the day he’s not going to overstep the line and put that game potentially in danger,” Ross said of the Hurley’s headbutt. “But (he’s) definitely a character.”

Star forward Alex Karaban said he didn’t see the headbutt until it went viral, but added he loves playing for a coach with “the passion and intensity he coaches at” on a daily basis.

“He’s really the perfect coach for me,” Karaban said.

When UConn’s plane landed here this week, everyone on the team was presented with helmets, a symbol of the Indianapolis 500 race.

“I thought it was fitting that they gave me the race car helmet,” Hurley said. “I probably could’ve used it on Sunday night (during the headbutt). Or that might have been bad, made it worse.”

The son of Hall of Fame high school coach Bob Hurley Sr., Dan Hurley said people who meet him come away with a different impression than what they had formed by seeing him on TV or the internet.

“I get much more of a bad reaction from people on social media than when I meet regular people,” he said. “Because any time I meet regular people, they look at me and they start laughing, or start smiling, or they’re like, ‘You’re the guy from the video. You look a little crazy, but you’re a good egg.’ ”

A couple of good eggs who look a little crazy will go head-to-head Saturday in what could be a classic Final Four matchup.

One thing is certain about Underwood’s and Hurley’s unique styles — you just can’t look away.

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