Illinois' razor-sharp offense has produced a string of All-Americans like Ayo Dosunmu, Kofi Cockburn, Terrence Shannon Jr. and Keaton Wagler. Brad Underwood believes Mirkovic could be up next. The burly 6-9 forward sees the game at an advanced level, and his physicality, competitiveness, feel and 3-point shooting are all extremely attractive traits. Mirkovic used maniac rebounding to become a Day 1 starter for Illinois, despite being just a teenager in a new country, but the Montenegro native has transformed into a true offensive hub who can initiate pick-and-rolls or play in backdowns to create advantages. Mirkovic was the third-best freshman in the Big Ten last year behind two lottery picks in Wagler and Washington's Hannes Steinbach.
Now, it's his turn.
Mirkovic is slowly but surely working his way back from an offseason foot surgery, but he's positioned to be one of the top big men (and interviews) in all of college ball. -- IT
You guys have entertained me for 25-ish years. It's about time I started contributing a little bit around this joint.
My story for Blue Ribbon:
ILLINOIS
LOCATION Champaign, IL CONFERENCE Big Ten LAST SEASON 28-9 (.757) CONFERENCE RECORD 15-5 (t-2nd) STARTERS RETURNING/LOST 3/2 NICKNAME Fighting Illini COLORS Orange & Blue HOMECOURT State Farm Center (15,544) OFFICIAL WEBSITE FightingIllini.com COACH Brad Underwood (Kansas State ’86) RECORD AT SCHOOL 193-110 (9 years) CAREER RECORD 302-137 (13 years) ASSISTANTS Orlando Antigua (Pittsburgh ’95) Geoff Alexander (Western Illinois ’00) Tyler Underwood (Illinois ’19) Camryn Crocker (Penn ’15) Zach Hamer (Vanderbilt ’17) WINS (LAST 5 YRS.) 23-20-29-22-28 NET RANKING (LAST 5 YRS.) 15-36-12-17-5 2025-26 FINISH Lost in Final Four.
COACH AND PROGRAM
Between the Saturday when Illinois defeated Iowa to earn its first Final Four berth since 2005 and the Saturday when UConn ended Illinois’ bid for its first national championship with a 71-62 victory before a largely orange-clad crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium, former Illini coach Bill Self chatted with Brad Underwood and offered a few points of advice.
For starters, he suggested reserving a separate hotel suite where Underwood could entertain family, friends, key donors and the like – so when he needed to get some rest or do some work, he could leave and let everyone else continue enjoying the Final Four party.
“I had high school buddies who came in that I hadn’t seen in 15 or 20 years,” Underwood says. “Our hotel lobby was always packed. And you weren’t going to a restaurant or anything like that. But we could go back to the room and they could have a drink and we could sit and talk and they could stay as long as they wanted. That part of it was nice.”
Self, who has won two NCAA titles and coached in two other Final Fours since going from Illinois to Kansas in 2003, had one other crucial observation to share with Underwood.
“He said, ‘You’ll realize how tired you are and how tiring it is,’ ” Underwood says. “And it is exhausting. You’re coming off three weeks of pretty intense basketball and it all hits you pretty quick.
“The magnitude of it hit during the [Friday] practice when we walked out and there’s 17,000 there in orange.”
And the finality of Illinois’ Final Four journey hit during the actual game, as the Illini managed only one lead, 22-21, with five minutes left in the first half. We won’t spend much space revisiting that game here, but just know Underwood still thinks about how his team got seven straight defensive stops during that first-half stretch.
He thinks about the handful of open offensive opportunities—two missed free throws here, a missed layup and a missed open 3-pointer there—that might have swiped the momentum and forced UConn on its heels, at least for a while.
“If those go in, now we’ve got a 9-point lead or a 10-point lead and the game’s completely different,” Underwood says. “We never capitalized on what we were doing defensively.”
While the national semifinal loss was crushing at the time, the Final Four appearance triggered a new level of respect, interest and intrigue in Underwood and the Illini.
“The importance of it has manifested itself after,” Underwood says. “Just the attention, the celebrity piece, the speaking engagements. Those things are all through the roof.”
And, yes, it has sent the team’s prospects through the roof as well.
On the Friday of Final Four weekend, guard Quentin Coleman, the No. 17 prospect in the Class of 2026 per Recruiting Services Consensus Index, committed to the Illini.
Not long after the Final Four, five of the six rotation players eligible to return to college ball decided to stay at Illinois: David Mirkovic, Andrej Stojakovic, Tomislav Ivisic, Zvonimir Ivisic and Jake Davis.
(Keaton Wagler, the sixth possible returnee, can be excused for leaving because he signed a four-year, $43,958,324 deal with the LA Clippers after being the fifth pick in the NBA draft. Even with the way NIL figures have exploded, that’s tough to beat.)
That quintet enables Illinois to rank third among Big Ten teams in points returning (57.0%) and minutes returning (57.3%).
Then Underwood lured the guy he considered to be the best offensive player in the portal – Providence guard Stefan Vaaks – to become Illinois’ lone transfer.
Last but not least, two more freshmen – four-star forward Zavier Zens (Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball) and uber-athletic guard Lincoln Williams – pledged to give the Illini six rookies to go with four sophomores and four fourth-year players.
How does all this position the Illini as they attempt to earn the program’s first back-to-back Final Four berths since 1951-52?
“I think we’re better athletically, which probably cost us some games last year,” Underwood says. “Our overtime games [Michigan State, Wisconsin and UCLA]. We got beat twice at the buzzer [UCLA and Nebraska] and we got beat when we got defensive stops, but we didn’t get a rebound maybe because we weren’t athletic enough or didn’t chase down a rebound because we didn’t have that ability.
“So we’re more athletic, we’re bigger and I do think we shoot the ball better.”
Considering Illinois owned the KenPom-era record for best offensive efficiency until losing it to Purdue over the final two games, that’s a frightening thought.
“Yeah, but what last year’s team had that we still have to find is elite role players,” Underwood says. “Kylan [Boswell] became an elite role player. Ben Humrichous was one of the best in the country. Jake [Davis] became an elite role player. They didn’t want the ball. They didn’t need the ball. But, yet, if you didn’t guard them, they were going to make shots.
“You can only have one best player. Everybody wants to be that, but not everybody can be that. That’s our job, to make sure we’re defined in that. It took us a little bit last year to figure out Keaton was our best player. Then it took us a while to figure out how to play ‘Mirk.’ I look back at our first UConn game last year and we were playing Mirk as a center and trying to post him. And now he’s our point guard.”
A few paragraphs above, the 62-year-old Underwood alluded to the perks that have come with reaching the Final Four for the first time. Here’s one he particularly relishes:
In July, he got an email from the National Association of Basketball Coaches needing to know what size sport coat he wears. The Spalding Final Four Coaches Club customizes a dark blue blazer for each coach who reaches the national semifinals.
“You start looking at the names in it, going back through the history of the game, and you go, ‘OK, that’s pretty cool,’ ” he says.
On the day of the Final Four semifinals, the NABC hosts a coaches luncheon. That’s when the new honorees receive their jackets and take their first picture with all the other coaches who’ve made the Final Four—but coaches in the current Final Four are too busy and don’t attend.
It was in these pages last year where Underwood proclaimed “Keaton’s a pro.” But at this point last year, Underwood figured he might get to coach Wagler for two years before he moved on. Instead, Wagler became the nation’s biggest “out of nowhere” story as he went from being the nation’s 150th ranked recruit to second-team Associated Press All-American to fifth pick overall in the NBA Draft. If anyone ever forgets how efficiently he played or how well he could shoot, just remember he needed only 17 field-goal attempts to put 46 points on Purdue on the Boilers’ home floor. Suffice it to say the Illini will miss him. But the same goes for Boswell, the hometown kid who did not flinch when the coaches decided after the Nov. 28 loss to UConn at Madison Square Garden that Wagler should be the primary playmaker instead of playing off the ball. Boswell continued to be the team’s best and most versatile defender -- taking on everyone from point guards to posts -- while scoring and rebounding and facilitating as the team needed. He signed a two-way deal with the Charlotte Hornets.
For two guys on this list -- Humrichous and Redd -- their Illini experience played out better than they could have imagined. Humrichous averaged the sixth-most minutes on the squad and showed enough with his long-range shooting and eager to chase offensive rebounds that the New Jersey Nets signed him to an Exhibit-10 deal. Redd started as a team manager, but became the beloved guy on the bench that has all the students chanting his name. When he hit his first career 3-pointer and rang up 5 points in three minutes on Senior Night, State Farm Center went wild.
Petrovic, on the other hand, was supposed to be Illinois’ starting point guard. But he injured his hamstring in the fall, which opened up more opportunities for Keaton Wagler and Petrovic rarely got minutes that mattered. Rodgers started for the 2024 Elite Eight team and was beloved even though he sat out the last two years. He suffered another injury this summer at Boise State, which bummed out everyone in C-U.
Lee, the son of Marquette Final Four legend Butch Lee, rarely got important minutes as well, though he showed some defensive chops in those rare opportunities.
PROJECTED STARTERS G-STEFAN VAAKS (6-7, 215 lbs., SO, #7, 15.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.3 bpg, 31.5 mpg, .403 FG, .350 3PT, .839 FT; Tabasalu, Estonia/Providence). It seems odd to start with a geography lesson, but Illinois’ signing of Vaaks out of the transfer portal did not constitute an addition to their group of Balkans. Estonia is a Baltic state in northern Europe and Vaaks’ hometown is roughly 1,150 miles from Vodice, Croatia, where the Ivisic twins are from.
That having been said, Vaaks should fit in perfectly with Balkans, Missourians, Illinoisans and anyone else who dons an Illini uniform this year.
“He’s the one guy that we identified in the portal that fit us,” Underwood says. “Elite shooter. Elite shooter off the dribble. We just lost that in Keaton.
“He’s a matchup problem. He can play downhill. He can play in ball screens. He’s instinctive. Just your typical big European guard. He makes right plays a lot. And has the ability to shoot it.”
The 21-year-old Vaaks played on and off the ball last year for Providence, which ranked No. 32 per KenPom in offensive efficiency. He scored in double figures in each of the Friars’ first 23 games, even though he came off the bench in eight of them.
He drilled 8 of 13 3-point attempts against Butler in the Big East tournament on the way to a career-high 28 points.
For Illini fans wondering how he might be able to get the squad over the hump against UConn, the Friars lost by 5 and 6 points to the Huskies as Vaaks averaged 11.5 points, 3.0 assists and 1.5 turnovers while shooting 7 of 23 from the field.
Underwood acknowledges the small elephant in the room -- that Vaaks was one of many indifferent defenders on Providence last year -- but believes there’s more there.
“His big adjustment is he’s got the ability to be a good defender,” Underwood says. “But he’s a very talented player. I mean, a very, very talented offensive player. But I don’t want to say just offense because he’s got great instincts on the defensive side as well.”
Vaaks spent part of his summer running the show for Estonia’s national team in the 2027 FIBA European Qualifiers. In the two game he played, Vaaks averaged a team-high 19.5 points, 6 assists and 1.5 turnovers per game while shooting 7 of 20 from 3-point range.
G-QUENTIN COLEMAN (6-4, 180, FR, #11, 23.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 3.9 apg, 2.7 spg, .649 FG, .506 3PT, .897 FT; Principia HS/St. Louis, Mo.). Just as Vaaks will not be directly responsible for emulating Keaton Wagler or replacing his production, it would be wrong to expect Missouri’s Mr. Basketball with some acrobatic tendencies to fill Wagler’s NIKEs.
“He’s not a Keaton-like shooter off the bounce,” Underwood says. “He’s a different personality. He’s a way better athlete than Keaton.”
At the same time, Coleman will have a chance to affect winning on a Wagler-like basis—as suggested by his international debut this summer.
When USA Basketball picked its roster for the FIBA U18 AmeriCup 2026 competition in Leon, Mexico, Coleman was joined by Michigan State’s Jasiah Jervis and Ethan Taylor. BYU’s Bruce Branch III (RSCI No. 5 recruit), Miami’s Caleb Gaskins (RSCI 15), Kansas’ Taylen Kinney (RSCI 21), UConn’s Colben Landrew (RSCI 26) and Arkansas’ Davion Thompson were the other incoming freshmen on the squad.
At the end of the five-game tournament, which concluded with Canada upsetting the USA for gold, Coleman was the only American on the five-man all-star team as he averaged 11.2 points, a tournament-best 11.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists along a team-high +114 plus/minus rating and team-high 17.2 efficiency rating.
“He is very, very competitive,” Underwood says. “Very high motor. Great athleticism. Great tenacity and grit. You usually don’t link those things together with very talented guys, but he is that. His effort and tenacity raise the level of everybody else—or he embarrasses you. Because his motor doesn’t stop, but he’s also very talented.”
Perhaps this is what Underwood means: When Principia High School won its first Class 3A state title in March, Coleman went off for 50 points on 18-for-21 shooting from the field that included 5 of 7 from 3-point range. The other team finished with 34 points. But Coleman isn’t a finished product.
“He’s learning how to play with other really good players,” Underwood says. “He’s learning concepts instead of sets. But he’s got some tools.”
SF-ANDREJ STOJAKOVIC (6-7, 205 lbs., SR, #2, 13.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 26.3 mpg, .500 FG, .244 3PT, .805 FT, Jesuit HS/Carmichael, Calif./Stanford/California). There were nights when Stojakovic did not exactly stuff the stat sheet.
In Illinois’ only crack at national champion Michigan on Feb. 27, he went scoreless with one rebound in 12 minutes. In Illinois’ first meeting with UConn on Black Friday, he scored three points with two assists in 24 minutes.
But then there were the nights when Illinois could not have won without him.
In the NCAA Tournament’s second round against VCU, the Illini offense was stuck in neutral until Stojakovic came off the bench and unleashed his blizzard of moves, spins and flourishes as he delivered a game-high 21 points in 26 minutes off the bench. One week later against Iowa in the Elite Eight, Stojakovic struck again with 17 points on just nine shots.
To be fair, some of his issues were injury-based. He missed nearly two months in the fall due to a knee sprain. He suffered a high ankle sprain against Michigan State on Feb. 7 that put him on the sidelines for two games and gave Jake Davis to take his starting spot for the rest of the year.
While Stojakovic endured another knee injury during this offseason —- he tweaked his knee at the NBA Draft combine that forced him to miss some time after a knee scope —- Underwood witnessed him healthy at the end of summer ball and sees something massive in his immediate future.
“I think that he will make —- and it’s unfair to say this -— but I think there’s a Terrence Shannon jump,” Underwood says. “We have that with a lot of transfers who are with us from one year to the next.”
As context, Terrence Shannon Jr. transferred from Texas Tech to Illinois prior to his fourth college season. He was perfectly fine that year with 17.0 points per game and a .445/.320/.790 shooting line. But in his fifth year, Shannon went berserk and averaged 23.0 points with a .475/.362/.801 line. He was more confident from the arc, more assertive on his kamikaze slashes to the basket and generally dominant, as his third-team all-American honor might suggest.
In Stojakovic, Underwood sees a stronger player now who plays through contact better and generates more And-1s. The question that will linger until the games begin is how much confidence he can build from the 3-point arc. In his three years of college, he has gone from .327 at Stanford to .318 at Cal to .244 at Illinois.
“I think he’s gaining confidence in his jump shot,” Underwood says. “I don’t think he’s a bad shooter. I just think he has been a reluctant shooter. We’ve got to get him out of that. Go shoot the shot.”
PF-DAVID MIRKOVIC (6-9, 250 lbs., FR, #0, 13.3 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 29.5 mpg, .484 FG, .375 3PT, .757 FT; Niksic, Montenegro; SC Derby). One of the most enjoyable aspects of Illinois’ run to the Final Four was the chance for the college basketball world to get to know Mirkovic, a true original.
From Illinois’ Final Four Friday “mic’d up” video where he charmed and confounded with his confessed love for the movie “Air Bud” and so many other humorous tidbits to C.J. Moore’s story in The Athletic that allowed others in the program to share their favorite “Mirk” stories, it turns out he’s a treasure.
But he’s also a young man on a basketball mission -- and Underwood won’t put anything past him after an offseason spent transforming his frame. It wasn’t by accident that Illinois’ social media account shared shots of Mirk without a shirt on several occasions.
“I think Mirk’s got a chance to be the best player in the country,” Underwood says. “And I’m not saying that lightly. I just don’t know how you guard him.”
Here’s another Big Ten coach’s view of Mirkovic (who adopted the moniker “DJ Smirk” for the deejay class he took in the spring with former teammate Ty Rodgers):
“He changes the whole dynamic for them. I thought he was their best player last year. If he sets a ball screen, what do you do? Because if you switch, then he can post you. If you put a coverage on it, they can pick and pop. If you don’t do anything on it, then the guard can score enough to keep you honest. But the whole threat is him. The whole fear is him.”
When Underwood wanted to take a little pressure off Wagler last year and give him a few possessions off the ball, he would have Mirkovic trigger the action.
That’s going to happen much more frequently this year. When offensive coordinator Tyler Underwood, Brad’s son, visited some NBA teams this offseason and Zoomed with others, the idea was to learn concepts to allow Mirkovic to facilitate like Luka Doncic or Nikola Jokic or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. You know, NBA MVPs.
Mirkovic’s skill set and Illinois’ increased depth—and the departure of Wagler—means the Illini won’t look the same as last year’s patient, ball screen-heavy attack. More cutting, more movement, more pace.
“Keaton was so good in ball screens, we just played to that strength,” Underwood says. “But we’ve probably had a summer of as many significant changes offensively as we’ve had in a while. We’re just trying to get great at what we’re good at. It’s playing in concepts and the reads.”
Underwood could go on about Mirkovic for a long time. But if the comparisons to Doncic, Jokic and SGA seem too wild, then Underwood can offer a college comparison from his days as Frank Martin’s assistant at Kansas State that might resonate.
“I really believe this: He’s as talented offensively as any guy I’ve been around since Michael Beasley,” Underwood says.
Remember, Beasley was a one-and-done who went No. 2 in the 2008 NBA draft behind Derrick Rose.
“Because there wasn’t anything we couldn’t do with ‘Beas,’ and that’s saying something with Mirk. There’s nothing he can’t do on the court,” Underwood says. “Now, I’m not saying he’s going out and getting 26 and 12 every night, but teams are going to have to figure him out. He will be the top of the scouting report guy. And if you don’t [figure it out], he’s going to be capable of [26 and 12]. There aren’t many guys capable of that in the country.”
C-TOMISLAV IVISIC (7-1, 270 lbs., SR, #13, 10.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.6 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.6 bpg, 25.4 mpg, .483 FG, .313 3PT, .778 FT; Vodice, Croatia/SC Derby). All of Ivisic’s numbers slumped from his first year at Illinois except for his free-throw percentage.
As Wagler and Mirkovic and Stojakovic emerged -- and as an early-season bone bruise on his knee limited his mobility for much of the year -- Ivisic became the team’s fourth or fifth option. His minutes also decreased.
But when the NCAA Tournament began, Ivisic went back into the “cheat code” mode from the year before. In the five March Madness games, Ivisic averaged 12.4 points and 6.6 rebounds while hitting seven 3-pointers and shooting .523 from the field.
“We saw the best form of him the last third of the season,” Underwood says. “We’ve got a different version of that guy now. He’s still going to be an effective spacer, an effective passer, shooter.”
For this season, Ivisic worked to get into the 270- to 280-pound range to have a stronger base and increase his mobility.
“One key improvement is looking like you have some physicality to you,” Underwood says. “He’ll be better at handling switches and physically being able to cut and take bumps. He got knocked off balance so easy. Both [Ivisics] did. This will help both of those guys.”
If all Ivisic did during his first year at Illinois was deliver one of the defining highlights of the NCAA Tournament—his block at one end and his in-your-face tomahawk dunk in transition at the other end against VCU that had Bill Raftery howling “Take me to the Balkans, please!”—then that was plenty.
But on a serious note, Ivisic did not accomplish much more in the NCAAs. He posted 14 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks in 68 minutes as his playing time declined as the rounds got tougher. He also went 0-for-7 from 3-point range, which capped a 3-for-31 slump over the last 14 games.
On the positive side, Ivisic went 25 for 69 from 3-point range (.362) in Illinois’ first 23 games -- perhaps the tallest floor spacer in America -- and finished the year fourth in the nation in block percentage (12.9%).
Even more so than his younger brother, Ivisic packed on the pounds during the offseason. When he arrived at Illinois at the end of May in 2025, he checked in at 222. When he weighed himself on July 30, he was 266.
“That is the power of [Assistant Athletic Director, Sports Performance] Adam Fletcher and a great nutrition program,” Underwood says. “He’s got a base under him now. He’s a guy who doesn’t look like a stick figure now. He looks like a basketball player. He’s running better. He’s got better endurance. He just had very little endurance. Z is, I hope, ready for a healthy year.”
One of Underwood’s internal campaigns this year is for the Illini to become a better shot-blocking team. They were the nation’s tallest team last year and they’re taller this year. While 29th in the nation at 4.6 blocks per game doesn’t sound bad, Michigan was No. 2 nationally with 6.1.
“We need ‘Z’ to be the best shot-blocker in the country and have the ability to protect the rim,” Underwood says. “Vertical challenges at the rim have to be a strength of this team. We have to make teams score the ball over our size. Whether that leads to a blocked shot or a bad shot at the rim, we’ve got to be elite at that.
“Both of those guys being physical and having a wall at the rim is advantage, Illinois.”
G-JAKE DAVIS (6-6, 210 lbs., SR, #15, 5.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.2 bpg, 19.6 mpg, .429 FG, .406 3PT, .750 FT, Indianapolis Cathedral HS/McCordsville, Indiana/Mercer). Just because Davis is in this section doesn’t mean Underwood has decided on a starting lineup.
“I know he’s going to be on the court,” he says. “I don’t know what role that’ll be yet.”
If it winds up being a reserve, Davis started Illinois’ final 19 games last year and he’ll always be able to say he started on a Final Four team.
He’ll also always be able to say he was a KenPom champion. Nobody in the country delivered as good of an Offensive Efficiency rating as Davis, who clocked in with a 146.6 rating because he rarely shot or turned over the ball—but he drilled 54 of 133 3-point attempts (versus 9 of 14 from inside the arc).
To put that 146.6 rating into some context, only one player in the last 10 years has matched it: 7-foot-1 Wake Forest center Matthew Marsh, who shot 83 of 94 (.883) from the field in 2022-23. Basically, he dunked everything.
Davis, like several of his teammates, dunked nothing last year. But in Underwood’s eyes, that’s the only thing he didn’t do.
“Jake is a championship-level role player,” Underwood says. “It’s invaluable what he brings to us. His teams win [in practice] every day in almost everything we do. He creates more opportunities. He doesn’t need the ball. He’s had a tremendous offseason in terms of handling the ball and getting better with his shot fakes, his sidestep 3, with playing in transition.”
A couple defining Davis snapshots: With one second left on Feb. 7 at Michigan State in a clash of two top 10 teams, Davis gets fouled on an attempted putback. Though he had taken only 11 free throws all year to that point—and with the Izzone ringing in his ears—Davis sank both free throws to force OT.
Another: Six days earlier, Illinois was trying to hand No. 5 Nebraska its first home loss of the year. With the shot clock running out, Mirkovic had the ball on the right wing and tried to feed Tomislav Ivisic in the paint. Ivisic somehow swatted that pass all the way into the left corner for the waiting Davis – who caught and shot in one motion with Braden Frager flying at him to beat the clock and give the Illini a 56-52 lead on the way to a 9-point triumph.
“The ultimate gravity guy,” Underwood says. “You give him a hair of a clean look and he’s gonna make it.”
Now for the stuff that fans don’t always notice or grasp:
“Never misses assignments,” Underwood says. “There’s not a player in our program who does more things that we ask than him. He just does everything that’s conducive to helping a team win and him not being your best player -- and he’s great with that.
“And he’s our best leader. He’s not afraid of confrontation. He’s not afraid to challenge guys.”
TOP NEWCOMERS CG-LUCAS MORILLO (6-7, 210 lbs., FR, #23, 16.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.2 spg, The Newman School (Mass.)/Mount Vernon, N.Y.). In the ultra-competitive NEPSAC (New England Preparatory School Athletic Council), there are a slew of top-flight Division I recruits each year. This year, in fact, there was a McDonald’s All-American: Morillo’s teammate, Michigan-bound forward Quinn Costello.
But when it came time for the coaches to vote for the conference’s player of the year, Morillo claimed the honor for his all-around game. RSCI’s No. 47 prospect in the Class of 2026 led the Newman School to its first national prep championship as he averaged 21.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists when the Cardinals won four games in three days.
Though Morillo didn’t hit the floor in earnest until late July so he could rest a bothersome back, Underwood is banking on Morillo’s virtuoso versatility to be an important part of the team’s rotation.
“He can play on the ball, he can play off it,” Underwood says. “Great facilitator. Unbelievable rebounder for his size and position. He’s a guy a little bit in the Marcus Domask mode to play booty ball because he can really handle and pass. His biggest assets are his versatility and his rebounding—and his high IQ. High, high IQ.
“He’s just a guy that elevates everybody on his team. And he does all the little things that helps you win.”
G-ETHAN BROWN (6-4, 185 lbs., FR, #34, 24.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 6.4 apg, 3.2 spg; Rolla HS/Rolla, Mo.). While Coleman and Morillo have been projected as important contributors from the moment they committed to Illinois, the same sentiment has not been attached to Brown’s name. But if he winds up carving out a relevant role, especially if Underwood carries out his promise to play at a quicker pace this year, it should not be a surprise.
At the bare minimum, Brown’s 3-point release is virtually as quick and clean as Jake Davis’.
"He’s got a terrific release,” Underwood says.
After not making many shots in June, Brown cranked it up in July. But Underwood thinks of him as much more than a shooter.
“Very, very gifted athlete,” he says. “Special athlete. Special speed. Elite vertically. Great instincts. I’m really excited about this kid. He’s got a lot of the intangible things that I can’t coach that are just instinctive. Great anticipation.”
He piled up great all-around numbers at Rolla, where he crushed the school records for career points (2,523), assists (605) and steals (348).
“Does he have to get stronger? Yes,” Underwood says. “But he does things that help you and allow you to win games.”
OTHER NEWCOMERS F-ZAVIER ZENS (6-7, 215 lbs., FR, #22, 23.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.4 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.8 bpg, .618 FG, .417 3PT, .743 FT; Wisconsin Lutheran/Milwaukee, Wis.). For starters, let’s make it clear Underwood has not decided the fate of any of his freshmen. It’s just that not many teams go more than nine-deep, so this happens to be the random place to draw the line.
Zens signed with Northern Iowa early in his senior year, but asked to be released from his commitment in late March once head coach Ben Jacobsen moved to Utah State. Considering that Zens earned Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year awards while leading Wisconsin Lutheran to a 30-0 record and the Division 1 state title, he was a hot item.
There are many reasons Underwood was thrilled to get Zens. For starters, he’s part of the first family of Wisconsin hoops: His first cousins are Memphis Grizzlies stud Kon Knueppel and the rest of the Knueppel crew. Kager, Kinston and Kash were Wisconsin Lutheran teammates this year.
His uncle, Jeff Nordgaard, scored 1,911 points at Green Bay before becoming the Milwaukee Bucks’ second-round pick in 1996. His father, Greg, played for Southwest Minnesota State. His mother, Kami Nordgaard Davis, was a 6-foot setter at South Carolina. Another uncle, Tod Kowalczyk, has won 451 games at Green Bay and Toledo.
“Zavier has won at a very, very high level throughout his career,” says Underwood, referencing his three straight state titles. “He has played basketball the right way for a long time. He has practiced it the right way. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter, but he has played it and practiced the right way for his whole life. He knows what it looks like.”
He has proven it off the court as well. Whenever a recruit visits Illinois, the team gives him the S2 Cognition test. Long used by NBA teams, it measures a player’s ability to process and learn, etc., and offers a score that becomes their Athletic Intelligence Quotient. It’s a video game-like test that takes 35 minutes.
Wagler posted an extremely high score. All six of Illinois’ incoming freshmen performed well, too, but Zens was best, which helps to explain why Underwood says he doesn’t get sped up on the floor—just as Wagler deconstructed opponents at his own pace.
So Zens’ future should be as an “action guy” in Illinois’ system, but it might not be his present.
“He’s got great, great instincts,” Underwood says. “It’ll be just what time we start to let him do some of that. This year, he could be more of a spacer role guy for us.
“This is the first summer that I haven’t felt like there was someone that wasn’t ready as a freshman. This group, the cerebral piece, the evaluations our staff did, these guys have been able to retain [information]. They’ve been able to make instinctive plays. It has just been learning each other and learning concepts.”
G-LINCOLN WILLIAMS (6-5, 180 lbs., FR, #1, 26 ppg, 6 rpg, 3 apg, 3 spg, 2 bpg; Kankakee HS/Kankakee, Ill.). If you enjoy watching players who make flying seem effortless, then Williams will be on your short list of must-sees.
A two-time Class 3A all-stater and his school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,853 points, Williams got to the rim—and above it—with alarming frequency.
“He’s great in the open court,” Underwood says. “He’s an elite finisher. He’s versatile. He’s got a nose for the ball. Between he and Quentin and Lucas, the ball finds them a lot. It just ends up in their hands.”
Less concrete is his ability to shoot from distance, in part because it didn’t need to be a crucial part of his game. While Underwood says he’s “quietly” a good shooter, it seems far more likely Williams will earn initial minutes if he can disrupt opponents defensively.
“He has great anticipation,” Underwood says. “He’s got great length. I can see him being an impact guy for us, especially on that end, early.”
F-LANDON DAVIS (6-9, 240 lbs., FR, #27, 13.9 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 3.8 apg, 0.7 spg, 3.4 bpg, .595 FG, .283 3PT, .682 FT; Waukee Northwest HS/Waukee, Iowa). Davis tag-teamed with Nebraska recruit Colin Rice to lead their school to Iowa’s state quarterfinals. While he was more of a post player in high school, Illinois views Davis as a physical face-up four who happens to have a 7-foot-1 wingspan.
“His upside is through the roof,” Underwood says. “Been very, very, very well-coached. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter. Very, very gifted athlete. Very good shot-blocker.”
Underwood likes how Davis picked up Illinois’ concepts quickly during the eight weeks of summer. The trick to getting legit minutes -- in addition to acknowledging the veteran returnees in front of him -- will be how quickly he can feel comfortable playing while facing the basket.
“Physically, I wouldn’t be afraid at all to put him on the court this year,” Underwood says. “We’re going to throw a bunch of guys out there who look like him.”
OTHER RETURNEES C-JASON JAKSTYS (6-10, 220 lbs., r-SO, #31, 1.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 0.4 bpg, 5.3 mpg, .800 FG, .667 FT; Yorkville HS/Yorkville, Illinois). It’s not easy to earn time in the frontcourt when Mirkovic and the Ivisic twins are directly ahead of you. It’s even tougher when your body rebels against you.
In late January, after experiencing problems with his left shoulder, Jakstys was sidelined for the year with a blood clot that soon was diagnosed as venous thoracic outlet syndrome. That led to surgery to remove his uppermost rib.
Jakstys returned to the practice floor in the summer, which started his quest to regain the body and the skills that had atrophied during his recovery. He flashed some of his upside during his college debut last Nov. 3 when he grabbed nine rebounds in 12 minutes against Jackson State.
“It’s too early to define where he’s going to be, but he had a very good summer and he’s healthy,” Underwood says. “That’s the biggest thing. He gained his weight back.
“He’s got what I call a volleyball jump: He’s very quick off his feet. I think he’s a guy who can give us some minutes in certain roles.”
G-BLAKE FAGBEMI (6-0, 180 lbs., SO, #8, 0.2 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 0.4 apg, 3.6 mpg, .200 FG, Naperville, IL/Benet Academy). If you get a chance to watch Illinois go through pregame warmups, it won’t take long for Fagbemi to catch your eye. While he’s a point guard in height and temperament, he’s a prodigy in flight and tomahawk dunks. He can throw it down in warmups any way you please.
He’s also a solid player. But at a school that prizes positional size and perimeter shooting, it’s not realistic to expect Fagbemi to carve out a rotation spot.
Considering he gave back his Div. II commitment to Truman State in the spring of 2025 in order to join Illinois, it seems safe to say he’s good with his decision.
BACKCOURT A- FRONTCOURT A BENCH/DEPTH A INTANGIBLES A-
For all those college basketball fans raised on Phi Slama Jama and the Flying Illini and other rim-wrecking crews, watching Illinois’ Final Four bunch must have been confusing as heck.
Four of Illinois’ five starters combined for one dunk all year. Wagler, Mirkovic and Davis teamed up for zero dunks while Boswell managed one when he flew in for an impressive tip jam at USC.
Underwood snorts at the idea that dunks matter in this era.
“I almost look at it like a badge of honor,” he says. “It’s one of the greatest things ever because the game isn’t about any of that anymore. The game’s about processing. It’s about intelligence. ‘Whoa, his vertical is 44 inches.’ Well, you get about five of those a year where you get to wow everybody. And ESPN plays it to be the greatest thing ever. It doesn’t matter.’
“Keaton Wagler just destroyed you -- destroyed you -- with his decel. It was slow. And wait until you see Mirk’s this year. Because it’s slower.”
Illinois will test its processing, decel and Final Four-worthiness against another powerful non-conference slate that features trips to Duke and Texas Tech and neutral-court showdowns with UConn, North Carolina and Missouri. -30-
You guys have entertained me for 25-ish years. It's about time I started contributing a little bit around this joint.
My story for Blue Ribbon:
ILLINOIS
LOCATION Champaign, IL CONFERENCE Big Ten LAST SEASON 28-9 (.757) CONFERENCE RECORD 15-5 (t-2nd) STARTERS RETURNING/LOST 3/2 NICKNAME Fighting Illini COLORS Orange & Blue HOMECOURT State Farm Center (15,544) OFFICIAL WEBSITE FightingIllini.com COACH Brad Underwood (Kansas State ’86) RECORD AT SCHOOL 193-110 (9 years) CAREER RECORD 302-137 (13 years) ASSISTANTS Orlando Antigua (Pittsburgh ’95) Geoff Alexander (Western Illinois ’00) Tyler Underwood (Illinois ’19) Camryn Crocker (Penn ’15) Zach Hamer (Vanderbilt ’17) WINS (LAST 5 YRS.) 23-20-29-22-28 NET RANKING (LAST 5 YRS.) 15-36-12-17-5 2025-26 FINISH Lost in Final Four.
COACH AND PROGRAM
Between the Saturday when Illinois defeated Iowa to earn its first Final Four berth since 2005 and the Saturday when UConn ended Illinois’ bid for its first national championship with a 71-62 victory before a largely orange-clad crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium, former Illini coach Bill Self chatted with Brad Underwood and offered a few points of advice.
For starters, he suggested reserving a separate hotel suite where Underwood could entertain family, friends, key donors and the like – so when he needed to get some rest or do some work, he could leave and let everyone else continue enjoying the Final Four party.
“I had high school buddies who came in that I hadn’t seen in 15 or 20 years,” Underwood says. “Our hotel lobby was always packed. And you weren’t going to a restaurant or anything like that. But we could go back to the room and they could have a drink and we could sit and talk and they could stay as long as they wanted. That part of it was nice.”
Self, who has won two NCAA titles and coached in two other Final Fours since going from Illinois to Kansas in 2003, had one other crucial observation to share with Underwood.
“He said, ‘You’ll realize how tired you are and how tiring it is,’ ” Underwood says. “And it is exhausting. You’re coming off three weeks of pretty intense basketball and it all hits you pretty quick.
“The magnitude of it hit during the [Friday] practice when we walked out and there’s 17,000 there in orange.”
And the finality of Illinois’ Final Four journey hit during the actual game, as the Illini managed only one lead, 22-21, with five minutes left in the first half. We won’t spend much space revisiting that game here, but just know Underwood still thinks about how his team got seven straight defensive stops during that first-half stretch.
He thinks about the handful of open offensive opportunities—two missed free throws here, a missed layup and a missed open 3-pointer there—that might have swiped the momentum and forced UConn on its heels, at least for a while.
“If those go in, now we’ve got a 9-point lead or a 10-point lead and the game’s completely different,” Underwood says. “We never capitalized on what we were doing defensively.”
While the national semifinal loss was crushing at the time, the Final Four appearance triggered a new level of respect, interest and intrigue in Underwood and the Illini.
“The importance of it has manifested itself after,” Underwood says. “Just the attention, the celebrity piece, the speaking engagements. Those things are all through the roof.”
And, yes, it has sent the team’s prospects through the roof as well.
On the Friday of Final Four weekend, guard Quentin Coleman, the No. 17 prospect in the Class of 2026 per Recruiting Services Consensus Index, committed to the Illini.
Not long after the Final Four, five of the six rotation players eligible to return to college ball decided to stay at Illinois: David Mirkovic, Andrej Stojakovic, Tomislav Ivisic, Zvonimir Ivisic and Jake Davis.
(Keaton Wagler, the sixth possible returnee, can be excused for leaving because he signed a four-year, $43,958,324 deal with the LA Clippers after being the fifth pick in the NBA draft. Even with the way NIL figures have exploded, that’s tough to beat.)
That quintet enables Illinois to rank third among Big Ten teams in points returning (57.0%) and minutes returning (57.3%).
Then Underwood lured the guy he considered to be the best offensive player in the portal – Providence guard Stefan Vaaks – to become Illinois’ lone transfer.
Last but not least, two more freshmen – four-star forward Zavier Zens (Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball) and uber-athletic guard Lincoln Williams – pledged to give the Illini six rookies to go with four sophomores and four fourth-year players.
How does all this position the Illini as they attempt to earn the program’s first back-to-back Final Four berths since 1951-52?
“I think we’re better athletically, which probably cost us some games last year,” Underwood says. “Our overtime games [Michigan State, Wisconsin and UCLA]. We got beat twice at the buzzer [UCLA and Nebraska] and we got beat when we got defensive stops, but we didn’t get a rebound maybe because we weren’t athletic enough or didn’t chase down a rebound because we didn’t have that ability.
“So we’re more athletic, we’re bigger and I do think we shoot the ball better.”
Considering Illinois owned the KenPom-era record for best offensive efficiency until losing it to Purdue over the final two games, that’s a frightening thought.
“Yeah, but what last year’s team had that we still have to find is elite role players,” Underwood says. “Kylan [Boswell] became an elite role player. Ben Humrichous was one of the best in the country. Jake [Davis] became an elite role player. They didn’t want the ball. They didn’t need the ball. But, yet, if you didn’t guard them, they were going to make shots.
“You can only have one best player. Everybody wants to be that, but not everybody can be that. That’s our job, to make sure we’re defined in that. It took us a little bit last year to figure out Keaton was our best player. Then it took us a while to figure out how to play ‘Mirk.’ I look back at our first UConn game last year and we were playing Mirk as a center and trying to post him. And now he’s our point guard.”
A few paragraphs above, the 62-year-old Underwood alluded to the perks that have come with reaching the Final Four for the first time. Here’s one he particularly relishes:
In July, he got an email from the National Association of Basketball Coaches needing to know what size sport coat he wears. The Spalding Final Four Coaches Club customizes a dark blue blazer for each coach who reaches the national semifinals.
“You start looking at the names in it, going back through the history of the game, and you go, ‘OK, that’s pretty cool,’ ” he says.
On the day of the Final Four semifinals, the NABC hosts a coaches luncheon. That’s when the new honorees receive their jackets and take their first picture with all the other coaches who’ve made the Final Four—but coaches in the current Final Four are too busy and don’t attend.
It was in these pages last year where Underwood proclaimed “Keaton’s a pro.” But at this point last year, Underwood figured he might get to coach Wagler for two years before he moved on. Instead, Wagler became the nation’s biggest “out of nowhere” story as he went from being the nation’s 150th ranked recruit to second-team Associated Press All-American to fifth pick overall in the NBA Draft. If anyone ever forgets how efficiently he played or how well he could shoot, just remember he needed only 17 field-goal attempts to put 46 points on Purdue on the Boilers’ home floor. Suffice it to say the Illini will miss him. But the same goes for Boswell, the hometown kid who did not flinch when the coaches decided after the Nov. 28 loss to UConn at Madison Square Garden that Wagler should be the primary playmaker instead of playing off the ball. Boswell continued to be the team’s best and most versatile defender -- taking on everyone from point guards to posts -- while scoring and rebounding and facilitating as the team needed. He signed a two-way deal with the Charlotte Hornets.
For two guys on this list -- Humrichous and Redd -- their Illini experience played out better than they could have imagined. Humrichous averaged the sixth-most minutes on the squad and showed enough with his long-range shooting and eager to chase offensive rebounds that the New Jersey Nets signed him to an Exhibit-10 deal. Redd started as a team manager, but became the beloved guy on the bench that has all the students chanting his name. When he hit his first career 3-pointer and rang up 5 points in three minutes on Senior Night, State Farm Center went wild.
Petrovic, on the other hand, was supposed to be Illinois’ starting point guard. But he injured his hamstring in the fall, which opened up more opportunities for Keaton Wagler and Petrovic rarely got minutes that mattered. Rodgers started for the 2024 Elite Eight team and was beloved even though he sat out the last two years. He suffered another injury this summer at Boise State, which bummed out everyone in C-U.
Lee, the son of Marquette Final Four legend Butch Lee, rarely got important minutes as well, though he showed some defensive chops in those rare opportunities.
PROJECTED STARTERS G-STEFAN VAAKS (6-7, 215 lbs., SO, #7, 15.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.3 bpg, 31.5 mpg, .403 FG, .350 3PT, .839 FT; Tabasalu, Estonia/Providence). It seems odd to start with a geography lesson, but Illinois’ signing of Vaaks out of the transfer portal did not constitute an addition to their group of Balkans. Estonia is a Baltic state in northern Europe and Vaaks’ hometown is roughly 1,150 miles from Vodice, Croatia, where the Ivisic twins are from.
That having been said, Vaaks should fit in perfectly with Balkans, Missourians, Illinoisans and anyone else who dons an Illini uniform this year.
“He’s the one guy that we identified in the portal that fit us,” Underwood says. “Elite shooter. Elite shooter off the dribble. We just lost that in Keaton.
“He’s a matchup problem. He can play downhill. He can play in ball screens. He’s instinctive. Just your typical big European guard. He makes right plays a lot. And has the ability to shoot it.”
The 21-year-old Vaaks played on and off the ball last year for Providence, which ranked No. 32 per KenPom in offensive efficiency. He scored in double figures in each of the Friars’ first 23 games, even though he came off the bench in eight of them.
He drilled 8 of 13 3-point attempts against Butler in the Big East tournament on the way to a career-high 28 points.
For Illini fans wondering how he might be able to get the squad over the hump against UConn, the Friars lost by 5 and 6 points to the Huskies as Vaaks averaged 11.5 points, 3.0 assists and 1.5 turnovers while shooting 7 of 23 from the field.
Underwood acknowledges the small elephant in the room -- that Vaaks was one of many indifferent defenders on Providence last year -- but believes there’s more there.
“His big adjustment is he’s got the ability to be a good defender,” Underwood says. “But he’s a very talented player. I mean, a very, very talented offensive player. But I don’t want to say just offense because he’s got great instincts on the defensive side as well.”
Vaaks spent part of his summer running the show for Estonia’s national team in the 2027 FIBA European Qualifiers. In the two game he played, Vaaks averaged a team-high 19.5 points, 6 assists and 1.5 turnovers per game while shooting 7 of 20 from 3-point range.
G-QUENTIN COLEMAN (6-4, 180, FR, #11, 23.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 3.9 apg, 2.7 spg, .649 FG, .506 3PT, .897 FT; Principia HS/St. Louis, Mo.). Just as Vaaks will not be directly responsible for emulating Keaton Wagler or replacing his production, it would be wrong to expect Missouri’s Mr. Basketball with some acrobatic tendencies to fill Wagler’s NIKEs.
“He’s not a Keaton-like shooter off the bounce,” Underwood says. “He’s a different personality. He’s a way better athlete than Keaton.”
At the same time, Coleman will have a chance to affect winning on a Wagler-like basis—as suggested by his international debut this summer.
When USA Basketball picked its roster for the FIBA U18 AmeriCup 2026 competition in Leon, Mexico, Coleman was joined by Michigan State’s Jasiah Jervis and Ethan Taylor. BYU’s Bruce Branch III (RSCI No. 5 recruit), Miami’s Caleb Gaskins (RSCI 15), Kansas’ Taylen Kinney (RSCI 21), UConn’s Colben Landrew (RSCI 26) and Arkansas’ Davion Thompson were the other incoming freshmen on the squad.
At the end of the five-game tournament, which concluded with Canada upsetting the USA for gold, Coleman was the only American on the five-man all-star team as he averaged 11.2 points, a tournament-best 11.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists along a team-high +114 plus/minus rating and team-high 17.2 efficiency rating.
“He is very, very competitive,” Underwood says. “Very high motor. Great athleticism. Great tenacity and grit. You usually don’t link those things together with very talented guys, but he is that. His effort and tenacity raise the level of everybody else—or he embarrasses you. Because his motor doesn’t stop, but he’s also very talented.”
Perhaps this is what Underwood means: When Principia High School won its first Class 3A state title in March, Coleman went off for 50 points on 18-for-21 shooting from the field that included 5 of 7 from 3-point range. The other team finished with 34 points. But Coleman isn’t a finished product.
“He’s learning how to play with other really good players,” Underwood says. “He’s learning concepts instead of sets. But he’s got some tools.”
SF-ANDREJ STOJAKOVIC (6-7, 205 lbs., SR, #2, 13.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 26.3 mpg, .500 FG, .244 3PT, .805 FT, Jesuit HS/Carmichael, Calif./Stanford/California). There were nights when Stojakovic did not exactly stuff the stat sheet.
In Illinois’ only crack at national champion Michigan on Feb. 27, he went scoreless with one rebound in 12 minutes. In Illinois’ first meeting with UConn on Black Friday, he scored three points with two assists in 24 minutes.
But then there were the nights when Illinois could not have won without him.
In the NCAA Tournament’s second round against VCU, the Illini offense was stuck in neutral until Stojakovic came off the bench and unleashed his blizzard of moves, spins and flourishes as he delivered a game-high 21 points in 26 minutes off the bench. One week later against Iowa in the Elite Eight, Stojakovic struck again with 17 points on just nine shots.
To be fair, some of his issues were injury-based. He missed nearly two months in the fall due to a knee sprain. He suffered a high ankle sprain against Michigan State on Feb. 7 that put him on the sidelines for two games and gave Jake Davis to take his starting spot for the rest of the year.
While Stojakovic endured another knee injury during this offseason —- he tweaked his knee at the NBA Draft combine that forced him to miss some time after a knee scope —- Underwood witnessed him healthy at the end of summer ball and sees something massive in his immediate future.
“I think that he will make —- and it’s unfair to say this -— but I think there’s a Terrence Shannon jump,” Underwood says. “We have that with a lot of transfers who are with us from one year to the next.”
As context, Terrence Shannon Jr. transferred from Texas Tech to Illinois prior to his fourth college season. He was perfectly fine that year with 17.0 points per game and a .445/.320/.790 shooting line. But in his fifth year, Shannon went berserk and averaged 23.0 points with a .475/.362/.801 line. He was more confident from the arc, more assertive on his kamikaze slashes to the basket and generally dominant, as his third-team all-American honor might suggest.
In Stojakovic, Underwood sees a stronger player now who plays through contact better and generates more And-1s. The question that will linger until the games begin is how much confidence he can build from the 3-point arc. In his three years of college, he has gone from .327 at Stanford to .318 at Cal to .244 at Illinois.
“I think he’s gaining confidence in his jump shot,” Underwood says. “I don’t think he’s a bad shooter. I just think he has been a reluctant shooter. We’ve got to get him out of that. Go shoot the shot.”
PF-DAVID MIRKOVIC (6-9, 250 lbs., FR, #0, 13.3 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 29.5 mpg, .484 FG, .375 3PT, .757 FT; Niksic, Montenegro; SC Derby). One of the most enjoyable aspects of Illinois’ run to the Final Four was the chance for the college basketball world to get to know Mirkovic, a true original.
From Illinois’ Final Four Friday “mic’d up” video where he charmed and confounded with his confessed love for the movie “Air Bud” and so many other humorous tidbits to C.J. Moore’s story in The Athletic that allowed others in the program to share their favorite “Mirk” stories, it turns out he’s a treasure.
But he’s also a young man on a basketball mission -- and Underwood won’t put anything past him after an offseason spent transforming his frame. It wasn’t by accident that Illinois’ social media account shared shots of Mirk without a shirt on several occasions.
“I think Mirk’s got a chance to be the best player in the country,” Underwood says. “And I’m not saying that lightly. I just don’t know how you guard him.”
Here’s another Big Ten coach’s view of Mirkovic (who adopted the moniker “DJ Smirk” for the deejay class he took in the spring with former teammate Ty Rodgers):
“He changes the whole dynamic for them. I thought he was their best player last year. If he sets a ball screen, what do you do? Because if you switch, then he can post you. If you put a coverage on it, they can pick and pop. If you don’t do anything on it, then the guard can score enough to keep you honest. But the whole threat is him. The whole fear is him.”
When Underwood wanted to take a little pressure off Wagler last year and give him a few possessions off the ball, he would have Mirkovic trigger the action.
That’s going to happen much more frequently this year. When offensive coordinator Tyler Underwood, Brad’s son, visited some NBA teams this offseason and Zoomed with others, the idea was to learn concepts to allow Mirkovic to facilitate like Luka Doncic or Nikola Jokic or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. You know, NBA MVPs.
Mirkovic’s skill set and Illinois’ increased depth—and the departure of Wagler—means the Illini won’t look the same as last year’s patient, ball screen-heavy attack. More cutting, more movement, more pace.
“Keaton was so good in ball screens, we just played to that strength,” Underwood says. “But we’ve probably had a summer of as many significant changes offensively as we’ve had in a while. We’re just trying to get great at what we’re good at. It’s playing in concepts and the reads.”
Underwood could go on about Mirkovic for a long time. But if the comparisons to Doncic, Jokic and SGA seem too wild, then Underwood can offer a college comparison from his days as Frank Martin’s assistant at Kansas State that might resonate.
“I really believe this: He’s as talented offensively as any guy I’ve been around since Michael Beasley,” Underwood says.
Remember, Beasley was a one-and-done who went No. 2 in the 2008 NBA draft behind Derrick Rose.
“Because there wasn’t anything we couldn’t do with ‘Beas,’ and that’s saying something with Mirk. There’s nothing he can’t do on the court,” Underwood says. “Now, I’m not saying he’s going out and getting 26 and 12 every night, but teams are going to have to figure him out. He will be the top of the scouting report guy. And if you don’t [figure it out], he’s going to be capable of [26 and 12]. There aren’t many guys capable of that in the country.”
C-TOMISLAV IVISIC (7-1, 270 lbs., SR, #13, 10.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.6 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.6 bpg, 25.4 mpg, .483 FG, .313 3PT, .778 FT; Vodice, Croatia/SC Derby). All of Ivisic’s numbers slumped from his first year at Illinois except for his free-throw percentage.
As Wagler and Mirkovic and Stojakovic emerged -- and as an early-season bone bruise on his knee limited his mobility for much of the year -- Ivisic became the team’s fourth or fifth option. His minutes also decreased.
But when the NCAA Tournament began, Ivisic went back into the “cheat code” mode from the year before. In the five March Madness games, Ivisic averaged 12.4 points and 6.6 rebounds while hitting seven 3-pointers and shooting .523 from the field.
“We saw the best form of him the last third of the season,” Underwood says. “We’ve got a different version of that guy now. He’s still going to be an effective spacer, an effective passer, shooter.”
For this season, Ivisic worked to get into the 270- to 280-pound range to have a stronger base and increase his mobility.
“One key improvement is looking like you have some physicality to you,” Underwood says. “He’ll be better at handling switches and physically being able to cut and take bumps. He got knocked off balance so easy. Both [Ivisics] did. This will help both of those guys.”
If all Ivisic did during his first year at Illinois was deliver one of the defining highlights of the NCAA Tournament—his block at one end and his in-your-face tomahawk dunk in transition at the other end against VCU that had Bill Raftery howling “Take me to the Balkans, please!”—then that was plenty.
But on a serious note, Ivisic did not accomplish much more in the NCAAs. He posted 14 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks in 68 minutes as his playing time declined as the rounds got tougher. He also went 0-for-7 from 3-point range, which capped a 3-for-31 slump over the last 14 games.
On the positive side, Ivisic went 25 for 69 from 3-point range (.362) in Illinois’ first 23 games -- perhaps the tallest floor spacer in America -- and finished the year fourth in the nation in block percentage (12.9%).
Even more so than his younger brother, Ivisic packed on the pounds during the offseason. When he arrived at Illinois at the end of May in 2025, he checked in at 222. When he weighed himself on July 30, he was 266.
“That is the power of [Assistant Athletic Director, Sports Performance] Adam Fletcher and a great nutrition program,” Underwood says. “He’s got a base under him now. He’s a guy who doesn’t look like a stick figure now. He looks like a basketball player. He’s running better. He’s got better endurance. He just had very little endurance. Z is, I hope, ready for a healthy year.”
One of Underwood’s internal campaigns this year is for the Illini to become a better shot-blocking team. They were the nation’s tallest team last year and they’re taller this year. While 29th in the nation at 4.6 blocks per game doesn’t sound bad, Michigan was No. 2 nationally with 6.1.
“We need ‘Z’ to be the best shot-blocker in the country and have the ability to protect the rim,” Underwood says. “Vertical challenges at the rim have to be a strength of this team. We have to make teams score the ball over our size. Whether that leads to a blocked shot or a bad shot at the rim, we’ve got to be elite at that.
“Both of those guys being physical and having a wall at the rim is advantage, Illinois.”
G-JAKE DAVIS (6-6, 210 lbs., SR, #15, 5.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.2 bpg, 19.6 mpg, .429 FG, .406 3PT, .750 FT, Indianapolis Cathedral HS/McCordsville, Indiana/Mercer). Just because Davis is in this section doesn’t mean Underwood has decided on a starting lineup.
“I know he’s going to be on the court,” he says. “I don’t know what role that’ll be yet.”
If it winds up being a reserve, Davis started Illinois’ final 19 games last year and he’ll always be able to say he started on a Final Four team.
He’ll also always be able to say he was a KenPom champion. Nobody in the country delivered as good of an Offensive Efficiency rating as Davis, who clocked in with a 146.6 rating because he rarely shot or turned over the ball—but he drilled 54 of 133 3-point attempts (versus 9 of 14 from inside the arc).
To put that 146.6 rating into some context, only one player in the last 10 years has matched it: 7-foot-1 Wake Forest center Matthew Marsh, who shot 83 of 94 (.883) from the field in 2022-23. Basically, he dunked everything.
Davis, like several of his teammates, dunked nothing last year. But in Underwood’s eyes, that’s the only thing he didn’t do.
“Jake is a championship-level role player,” Underwood says. “It’s invaluable what he brings to us. His teams win [in practice] every day in almost everything we do. He creates more opportunities. He doesn’t need the ball. He’s had a tremendous offseason in terms of handling the ball and getting better with his shot fakes, his sidestep 3, with playing in transition.”
A couple defining Davis snapshots: With one second left on Feb. 7 at Michigan State in a clash of two top 10 teams, Davis gets fouled on an attempted putback. Though he had taken only 11 free throws all year to that point—and with the Izzone ringing in his ears—Davis sank both free throws to force OT.
Another: Six days earlier, Illinois was trying to hand No. 5 Nebraska its first home loss of the year. With the shot clock running out, Mirkovic had the ball on the right wing and tried to feed Tomislav Ivisic in the paint. Ivisic somehow swatted that pass all the way into the left corner for the waiting Davis – who caught and shot in one motion with Braden Frager flying at him to beat the clock and give the Illini a 56-52 lead on the way to a 9-point triumph.
“The ultimate gravity guy,” Underwood says. “You give him a hair of a clean look and he’s gonna make it.”
Now for the stuff that fans don’t always notice or grasp:
“Never misses assignments,” Underwood says. “There’s not a player in our program who does more things that we ask than him. He just does everything that’s conducive to helping a team win and him not being your best player -- and he’s great with that.
“And he’s our best leader. He’s not afraid of confrontation. He’s not afraid to challenge guys.”
TOP NEWCOMERS CG-LUCAS MORILLO (6-7, 210 lbs., FR, #23, 16.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.2 spg, The Newman School (Mass.)/Mount Vernon, N.Y.). In the ultra-competitive NEPSAC (New England Preparatory School Athletic Council), there are a slew of top-flight Division I recruits each year. This year, in fact, there was a McDonald’s All-American: Morillo’s teammate, Michigan-bound forward Quinn Costello.
But when it came time for the coaches to vote for the conference’s player of the year, Morillo claimed the honor for his all-around game. RSCI’s No. 47 prospect in the Class of 2026 led the Newman School to its first national prep championship as he averaged 21.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists when the Cardinals won four games in three days.
Though Morillo didn’t hit the floor in earnest until late July so he could rest a bothersome back, Underwood is banking on Morillo’s virtuoso versatility to be an important part of the team’s rotation.
“He can play on the ball, he can play off it,” Underwood says. “Great facilitator. Unbelievable rebounder for his size and position. He’s a guy a little bit in the Marcus Domask mode to play booty ball because he can really handle and pass. His biggest assets are his versatility and his rebounding—and his high IQ. High, high IQ.
“He’s just a guy that elevates everybody on his team. And he does all the little things that helps you win.”
G-ETHAN BROWN (6-4, 185 lbs., FR, #34, 24.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 6.4 apg, 3.2 spg; Rolla HS/Rolla, Mo.). While Coleman and Morillo have been projected as important contributors from the moment they committed to Illinois, the same sentiment has not been attached to Brown’s name. But if he winds up carving out a relevant role, especially if Underwood carries out his promise to play at a quicker pace this year, it should not be a surprise.
At the bare minimum, Brown’s 3-point release is virtually as quick and clean as Jake Davis’.
"He’s got a terrific release,” Underwood says.
After not making many shots in June, Brown cranked it up in July. But Underwood thinks of him as much more than a shooter.
“Very, very gifted athlete,” he says. “Special athlete. Special speed. Elite vertically. Great instincts. I’m really excited about this kid. He’s got a lot of the intangible things that I can’t coach that are just instinctive. Great anticipation.”
He piled up great all-around numbers at Rolla, where he crushed the school records for career points (2,523), assists (605) and steals (348).
“Does he have to get stronger? Yes,” Underwood says. “But he does things that help you and allow you to win games.”
OTHER NEWCOMERS F-ZAVIER ZENS (6-7, 215 lbs., FR, #22, 23.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.4 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.8 bpg, .618 FG, .417 3PT, .743 FT; Wisconsin Lutheran/Milwaukee, Wis.). For starters, let’s make it clear Underwood has not decided the fate of any of his freshmen. It’s just that not many teams go more than nine-deep, so this happens to be the random place to draw the line.
Zens signed with Northern Iowa early in his senior year, but asked to be released from his commitment in late March once head coach Ben Jacobsen moved to Utah State. Considering that Zens earned Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year awards while leading Wisconsin Lutheran to a 30-0 record and the Division 1 state title, he was a hot item.
There are many reasons Underwood was thrilled to get Zens. For starters, he’s part of the first family of Wisconsin hoops: His first cousins are Memphis Grizzlies stud Kon Knueppel and the rest of the Knueppel crew. Kager, Kinston and Kash were Wisconsin Lutheran teammates this year.
His uncle, Jeff Nordgaard, scored 1,911 points at Green Bay before becoming the Milwaukee Bucks’ second-round pick in 1996. His father, Greg, played for Southwest Minnesota State. His mother, Kami Nordgaard Davis, was a 6-foot setter at South Carolina. Another uncle, Tod Kowalczyk, has won 451 games at Green Bay and Toledo.
“Zavier has won at a very, very high level throughout his career,” says Underwood, referencing his three straight state titles. “He has played basketball the right way for a long time. He has practiced it the right way. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter, but he has played it and practiced the right way for his whole life. He knows what it looks like.”
He has proven it off the court as well. Whenever a recruit visits Illinois, the team gives him the S2 Cognition test. Long used by NBA teams, it measures a player’s ability to process and learn, etc., and offers a score that becomes their Athletic Intelligence Quotient. It’s a video game-like test that takes 35 minutes.
Wagler posted an extremely high score. All six of Illinois’ incoming freshmen performed well, too, but Zens was best, which helps to explain why Underwood says he doesn’t get sped up on the floor—just as Wagler deconstructed opponents at his own pace.
So Zens’ future should be as an “action guy” in Illinois’ system, but it might not be his present.
“He’s got great, great instincts,” Underwood says. “It’ll be just what time we start to let him do some of that. This year, he could be more of a spacer role guy for us.
“This is the first summer that I haven’t felt like there was someone that wasn’t ready as a freshman. This group, the cerebral piece, the evaluations our staff did, these guys have been able to retain [information]. They’ve been able to make instinctive plays. It has just been learning each other and learning concepts.”
G-LINCOLN WILLIAMS (6-5, 180 lbs., FR, #1, 26 ppg, 6 rpg, 3 apg, 3 spg, 2 bpg; Kankakee HS/Kankakee, Ill.). If you enjoy watching players who make flying seem effortless, then Williams will be on your short list of must-sees.
A two-time Class 3A all-stater and his school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,853 points, Williams got to the rim—and above it—with alarming frequency.
“He’s great in the open court,” Underwood says. “He’s an elite finisher. He’s versatile. He’s got a nose for the ball. Between he and Quentin and Lucas, the ball finds them a lot. It just ends up in their hands.”
Less concrete is his ability to shoot from distance, in part because it didn’t need to be a crucial part of his game. While Underwood says he’s “quietly” a good shooter, it seems far more likely Williams will earn initial minutes if he can disrupt opponents defensively.
“He has great anticipation,” Underwood says. “He’s got great length. I can see him being an impact guy for us, especially on that end, early.”
F-LANDON DAVIS (6-9, 240 lbs., FR, #27, 13.9 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 3.8 apg, 0.7 spg, 3.4 bpg, .595 FG, .283 3PT, .682 FT; Waukee Northwest HS/Waukee, Iowa). Davis tag-teamed with Nebraska recruit Colin Rice to lead their school to Iowa’s state quarterfinals. While he was more of a post player in high school, Illinois views Davis as a physical face-up four who happens to have a 7-foot-1 wingspan.
“His upside is through the roof,” Underwood says. “Been very, very, very well-coached. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter. Very, very gifted athlete. Very good shot-blocker.”
Underwood likes how Davis picked up Illinois’ concepts quickly during the eight weeks of summer. The trick to getting legit minutes -- in addition to acknowledging the veteran returnees in front of him -- will be how quickly he can feel comfortable playing while facing the basket.
“Physically, I wouldn’t be afraid at all to put him on the court this year,” Underwood says. “We’re going to throw a bunch of guys out there who look like him.”
OTHER RETURNEES C-JASON JAKSTYS (6-10, 220 lbs., r-SO, #31, 1.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 0.4 bpg, 5.3 mpg, .800 FG, .667 FT; Yorkville HS/Yorkville, Illinois). It’s not easy to earn time in the frontcourt when Mirkovic and the Ivisic twins are directly ahead of you. It’s even tougher when your body rebels against you.
In late January, after experiencing problems with his left shoulder, Jakstys was sidelined for the year with a blood clot that soon was diagnosed as venous thoracic outlet syndrome. That led to surgery to remove his uppermost rib.
Jakstys returned to the practice floor in the summer, which started his quest to regain the body and the skills that had atrophied during his recovery. He flashed some of his upside during his college debut last Nov. 3 when he grabbed nine rebounds in 12 minutes against Jackson State.
“It’s too early to define where he’s going to be, but he had a very good summer and he’s healthy,” Underwood says. “That’s the biggest thing. He gained his weight back.
“He’s got what I call a volleyball jump: He’s very quick off his feet. I think he’s a guy who can give us some minutes in certain roles.”
G-BLAKE FAGBEMI (6-0, 180 lbs., SO, #8, 0.2 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 0.4 apg, 3.6 mpg, .200 FG, Naperville, IL/Benet Academy). If you get a chance to watch Illinois go through pregame warmups, it won’t take long for Fagbemi to catch your eye. While he’s a point guard in height and temperament, he’s a prodigy in flight and tomahawk dunks. He can throw it down in warmups any way you please.
He’s also a solid player. But at a school that prizes positional size and perimeter shooting, it’s not realistic to expect Fagbemi to carve out a rotation spot.
Considering he gave back his Div. II commitment to Truman State in the spring of 2025 in order to join Illinois, it seems safe to say he’s good with his decision.
BACKCOURT A- FRONTCOURT A BENCH/DEPTH A INTANGIBLES A-
For all those college basketball fans raised on Phi Slama Jama and the Flying Illini and other rim-wrecking crews, watching Illinois’ Final Four bunch must have been confusing as heck.
Four of Illinois’ five starters combined for one dunk all year. Wagler, Mirkovic and Davis teamed up for zero dunks while Boswell managed one when he flew in for an impressive tip jam at USC.
Underwood snorts at the idea that dunks matter in this era.
“I almost look at it like a badge of honor,” he says. “It’s one of the greatest things ever because the game isn’t about any of that anymore. The game’s about processing. It’s about intelligence. ‘Whoa, his vertical is 44 inches.’ Well, you get about five of those a year where you get to wow everybody. And ESPN plays it to be the greatest thing ever. It doesn’t matter.’
“Keaton Wagler just destroyed you -- destroyed you -- with his decel. It was slow. And wait until you see Mirk’s this year. Because it’s slower.”
Illinois will test its processing, decel and Final Four-worthiness against another powerful non-conference slate that features trips to Duke and Texas Tech and neutral-court showdowns with UConn, North Carolina and Missouri. -30-
You guys have entertained me for 25-ish years. It's about time I started contributing a little bit around this joint.
My story for Blue Ribbon:
ILLINOIS
LOCATION Champaign, IL CONFERENCE Big Ten LAST SEASON 28-9 (.757) CONFERENCE RECORD 15-5 (t-2nd) STARTERS RETURNING/LOST 3/2 NICKNAME Fighting Illini COLORS Orange & Blue HOMECOURT State Farm Center (15,544) OFFICIAL WEBSITE FightingIllini.com COACH Brad Underwood (Kansas State ’86) RECORD AT SCHOOL 193-110 (9 years) CAREER RECORD 302-137 (13 years) ASSISTANTS Orlando Antigua (Pittsburgh ’95) Geoff Alexander (Western Illinois ’00) Tyler Underwood (Illinois ’19) Camryn Crocker (Penn ’15) Zach Hamer (Vanderbilt ’17) WINS (LAST 5 YRS.) 23-20-29-22-28 NET RANKING (LAST 5 YRS.) 15-36-12-17-5 2025-26 FINISH Lost in Final Four.
COACH AND PROGRAM
Between the Saturday when Illinois defeated Iowa to earn its first Final Four berth since 2005 and the Saturday when UConn ended Illinois’ bid for its first national championship with a 71-62 victory before a largely orange-clad crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium, former Illini coach Bill Self chatted with Brad Underwood and offered a few points of advice.
For starters, he suggested reserving a separate hotel suite where Underwood could entertain family, friends, key donors and the like – so when he needed to get some rest or do some work, he could leave and let everyone else continue enjoying the Final Four party.
“I had high school buddies who came in that I hadn’t seen in 15 or 20 years,” Underwood says. “Our hotel lobby was always packed. And you weren’t going to a restaurant or anything like that. But we could go back to the room and they could have a drink and we could sit and talk and they could stay as long as they wanted. That part of it was nice.”
Self, who has won two NCAA titles and coached in two other Final Fours since going from Illinois to Kansas in 2003, had one other crucial observation to share with Underwood.
“He said, ‘You’ll realize how tired you are and how tiring it is,’ ” Underwood says. “And it is exhausting. You’re coming off three weeks of pretty intense basketball and it all hits you pretty quick.
“The magnitude of it hit during the [Friday] practice when we walked out and there’s 17,000 there in orange.”
And the finality of Illinois’ Final Four journey hit during the actual game, as the Illini managed only one lead, 22-21, with five minutes left in the first half. We won’t spend much space revisiting that game here, but just know Underwood still thinks about how his team got seven straight defensive stops during that first-half stretch.
He thinks about the handful of open offensive opportunities—two missed free throws here, a missed layup and a missed open 3-pointer there—that might have swiped the momentum and forced UConn on its heels, at least for a while.
“If those go in, now we’ve got a 9-point lead or a 10-point lead and the game’s completely different,” Underwood says. “We never capitalized on what we were doing defensively.”
While the national semifinal loss was crushing at the time, the Final Four appearance triggered a new level of respect, interest and intrigue in Underwood and the Illini.
“The importance of it has manifested itself after,” Underwood says. “Just the attention, the celebrity piece, the speaking engagements. Those things are all through the roof.”
And, yes, it has sent the team’s prospects through the roof as well.
On the Friday of Final Four weekend, guard Quentin Coleman, the No. 17 prospect in the Class of 2026 per Recruiting Services Consensus Index, committed to the Illini.
Not long after the Final Four, five of the six rotation players eligible to return to college ball decided to stay at Illinois: David Mirkovic, Andrej Stojakovic, Tomislav Ivisic, Zvonimir Ivisic and Jake Davis.
(Keaton Wagler, the sixth possible returnee, can be excused for leaving because he signed a four-year, $43,958,324 deal with the LA Clippers after being the fifth pick in the NBA draft. Even with the way NIL figures have exploded, that’s tough to beat.)
That quintet enables Illinois to rank third among Big Ten teams in points returning (57.0%) and minutes returning (57.3%).
Then Underwood lured the guy he considered to be the best offensive player in the portal – Providence guard Stefan Vaaks – to become Illinois’ lone transfer.
Last but not least, two more freshmen – four-star forward Zavier Zens (Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball) and uber-athletic guard Lincoln Williams – pledged to give the Illini six rookies to go with four sophomores and four fourth-year players.
How does all this position the Illini as they attempt to earn the program’s first back-to-back Final Four berths since 1951-52?
“I think we’re better athletically, which probably cost us some games last year,” Underwood says. “Our overtime games [Michigan State, Wisconsin and UCLA]. We got beat twice at the buzzer [UCLA and Nebraska] and we got beat when we got defensive stops, but we didn’t get a rebound maybe because we weren’t athletic enough or didn’t chase down a rebound because we didn’t have that ability.
“So we’re more athletic, we’re bigger and I do think we shoot the ball better.”
Considering Illinois owned the KenPom-era record for best offensive efficiency until losing it to Purdue over the final two games, that’s a frightening thought.
“Yeah, but what last year’s team had that we still have to find is elite role players,” Underwood says. “Kylan [Boswell] became an elite role player. Ben Humrichous was one of the best in the country. Jake [Davis] became an elite role player. They didn’t want the ball. They didn’t need the ball. But, yet, if you didn’t guard them, they were going to make shots.
“You can only have one best player. Everybody wants to be that, but not everybody can be that. That’s our job, to make sure we’re defined in that. It took us a little bit last year to figure out Keaton was our best player. Then it took us a while to figure out how to play ‘Mirk.’ I look back at our first UConn game last year and we were playing Mirk as a center and trying to post him. And now he’s our point guard.”
A few paragraphs above, the 62-year-old Underwood alluded to the perks that have come with reaching the Final Four for the first time. Here’s one he particularly relishes:
In July, he got an email from the National Association of Basketball Coaches needing to know what size sport coat he wears. The Spalding Final Four Coaches Club customizes a dark blue blazer for each coach who reaches the national semifinals.
“You start looking at the names in it, going back through the history of the game, and you go, ‘OK, that’s pretty cool,’ ” he says.
On the day of the Final Four semifinals, the NABC hosts a coaches luncheon. That’s when the new honorees receive their jackets and take their first picture with all the other coaches who’ve made the Final Four—but coaches in the current Final Four are too busy and don’t attend.
It was in these pages last year where Underwood proclaimed “Keaton’s a pro.” But at this point last year, Underwood figured he might get to coach Wagler for two years before he moved on. Instead, Wagler became the nation’s biggest “out of nowhere” story as he went from being the nation’s 150th ranked recruit to second-team Associated Press All-American to fifth pick overall in the NBA Draft. If anyone ever forgets how efficiently he played or how well he could shoot, just remember he needed only 17 field-goal attempts to put 46 points on Purdue on the Boilers’ home floor. Suffice it to say the Illini will miss him. But the same goes for Boswell, the hometown kid who did not flinch when the coaches decided after the Nov. 28 loss to UConn at Madison Square Garden that Wagler should be the primary playmaker instead of playing off the ball. Boswell continued to be the team’s best and most versatile defender -- taking on everyone from point guards to posts -- while scoring and rebounding and facilitating as the team needed. He signed a two-way deal with the Charlotte Hornets.
For two guys on this list -- Humrichous and Redd -- their Illini experience played out better than they could have imagined. Humrichous averaged the sixth-most minutes on the squad and showed enough with his long-range shooting and eager to chase offensive rebounds that the New Jersey Nets signed him to an Exhibit-10 deal. Redd started as a team manager, but became the beloved guy on the bench that has all the students chanting his name. When he hit his first career 3-pointer and rang up 5 points in three minutes on Senior Night, State Farm Center went wild.
Petrovic, on the other hand, was supposed to be Illinois’ starting point guard. But he injured his hamstring in the fall, which opened up more opportunities for Keaton Wagler and Petrovic rarely got minutes that mattered. Rodgers started for the 2024 Elite Eight team and was beloved even though he sat out the last two years. He suffered another injury this summer at Boise State, which bummed out everyone in C-U.
Lee, the son of Marquette Final Four legend Butch Lee, rarely got important minutes as well, though he showed some defensive chops in those rare opportunities.
PROJECTED STARTERS G-STEFAN VAAKS (6-7, 215 lbs., SO, #7, 15.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.3 bpg, 31.5 mpg, .403 FG, .350 3PT, .839 FT; Tabasalu, Estonia/Providence). It seems odd to start with a geography lesson, but Illinois’ signing of Vaaks out of the transfer portal did not constitute an addition to their group of Balkans. Estonia is a Baltic state in northern Europe and Vaaks’ hometown is roughly 1,150 miles from Vodice, Croatia, where the Ivisic twins are from.
That having been said, Vaaks should fit in perfectly with Balkans, Missourians, Illinoisans and anyone else who dons an Illini uniform this year.
“He’s the one guy that we identified in the portal that fit us,” Underwood says. “Elite shooter. Elite shooter off the dribble. We just lost that in Keaton.
“He’s a matchup problem. He can play downhill. He can play in ball screens. He’s instinctive. Just your typical big European guard. He makes right plays a lot. And has the ability to shoot it.”
The 21-year-old Vaaks played on and off the ball last year for Providence, which ranked No. 32 per KenPom in offensive efficiency. He scored in double figures in each of the Friars’ first 23 games, even though he came off the bench in eight of them.
He drilled 8 of 13 3-point attempts against Butler in the Big East tournament on the way to a career-high 28 points.
For Illini fans wondering how he might be able to get the squad over the hump against UConn, the Friars lost by 5 and 6 points to the Huskies as Vaaks averaged 11.5 points, 3.0 assists and 1.5 turnovers while shooting 7 of 23 from the field.
Underwood acknowledges the small elephant in the room -- that Vaaks was one of many indifferent defenders on Providence last year -- but believes there’s more there.
“His big adjustment is he’s got the ability to be a good defender,” Underwood says. “But he’s a very talented player. I mean, a very, very talented offensive player. But I don’t want to say just offense because he’s got great instincts on the defensive side as well.”
Vaaks spent part of his summer running the show for Estonia’s national team in the 2027 FIBA European Qualifiers. In the two game he played, Vaaks averaged a team-high 19.5 points, 6 assists and 1.5 turnovers per game while shooting 7 of 20 from 3-point range.
G-QUENTIN COLEMAN (6-4, 180, FR, #11, 23.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 3.9 apg, 2.7 spg, .649 FG, .506 3PT, .897 FT; Principia HS/St. Louis, Mo.). Just as Vaaks will not be directly responsible for emulating Keaton Wagler or replacing his production, it would be wrong to expect Missouri’s Mr. Basketball with some acrobatic tendencies to fill Wagler’s NIKEs.
“He’s not a Keaton-like shooter off the bounce,” Underwood says. “He’s a different personality. He’s a way better athlete than Keaton.”
At the same time, Coleman will have a chance to affect winning on a Wagler-like basis—as suggested by his international debut this summer.
When USA Basketball picked its roster for the FIBA U18 AmeriCup 2026 competition in Leon, Mexico, Coleman was joined by Michigan State’s Jasiah Jervis and Ethan Taylor. BYU’s Bruce Branch III (RSCI No. 5 recruit), Miami’s Caleb Gaskins (RSCI 15), Kansas’ Taylen Kinney (RSCI 21), UConn’s Colben Landrew (RSCI 26) and Arkansas’ Davion Thompson were the other incoming freshmen on the squad.
At the end of the five-game tournament, which concluded with Canada upsetting the USA for gold, Coleman was the only American on the five-man all-star team as he averaged 11.2 points, a tournament-best 11.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists along a team-high +114 plus/minus rating and team-high 17.2 efficiency rating.
“He is very, very competitive,” Underwood says. “Very high motor. Great athleticism. Great tenacity and grit. You usually don’t link those things together with very talented guys, but he is that. His effort and tenacity raise the level of everybody else—or he embarrasses you. Because his motor doesn’t stop, but he’s also very talented.”
Perhaps this is what Underwood means: When Principia High School won its first Class 3A state title in March, Coleman went off for 50 points on 18-for-21 shooting from the field that included 5 of 7 from 3-point range. The other team finished with 34 points. But Coleman isn’t a finished product.
“He’s learning how to play with other really good players,” Underwood says. “He’s learning concepts instead of sets. But he’s got some tools.”
SF-ANDREJ STOJAKOVIC (6-7, 205 lbs., SR, #2, 13.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 26.3 mpg, .500 FG, .244 3PT, .805 FT, Jesuit HS/Carmichael, Calif./Stanford/California). There were nights when Stojakovic did not exactly stuff the stat sheet.
In Illinois’ only crack at national champion Michigan on Feb. 27, he went scoreless with one rebound in 12 minutes. In Illinois’ first meeting with UConn on Black Friday, he scored three points with two assists in 24 minutes.
But then there were the nights when Illinois could not have won without him.
In the NCAA Tournament’s second round against VCU, the Illini offense was stuck in neutral until Stojakovic came off the bench and unleashed his blizzard of moves, spins and flourishes as he delivered a game-high 21 points in 26 minutes off the bench. One week later against Iowa in the Elite Eight, Stojakovic struck again with 17 points on just nine shots.
To be fair, some of his issues were injury-based. He missed nearly two months in the fall due to a knee sprain. He suffered a high ankle sprain against Michigan State on Feb. 7 that put him on the sidelines for two games and gave Jake Davis to take his starting spot for the rest of the year.
While Stojakovic endured another knee injury during this offseason —- he tweaked his knee at the NBA Draft combine that forced him to miss some time after a knee scope —- Underwood witnessed him healthy at the end of summer ball and sees something massive in his immediate future.
“I think that he will make —- and it’s unfair to say this -— but I think there’s a Terrence Shannon jump,” Underwood says. “We have that with a lot of transfers who are with us from one year to the next.”
As context, Terrence Shannon Jr. transferred from Texas Tech to Illinois prior to his fourth college season. He was perfectly fine that year with 17.0 points per game and a .445/.320/.790 shooting line. But in his fifth year, Shannon went berserk and averaged 23.0 points with a .475/.362/.801 line. He was more confident from the arc, more assertive on his kamikaze slashes to the basket and generally dominant, as his third-team all-American honor might suggest.
In Stojakovic, Underwood sees a stronger player now who plays through contact better and generates more And-1s. The question that will linger until the games begin is how much confidence he can build from the 3-point arc. In his three years of college, he has gone from .327 at Stanford to .318 at Cal to .244 at Illinois.
“I think he’s gaining confidence in his jump shot,” Underwood says. “I don’t think he’s a bad shooter. I just think he has been a reluctant shooter. We’ve got to get him out of that. Go shoot the shot.”
PF-DAVID MIRKOVIC (6-9, 250 lbs., FR, #0, 13.3 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 29.5 mpg, .484 FG, .375 3PT, .757 FT; Niksic, Montenegro; SC Derby). One of the most enjoyable aspects of Illinois’ run to the Final Four was the chance for the college basketball world to get to know Mirkovic, a true original.
From Illinois’ Final Four Friday “mic’d up” video where he charmed and confounded with his confessed love for the movie “Air Bud” and so many other humorous tidbits to C.J. Moore’s story in The Athletic that allowed others in the program to share their favorite “Mirk” stories, it turns out he’s a treasure.
But he’s also a young man on a basketball mission -- and Underwood won’t put anything past him after an offseason spent transforming his frame. It wasn’t by accident that Illinois’ social media account shared shots of Mirk without a shirt on several occasions.
“I think Mirk’s got a chance to be the best player in the country,” Underwood says. “And I’m not saying that lightly. I just don’t know how you guard him.”
Here’s another Big Ten coach’s view of Mirkovic (who adopted the moniker “DJ Smirk” for the deejay class he took in the spring with former teammate Ty Rodgers):
“He changes the whole dynamic for them. I thought he was their best player last year. If he sets a ball screen, what do you do? Because if you switch, then he can post you. If you put a coverage on it, they can pick and pop. If you don’t do anything on it, then the guard can score enough to keep you honest. But the whole threat is him. The whole fear is him.”
When Underwood wanted to take a little pressure off Wagler last year and give him a few possessions off the ball, he would have Mirkovic trigger the action.
That’s going to happen much more frequently this year. When offensive coordinator Tyler Underwood, Brad’s son, visited some NBA teams this offseason and Zoomed with others, the idea was to learn concepts to allow Mirkovic to facilitate like Luka Doncic or Nikola Jokic or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. You know, NBA MVPs.
Mirkovic’s skill set and Illinois’ increased depth—and the departure of Wagler—means the Illini won’t look the same as last year’s patient, ball screen-heavy attack. More cutting, more movement, more pace.
“Keaton was so good in ball screens, we just played to that strength,” Underwood says. “But we’ve probably had a summer of as many significant changes offensively as we’ve had in a while. We’re just trying to get great at what we’re good at. It’s playing in concepts and the reads.”
Underwood could go on about Mirkovic for a long time. But if the comparisons to Doncic, Jokic and SGA seem too wild, then Underwood can offer a college comparison from his days as Frank Martin’s assistant at Kansas State that might resonate.
“I really believe this: He’s as talented offensively as any guy I’ve been around since Michael Beasley,” Underwood says.
Remember, Beasley was a one-and-done who went No. 2 in the 2008 NBA draft behind Derrick Rose.
“Because there wasn’t anything we couldn’t do with ‘Beas,’ and that’s saying something with Mirk. There’s nothing he can’t do on the court,” Underwood says. “Now, I’m not saying he’s going out and getting 26 and 12 every night, but teams are going to have to figure him out. He will be the top of the scouting report guy. And if you don’t [figure it out], he’s going to be capable of [26 and 12]. There aren’t many guys capable of that in the country.”
C-TOMISLAV IVISIC (7-1, 270 lbs., SR, #13, 10.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.6 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.6 bpg, 25.4 mpg, .483 FG, .313 3PT, .778 FT; Vodice, Croatia/SC Derby). All of Ivisic’s numbers slumped from his first year at Illinois except for his free-throw percentage.
As Wagler and Mirkovic and Stojakovic emerged -- and as an early-season bone bruise on his knee limited his mobility for much of the year -- Ivisic became the team’s fourth or fifth option. His minutes also decreased.
But when the NCAA Tournament began, Ivisic went back into the “cheat code” mode from the year before. In the five March Madness games, Ivisic averaged 12.4 points and 6.6 rebounds while hitting seven 3-pointers and shooting .523 from the field.
“We saw the best form of him the last third of the season,” Underwood says. “We’ve got a different version of that guy now. He’s still going to be an effective spacer, an effective passer, shooter.”
For this season, Ivisic worked to get into the 270- to 280-pound range to have a stronger base and increase his mobility.
“One key improvement is looking like you have some physicality to you,” Underwood says. “He’ll be better at handling switches and physically being able to cut and take bumps. He got knocked off balance so easy. Both [Ivisics] did. This will help both of those guys.”
If all Ivisic did during his first year at Illinois was deliver one of the defining highlights of the NCAA Tournament—his block at one end and his in-your-face tomahawk dunk in transition at the other end against VCU that had Bill Raftery howling “Take me to the Balkans, please!”—then that was plenty.
But on a serious note, Ivisic did not accomplish much more in the NCAAs. He posted 14 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks in 68 minutes as his playing time declined as the rounds got tougher. He also went 0-for-7 from 3-point range, which capped a 3-for-31 slump over the last 14 games.
On the positive side, Ivisic went 25 for 69 from 3-point range (.362) in Illinois’ first 23 games -- perhaps the tallest floor spacer in America -- and finished the year fourth in the nation in block percentage (12.9%).
Even more so than his younger brother, Ivisic packed on the pounds during the offseason. When he arrived at Illinois at the end of May in 2025, he checked in at 222. When he weighed himself on July 30, he was 266.
“That is the power of [Assistant Athletic Director, Sports Performance] Adam Fletcher and a great nutrition program,” Underwood says. “He’s got a base under him now. He’s a guy who doesn’t look like a stick figure now. He looks like a basketball player. He’s running better. He’s got better endurance. He just had very little endurance. Z is, I hope, ready for a healthy year.”
One of Underwood’s internal campaigns this year is for the Illini to become a better shot-blocking team. They were the nation’s tallest team last year and they’re taller this year. While 29th in the nation at 4.6 blocks per game doesn’t sound bad, Michigan was No. 2 nationally with 6.1.
“We need ‘Z’ to be the best shot-blocker in the country and have the ability to protect the rim,” Underwood says. “Vertical challenges at the rim have to be a strength of this team. We have to make teams score the ball over our size. Whether that leads to a blocked shot or a bad shot at the rim, we’ve got to be elite at that.
“Both of those guys being physical and having a wall at the rim is advantage, Illinois.”
G-JAKE DAVIS (6-6, 210 lbs., SR, #15, 5.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.2 bpg, 19.6 mpg, .429 FG, .406 3PT, .750 FT, Indianapolis Cathedral HS/McCordsville, Indiana/Mercer). Just because Davis is in this section doesn’t mean Underwood has decided on a starting lineup.
“I know he’s going to be on the court,” he says. “I don’t know what role that’ll be yet.”
If it winds up being a reserve, Davis started Illinois’ final 19 games last year and he’ll always be able to say he started on a Final Four team.
He’ll also always be able to say he was a KenPom champion. Nobody in the country delivered as good of an Offensive Efficiency rating as Davis, who clocked in with a 146.6 rating because he rarely shot or turned over the ball—but he drilled 54 of 133 3-point attempts (versus 9 of 14 from inside the arc).
To put that 146.6 rating into some context, only one player in the last 10 years has matched it: 7-foot-1 Wake Forest center Matthew Marsh, who shot 83 of 94 (.883) from the field in 2022-23. Basically, he dunked everything.
Davis, like several of his teammates, dunked nothing last year. But in Underwood’s eyes, that’s the only thing he didn’t do.
“Jake is a championship-level role player,” Underwood says. “It’s invaluable what he brings to us. His teams win [in practice] every day in almost everything we do. He creates more opportunities. He doesn’t need the ball. He’s had a tremendous offseason in terms of handling the ball and getting better with his shot fakes, his sidestep 3, with playing in transition.”
A couple defining Davis snapshots: With one second left on Feb. 7 at Michigan State in a clash of two top 10 teams, Davis gets fouled on an attempted putback. Though he had taken only 11 free throws all year to that point—and with the Izzone ringing in his ears—Davis sank both free throws to force OT.
Another: Six days earlier, Illinois was trying to hand No. 5 Nebraska its first home loss of the year. With the shot clock running out, Mirkovic had the ball on the right wing and tried to feed Tomislav Ivisic in the paint. Ivisic somehow swatted that pass all the way into the left corner for the waiting Davis – who caught and shot in one motion with Braden Frager flying at him to beat the clock and give the Illini a 56-52 lead on the way to a 9-point triumph.
“The ultimate gravity guy,” Underwood says. “You give him a hair of a clean look and he’s gonna make it.”
Now for the stuff that fans don’t always notice or grasp:
“Never misses assignments,” Underwood says. “There’s not a player in our program who does more things that we ask than him. He just does everything that’s conducive to helping a team win and him not being your best player -- and he’s great with that.
“And he’s our best leader. He’s not afraid of confrontation. He’s not afraid to challenge guys.”
TOP NEWCOMERS CG-LUCAS MORILLO (6-7, 210 lbs., FR, #23, 16.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.2 spg, The Newman School (Mass.)/Mount Vernon, N.Y.). In the ultra-competitive NEPSAC (New England Preparatory School Athletic Council), there are a slew of top-flight Division I recruits each year. This year, in fact, there was a McDonald’s All-American: Morillo’s teammate, Michigan-bound forward Quinn Costello.
But when it came time for the coaches to vote for the conference’s player of the year, Morillo claimed the honor for his all-around game. RSCI’s No. 47 prospect in the Class of 2026 led the Newman School to its first national prep championship as he averaged 21.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists when the Cardinals won four games in three days.
Though Morillo didn’t hit the floor in earnest until late July so he could rest a bothersome back, Underwood is banking on Morillo’s virtuoso versatility to be an important part of the team’s rotation.
“He can play on the ball, he can play off it,” Underwood says. “Great facilitator. Unbelievable rebounder for his size and position. He’s a guy a little bit in the Marcus Domask mode to play booty ball because he can really handle and pass. His biggest assets are his versatility and his rebounding—and his high IQ. High, high IQ.
“He’s just a guy that elevates everybody on his team. And he does all the little things that helps you win.”
G-ETHAN BROWN (6-4, 185 lbs., FR, #34, 24.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 6.4 apg, 3.2 spg; Rolla HS/Rolla, Mo.). While Coleman and Morillo have been projected as important contributors from the moment they committed to Illinois, the same sentiment has not been attached to Brown’s name. But if he winds up carving out a relevant role, especially if Underwood carries out his promise to play at a quicker pace this year, it should not be a surprise.
At the bare minimum, Brown’s 3-point release is virtually as quick and clean as Jake Davis’.
"He’s got a terrific release,” Underwood says.
After not making many shots in June, Brown cranked it up in July. But Underwood thinks of him as much more than a shooter.
“Very, very gifted athlete,” he says. “Special athlete. Special speed. Elite vertically. Great instincts. I’m really excited about this kid. He’s got a lot of the intangible things that I can’t coach that are just instinctive. Great anticipation.”
He piled up great all-around numbers at Rolla, where he crushed the school records for career points (2,523), assists (605) and steals (348).
“Does he have to get stronger? Yes,” Underwood says. “But he does things that help you and allow you to win games.”
OTHER NEWCOMERS F-ZAVIER ZENS (6-7, 215 lbs., FR, #22, 23.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.4 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.8 bpg, .618 FG, .417 3PT, .743 FT; Wisconsin Lutheran/Milwaukee, Wis.). For starters, let’s make it clear Underwood has not decided the fate of any of his freshmen. It’s just that not many teams go more than nine-deep, so this happens to be the random place to draw the line.
Zens signed with Northern Iowa early in his senior year, but asked to be released from his commitment in late March once head coach Ben Jacobsen moved to Utah State. Considering that Zens earned Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year awards while leading Wisconsin Lutheran to a 30-0 record and the Division 1 state title, he was a hot item.
There are many reasons Underwood was thrilled to get Zens. For starters, he’s part of the first family of Wisconsin hoops: His first cousins are Memphis Grizzlies stud Kon Knueppel and the rest of the Knueppel crew. Kager, Kinston and Kash were Wisconsin Lutheran teammates this year.
His uncle, Jeff Nordgaard, scored 1,911 points at Green Bay before becoming the Milwaukee Bucks’ second-round pick in 1996. His father, Greg, played for Southwest Minnesota State. His mother, Kami Nordgaard Davis, was a 6-foot setter at South Carolina. Another uncle, Tod Kowalczyk, has won 451 games at Green Bay and Toledo.
“Zavier has won at a very, very high level throughout his career,” says Underwood, referencing his three straight state titles. “He has played basketball the right way for a long time. He has practiced it the right way. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter, but he has played it and practiced the right way for his whole life. He knows what it looks like.”
He has proven it off the court as well. Whenever a recruit visits Illinois, the team gives him the S2 Cognition test. Long used by NBA teams, it measures a player’s ability to process and learn, etc., and offers a score that becomes their Athletic Intelligence Quotient. It’s a video game-like test that takes 35 minutes.
Wagler posted an extremely high score. All six of Illinois’ incoming freshmen performed well, too, but Zens was best, which helps to explain why Underwood says he doesn’t get sped up on the floor—just as Wagler deconstructed opponents at his own pace.
So Zens’ future should be as an “action guy” in Illinois’ system, but it might not be his present.
“He’s got great, great instincts,” Underwood says. “It’ll be just what time we start to let him do some of that. This year, he could be more of a spacer role guy for us.
“This is the first summer that I haven’t felt like there was someone that wasn’t ready as a freshman. This group, the cerebral piece, the evaluations our staff did, these guys have been able to retain [information]. They’ve been able to make instinctive plays. It has just been learning each other and learning concepts.”
G-LINCOLN WILLIAMS (6-5, 180 lbs., FR, #1, 26 ppg, 6 rpg, 3 apg, 3 spg, 2 bpg; Kankakee HS/Kankakee, Ill.). If you enjoy watching players who make flying seem effortless, then Williams will be on your short list of must-sees.
A two-time Class 3A all-stater and his school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,853 points, Williams got to the rim—and above it—with alarming frequency.
“He’s great in the open court,” Underwood says. “He’s an elite finisher. He’s versatile. He’s got a nose for the ball. Between he and Quentin and Lucas, the ball finds them a lot. It just ends up in their hands.”
Less concrete is his ability to shoot from distance, in part because it didn’t need to be a crucial part of his game. While Underwood says he’s “quietly” a good shooter, it seems far more likely Williams will earn initial minutes if he can disrupt opponents defensively.
“He has great anticipation,” Underwood says. “He’s got great length. I can see him being an impact guy for us, especially on that end, early.”
F-LANDON DAVIS (6-9, 240 lbs., FR, #27, 13.9 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 3.8 apg, 0.7 spg, 3.4 bpg, .595 FG, .283 3PT, .682 FT; Waukee Northwest HS/Waukee, Iowa). Davis tag-teamed with Nebraska recruit Colin Rice to lead their school to Iowa’s state quarterfinals. While he was more of a post player in high school, Illinois views Davis as a physical face-up four who happens to have a 7-foot-1 wingspan.
“His upside is through the roof,” Underwood says. “Been very, very, very well-coached. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter. Very, very gifted athlete. Very good shot-blocker.”
Underwood likes how Davis picked up Illinois’ concepts quickly during the eight weeks of summer. The trick to getting legit minutes -- in addition to acknowledging the veteran returnees in front of him -- will be how quickly he can feel comfortable playing while facing the basket.
“Physically, I wouldn’t be afraid at all to put him on the court this year,” Underwood says. “We’re going to throw a bunch of guys out there who look like him.”
OTHER RETURNEES C-JASON JAKSTYS (6-10, 220 lbs., r-SO, #31, 1.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 0.4 bpg, 5.3 mpg, .800 FG, .667 FT; Yorkville HS/Yorkville, Illinois). It’s not easy to earn time in the frontcourt when Mirkovic and the Ivisic twins are directly ahead of you. It’s even tougher when your body rebels against you.
In late January, after experiencing problems with his left shoulder, Jakstys was sidelined for the year with a blood clot that soon was diagnosed as venous thoracic outlet syndrome. That led to surgery to remove his uppermost rib.
Jakstys returned to the practice floor in the summer, which started his quest to regain the body and the skills that had atrophied during his recovery. He flashed some of his upside during his college debut last Nov. 3 when he grabbed nine rebounds in 12 minutes against Jackson State.
“It’s too early to define where he’s going to be, but he had a very good summer and he’s healthy,” Underwood says. “That’s the biggest thing. He gained his weight back.
“He’s got what I call a volleyball jump: He’s very quick off his feet. I think he’s a guy who can give us some minutes in certain roles.”
G-BLAKE FAGBEMI (6-0, 180 lbs., SO, #8, 0.2 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 0.4 apg, 3.6 mpg, .200 FG, Naperville, IL/Benet Academy). If you get a chance to watch Illinois go through pregame warmups, it won’t take long for Fagbemi to catch your eye. While he’s a point guard in height and temperament, he’s a prodigy in flight and tomahawk dunks. He can throw it down in warmups any way you please.
He’s also a solid player. But at a school that prizes positional size and perimeter shooting, it’s not realistic to expect Fagbemi to carve out a rotation spot.
Considering he gave back his Div. II commitment to Truman State in the spring of 2025 in order to join Illinois, it seems safe to say he’s good with his decision.
BACKCOURT A- FRONTCOURT A BENCH/DEPTH A INTANGIBLES A-
For all those college basketball fans raised on Phi Slama Jama and the Flying Illini and other rim-wrecking crews, watching Illinois’ Final Four bunch must have been confusing as heck.
Four of Illinois’ five starters combined for one dunk all year. Wagler, Mirkovic and Davis teamed up for zero dunks while Boswell managed one when he flew in for an impressive tip jam at USC.
Underwood snorts at the idea that dunks matter in this era.
“I almost look at it like a badge of honor,” he says. “It’s one of the greatest things ever because the game isn’t about any of that anymore. The game’s about processing. It’s about intelligence. ‘Whoa, his vertical is 44 inches.’ Well, you get about five of those a year where you get to wow everybody. And ESPN plays it to be the greatest thing ever. It doesn’t matter.’
“Keaton Wagler just destroyed you -- destroyed you -- with his decel. It was slow. And wait until you see Mirk’s this year. Because it’s slower.”
Illinois will test its processing, decel and Final Four-worthiness against another powerful non-conference slate that features trips to Duke and Texas Tech and neutral-court showdowns with UConn, North Carolina and Missouri. -30-
"He suffered a high ankle sprain against Michigan State on Feb. 7 that put him on the sidelines for two games and gave Jake Davis to take his starting spot for the rest of the year."
missing a word or 2 in there I think
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You guys have entertained me for 25-ish years. It's about time I started contributing a little bit around this joint.
My story for Blue Ribbon:
ILLINOIS
LOCATION Champaign, IL CONFERENCE Big Ten LAST SEASON 28-9 (.757) CONFERENCE RECORD 15-5 (t-2nd) STARTERS RETURNING/LOST 3/2 NICKNAME Fighting Illini COLORS Orange & Blue HOMECOURT State Farm Center (15,544) OFFICIAL WEBSITE FightingIllini.com COACH Brad Underwood (Kansas State ’86) RECORD AT SCHOOL 193-110 (9 years) CAREER RECORD 302-137 (13 years) ASSISTANTS Orlando Antigua (Pittsburgh ’95) Geoff Alexander (Western Illinois ’00) Tyler Underwood (Illinois ’19) Camryn Crocker (Penn ’15) Zach Hamer (Vanderbilt ’17) WINS (LAST 5 YRS.) 23-20-29-22-28 NET RANKING (LAST 5 YRS.) 15-36-12-17-5 2025-26 FINISH Lost in Final Four.
COACH AND PROGRAM
Between the Saturday when Illinois defeated Iowa to earn its first Final Four berth since 2005 and the Saturday when UConn ended Illinois’ bid for its first national championship with a 71-62 victory before a largely orange-clad crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium, former Illini coach Bill Self chatted with Brad Underwood and offered a few points of advice.
For starters, he suggested reserving a separate hotel suite where Underwood could entertain family, friends, key donors and the like – so when he needed to get some rest or do some work, he could leave and let everyone else continue enjoying the Final Four party.
“I had high school buddies who came in that I hadn’t seen in 15 or 20 years,” Underwood says. “Our hotel lobby was always packed. And you weren’t going to a restaurant or anything like that. But we could go back to the room and they could have a drink and we could sit and talk and they could stay as long as they wanted. That part of it was nice.”
Self, who has won two NCAA titles and coached in two other Final Fours since going from Illinois to Kansas in 2003, had one other crucial observation to share with Underwood.
“He said, ‘You’ll realize how tired you are and how tiring it is,’ ” Underwood says. “And it is exhausting. You’re coming off three weeks of pretty intense basketball and it all hits you pretty quick.
“The magnitude of it hit during the [Friday] practice when we walked out and there’s 17,000 there in orange.”
And the finality of Illinois’ Final Four journey hit during the actual game, as the Illini managed only one lead, 22-21, with five minutes left in the first half. We won’t spend much space revisiting that game here, but just know Underwood still thinks about how his team got seven straight defensive stops during that first-half stretch.
He thinks about the handful of open offensive opportunities—two missed free throws here, a missed layup and a missed open 3-pointer there—that might have swiped the momentum and forced UConn on its heels, at least for a while.
“If those go in, now we’ve got a 9-point lead or a 10-point lead and the game’s completely different,” Underwood says. “We never capitalized on what we were doing defensively.”
While the national semifinal loss was crushing at the time, the Final Four appearance triggered a new level of respect, interest and intrigue in Underwood and the Illini.
“The importance of it has manifested itself after,” Underwood says. “Just the attention, the celebrity piece, the speaking engagements. Those things are all through the roof.”
And, yes, it has sent the team’s prospects through the roof as well.
On the Friday of Final Four weekend, guard Quentin Coleman, the No. 17 prospect in the Class of 2026 per Recruiting Services Consensus Index, committed to the Illini.
Not long after the Final Four, five of the six rotation players eligible to return to college ball decided to stay at Illinois: David Mirkovic, Andrej Stojakovic, Tomislav Ivisic, Zvonimir Ivisic and Jake Davis.
(Keaton Wagler, the sixth possible returnee, can be excused for leaving because he signed a four-year, $43,958,324 deal with the LA Clippers after being the fifth pick in the NBA draft. Even with the way NIL figures have exploded, that’s tough to beat.)
That quintet enables Illinois to rank third among Big Ten teams in points returning (57.0%) and minutes returning (57.3%).
Then Underwood lured the guy he considered to be the best offensive player in the portal – Providence guard Stefan Vaaks – to become Illinois’ lone transfer.
Last but not least, two more freshmen – four-star forward Zavier Zens (Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball) and uber-athletic guard Lincoln Williams – pledged to give the Illini six rookies to go with four sophomores and four fourth-year players.
How does all this position the Illini as they attempt to earn the program’s first back-to-back Final Four berths since 1951-52?
“I think we’re better athletically, which probably cost us some games last year,” Underwood says. “Our overtime games [Michigan State, Wisconsin and UCLA]. We got beat twice at the buzzer [UCLA and Nebraska] and we got beat when we got defensive stops, but we didn’t get a rebound maybe because we weren’t athletic enough or didn’t chase down a rebound because we didn’t have that ability.
“So we’re more athletic, we’re bigger and I do think we shoot the ball better.”
Considering Illinois owned the KenPom-era record for best offensive efficiency until losing it to Purdue over the final two games, that’s a frightening thought.
“Yeah, but what last year’s team had that we still have to find is elite role players,” Underwood says. “Kylan [Boswell] became an elite role player. Ben Humrichous was one of the best in the country. Jake [Davis] became an elite role player. They didn’t want the ball. They didn’t need the ball. But, yet, if you didn’t guard them, they were going to make shots.
“You can only have one best player. Everybody wants to be that, but not everybody can be that. That’s our job, to make sure we’re defined in that. It took us a little bit last year to figure out Keaton was our best player. Then it took us a while to figure out how to play ‘Mirk.’ I look back at our first UConn game last year and we were playing Mirk as a center and trying to post him. And now he’s our point guard.”
A few paragraphs above, the 62-year-old Underwood alluded to the perks that have come with reaching the Final Four for the first time. Here’s one he particularly relishes:
In July, he got an email from the National Association of Basketball Coaches needing to know what size sport coat he wears. The Spalding Final Four Coaches Club customizes a dark blue blazer for each coach who reaches the national semifinals.
“You start looking at the names in it, going back through the history of the game, and you go, ‘OK, that’s pretty cool,’ ” he says.
On the day of the Final Four semifinals, the NABC hosts a coaches luncheon. That’s when the new honorees receive their jackets and take their first picture with all the other coaches who’ve made the Final Four—but coaches in the current Final Four are too busy and don’t attend.
It was in these pages last year where Underwood proclaimed “Keaton’s a pro.” But at this point last year, Underwood figured he might get to coach Wagler for two years before he moved on. Instead, Wagler became the nation’s biggest “out of nowhere” story as he went from being the nation’s 150th ranked recruit to second-team Associated Press All-American to fifth pick overall in the NBA Draft. If anyone ever forgets how efficiently he played or how well he could shoot, just remember he needed only 17 field-goal attempts to put 46 points on Purdue on the Boilers’ home floor. Suffice it to say the Illini will miss him. But the same goes for Boswell, the hometown kid who did not flinch when the coaches decided after the Nov. 28 loss to UConn at Madison Square Garden that Wagler should be the primary playmaker instead of playing off the ball. Boswell continued to be the team’s best and most versatile defender -- taking on everyone from point guards to posts -- while scoring and rebounding and facilitating as the team needed. He signed a two-way deal with the Charlotte Hornets.
For two guys on this list -- Humrichous and Redd -- their Illini experience played out better than they could have imagined. Humrichous averaged the sixth-most minutes on the squad and showed enough with his long-range shooting and eager to chase offensive rebounds that the New Jersey Nets signed him to an Exhibit-10 deal. Redd started as a team manager, but became the beloved guy on the bench that has all the students chanting his name. When he hit his first career 3-pointer and rang up 5 points in three minutes on Senior Night, State Farm Center went wild.
Petrovic, on the other hand, was supposed to be Illinois’ starting point guard. But he injured his hamstring in the fall, which opened up more opportunities for Keaton Wagler and Petrovic rarely got minutes that mattered. Rodgers started for the 2024 Elite Eight team and was beloved even though he sat out the last two years. He suffered another injury this summer at Boise State, which bummed out everyone in C-U.
Lee, the son of Marquette Final Four legend Butch Lee, rarely got important minutes as well, though he showed some defensive chops in those rare opportunities.
PROJECTED STARTERS G-STEFAN VAAKS (6-7, 215 lbs., SO, #7, 15.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.3 bpg, 31.5 mpg, .403 FG, .350 3PT, .839 FT; Tabasalu, Estonia/Providence). It seems odd to start with a geography lesson, but Illinois’ signing of Vaaks out of the transfer portal did not constitute an addition to their group of Balkans. Estonia is a Baltic state in northern Europe and Vaaks’ hometown is roughly 1,150 miles from Vodice, Croatia, where the Ivisic twins are from.
That having been said, Vaaks should fit in perfectly with Balkans, Missourians, Illinoisans and anyone else who dons an Illini uniform this year.
“He’s the one guy that we identified in the portal that fit us,” Underwood says. “Elite shooter. Elite shooter off the dribble. We just lost that in Keaton.
“He’s a matchup problem. He can play downhill. He can play in ball screens. He’s instinctive. Just your typical big European guard. He makes right plays a lot. And has the ability to shoot it.”
The 21-year-old Vaaks played on and off the ball last year for Providence, which ranked No. 32 per KenPom in offensive efficiency. He scored in double figures in each of the Friars’ first 23 games, even though he came off the bench in eight of them.
He drilled 8 of 13 3-point attempts against Butler in the Big East tournament on the way to a career-high 28 points.
For Illini fans wondering how he might be able to get the squad over the hump against UConn, the Friars lost by 5 and 6 points to the Huskies as Vaaks averaged 11.5 points, 3.0 assists and 1.5 turnovers while shooting 7 of 23 from the field.
Underwood acknowledges the small elephant in the room -- that Vaaks was one of many indifferent defenders on Providence last year -- but believes there’s more there.
“His big adjustment is he’s got the ability to be a good defender,” Underwood says. “But he’s a very talented player. I mean, a very, very talented offensive player. But I don’t want to say just offense because he’s got great instincts on the defensive side as well.”
Vaaks spent part of his summer running the show for Estonia’s national team in the 2027 FIBA European Qualifiers. In the two game he played, Vaaks averaged a team-high 19.5 points, 6 assists and 1.5 turnovers per game while shooting 7 of 20 from 3-point range.
G-QUENTIN COLEMAN (6-4, 180, FR, #11, 23.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 3.9 apg, 2.7 spg, .649 FG, .506 3PT, .897 FT; Principia HS/St. Louis, Mo.). Just as Vaaks will not be directly responsible for emulating Keaton Wagler or replacing his production, it would be wrong to expect Missouri’s Mr. Basketball with some acrobatic tendencies to fill Wagler’s NIKEs.
“He’s not a Keaton-like shooter off the bounce,” Underwood says. “He’s a different personality. He’s a way better athlete than Keaton.”
At the same time, Coleman will have a chance to affect winning on a Wagler-like basis—as suggested by his international debut this summer.
When USA Basketball picked its roster for the FIBA U18 AmeriCup 2026 competition in Leon, Mexico, Coleman was joined by Michigan State’s Jasiah Jervis and Ethan Taylor. BYU’s Bruce Branch III (RSCI No. 5 recruit), Miami’s Caleb Gaskins (RSCI 15), Kansas’ Taylen Kinney (RSCI 21), UConn’s Colben Landrew (RSCI 26) and Arkansas’ Davion Thompson were the other incoming freshmen on the squad.
At the end of the five-game tournament, which concluded with Canada upsetting the USA for gold, Coleman was the only American on the five-man all-star team as he averaged 11.2 points, a tournament-best 11.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists along a team-high +114 plus/minus rating and team-high 17.2 efficiency rating.
“He is very, very competitive,” Underwood says. “Very high motor. Great athleticism. Great tenacity and grit. You usually don’t link those things together with very talented guys, but he is that. His effort and tenacity raise the level of everybody else—or he embarrasses you. Because his motor doesn’t stop, but he’s also very talented.”
Perhaps this is what Underwood means: When Principia High School won its first Class 3A state title in March, Coleman went off for 50 points on 18-for-21 shooting from the field that included 5 of 7 from 3-point range. The other team finished with 34 points. But Coleman isn’t a finished product.
“He’s learning how to play with other really good players,” Underwood says. “He’s learning concepts instead of sets. But he’s got some tools.”
SF-ANDREJ STOJAKOVIC (6-7, 205 lbs., SR, #2, 13.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 26.3 mpg, .500 FG, .244 3PT, .805 FT, Jesuit HS/Carmichael, Calif./Stanford/California). There were nights when Stojakovic did not exactly stuff the stat sheet.
In Illinois’ only crack at national champion Michigan on Feb. 27, he went scoreless with one rebound in 12 minutes. In Illinois’ first meeting with UConn on Black Friday, he scored three points with two assists in 24 minutes.
But then there were the nights when Illinois could not have won without him.
In the NCAA Tournament’s second round against VCU, the Illini offense was stuck in neutral until Stojakovic came off the bench and unleashed his blizzard of moves, spins and flourishes as he delivered a game-high 21 points in 26 minutes off the bench. One week later against Iowa in the Elite Eight, Stojakovic struck again with 17 points on just nine shots.
To be fair, some of his issues were injury-based. He missed nearly two months in the fall due to a knee sprain. He suffered a high ankle sprain against Michigan State on Feb. 7 that put him on the sidelines for two games and gave Jake Davis to take his starting spot for the rest of the year.
While Stojakovic endured another knee injury during this offseason —- he tweaked his knee at the NBA Draft combine that forced him to miss some time after a knee scope —- Underwood witnessed him healthy at the end of summer ball and sees something massive in his immediate future.
“I think that he will make —- and it’s unfair to say this -— but I think there’s a Terrence Shannon jump,” Underwood says. “We have that with a lot of transfers who are with us from one year to the next.”
As context, Terrence Shannon Jr. transferred from Texas Tech to Illinois prior to his fourth college season. He was perfectly fine that year with 17.0 points per game and a .445/.320/.790 shooting line. But in his fifth year, Shannon went berserk and averaged 23.0 points with a .475/.362/.801 line. He was more confident from the arc, more assertive on his kamikaze slashes to the basket and generally dominant, as his third-team all-American honor might suggest.
In Stojakovic, Underwood sees a stronger player now who plays through contact better and generates more And-1s. The question that will linger until the games begin is how much confidence he can build from the 3-point arc. In his three years of college, he has gone from .327 at Stanford to .318 at Cal to .244 at Illinois.
“I think he’s gaining confidence in his jump shot,” Underwood says. “I don’t think he’s a bad shooter. I just think he has been a reluctant shooter. We’ve got to get him out of that. Go shoot the shot.”
PF-DAVID MIRKOVIC (6-9, 250 lbs., FR, #0, 13.3 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 29.5 mpg, .484 FG, .375 3PT, .757 FT; Niksic, Montenegro; SC Derby). One of the most enjoyable aspects of Illinois’ run to the Final Four was the chance for the college basketball world to get to know Mirkovic, a true original.
From Illinois’ Final Four Friday “mic’d up” video where he charmed and confounded with his confessed love for the movie “Air Bud” and so many other humorous tidbits to C.J. Moore’s story in The Athletic that allowed others in the program to share their favorite “Mirk” stories, it turns out he’s a treasure.
But he’s also a young man on a basketball mission -- and Underwood won’t put anything past him after an offseason spent transforming his frame. It wasn’t by accident that Illinois’ social media account shared shots of Mirk without a shirt on several occasions.
“I think Mirk’s got a chance to be the best player in the country,” Underwood says. “And I’m not saying that lightly. I just don’t know how you guard him.”
Here’s another Big Ten coach’s view of Mirkovic (who adopted the moniker “DJ Smirk” for the deejay class he took in the spring with former teammate Ty Rodgers):
“He changes the whole dynamic for them. I thought he was their best player last year. If he sets a ball screen, what do you do? Because if you switch, then he can post you. If you put a coverage on it, they can pick and pop. If you don’t do anything on it, then the guard can score enough to keep you honest. But the whole threat is him. The whole fear is him.”
When Underwood wanted to take a little pressure off Wagler last year and give him a few possessions off the ball, he would have Mirkovic trigger the action.
That’s going to happen much more frequently this year. When offensive coordinator Tyler Underwood, Brad’s son, visited some NBA teams this offseason and Zoomed with others, the idea was to learn concepts to allow Mirkovic to facilitate like Luka Doncic or Nikola Jokic or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. You know, NBA MVPs.
Mirkovic’s skill set and Illinois’ increased depth—and the departure of Wagler—means the Illini won’t look the same as last year’s patient, ball screen-heavy attack. More cutting, more movement, more pace.
“Keaton was so good in ball screens, we just played to that strength,” Underwood says. “But we’ve probably had a summer of as many significant changes offensively as we’ve had in a while. We’re just trying to get great at what we’re good at. It’s playing in concepts and the reads.”
Underwood could go on about Mirkovic for a long time. But if the comparisons to Doncic, Jokic and SGA seem too wild, then Underwood can offer a college comparison from his days as Frank Martin’s assistant at Kansas State that might resonate.
“I really believe this: He’s as talented offensively as any guy I’ve been around since Michael Beasley,” Underwood says.
Remember, Beasley was a one-and-done who went No. 2 in the 2008 NBA draft behind Derrick Rose.
“Because there wasn’t anything we couldn’t do with ‘Beas,’ and that’s saying something with Mirk. There’s nothing he can’t do on the court,” Underwood says. “Now, I’m not saying he’s going out and getting 26 and 12 every night, but teams are going to have to figure him out. He will be the top of the scouting report guy. And if you don’t [figure it out], he’s going to be capable of [26 and 12]. There aren’t many guys capable of that in the country.”
C-TOMISLAV IVISIC (7-1, 270 lbs., SR, #13, 10.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.6 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.6 bpg, 25.4 mpg, .483 FG, .313 3PT, .778 FT; Vodice, Croatia/SC Derby). All of Ivisic’s numbers slumped from his first year at Illinois except for his free-throw percentage.
As Wagler and Mirkovic and Stojakovic emerged -- and as an early-season bone bruise on his knee limited his mobility for much of the year -- Ivisic became the team’s fourth or fifth option. His minutes also decreased.
But when the NCAA Tournament began, Ivisic went back into the “cheat code” mode from the year before. In the five March Madness games, Ivisic averaged 12.4 points and 6.6 rebounds while hitting seven 3-pointers and shooting .523 from the field.
“We saw the best form of him the last third of the season,” Underwood says. “We’ve got a different version of that guy now. He’s still going to be an effective spacer, an effective passer, shooter.”
For this season, Ivisic worked to get into the 270- to 280-pound range to have a stronger base and increase his mobility.
“One key improvement is looking like you have some physicality to you,” Underwood says. “He’ll be better at handling switches and physically being able to cut and take bumps. He got knocked off balance so easy. Both [Ivisics] did. This will help both of those guys.”
If all Ivisic did during his first year at Illinois was deliver one of the defining highlights of the NCAA Tournament—his block at one end and his in-your-face tomahawk dunk in transition at the other end against VCU that had Bill Raftery howling “Take me to the Balkans, please!”—then that was plenty.
But on a serious note, Ivisic did not accomplish much more in the NCAAs. He posted 14 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks in 68 minutes as his playing time declined as the rounds got tougher. He also went 0-for-7 from 3-point range, which capped a 3-for-31 slump over the last 14 games.
On the positive side, Ivisic went 25 for 69 from 3-point range (.362) in Illinois’ first 23 games -- perhaps the tallest floor spacer in America -- and finished the year fourth in the nation in block percentage (12.9%).
Even more so than his younger brother, Ivisic packed on the pounds during the offseason. When he arrived at Illinois at the end of May in 2025, he checked in at 222. When he weighed himself on July 30, he was 266.
“That is the power of [Assistant Athletic Director, Sports Performance] Adam Fletcher and a great nutrition program,” Underwood says. “He’s got a base under him now. He’s a guy who doesn’t look like a stick figure now. He looks like a basketball player. He’s running better. He’s got better endurance. He just had very little endurance. Z is, I hope, ready for a healthy year.”
One of Underwood’s internal campaigns this year is for the Illini to become a better shot-blocking team. They were the nation’s tallest team last year and they’re taller this year. While 29th in the nation at 4.6 blocks per game doesn’t sound bad, Michigan was No. 2 nationally with 6.1.
“We need ‘Z’ to be the best shot-blocker in the country and have the ability to protect the rim,” Underwood says. “Vertical challenges at the rim have to be a strength of this team. We have to make teams score the ball over our size. Whether that leads to a blocked shot or a bad shot at the rim, we’ve got to be elite at that.
“Both of those guys being physical and having a wall at the rim is advantage, Illinois.”
G-JAKE DAVIS (6-6, 210 lbs., SR, #15, 5.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.2 bpg, 19.6 mpg, .429 FG, .406 3PT, .750 FT, Indianapolis Cathedral HS/McCordsville, Indiana/Mercer). Just because Davis is in this section doesn’t mean Underwood has decided on a starting lineup.
“I know he’s going to be on the court,” he says. “I don’t know what role that’ll be yet.”
If it winds up being a reserve, Davis started Illinois’ final 19 games last year and he’ll always be able to say he started on a Final Four team.
He’ll also always be able to say he was a KenPom champion. Nobody in the country delivered as good of an Offensive Efficiency rating as Davis, who clocked in with a 146.6 rating because he rarely shot or turned over the ball—but he drilled 54 of 133 3-point attempts (versus 9 of 14 from inside the arc).
To put that 146.6 rating into some context, only one player in the last 10 years has matched it: 7-foot-1 Wake Forest center Matthew Marsh, who shot 83 of 94 (.883) from the field in 2022-23. Basically, he dunked everything.
Davis, like several of his teammates, dunked nothing last year. But in Underwood’s eyes, that’s the only thing he didn’t do.
“Jake is a championship-level role player,” Underwood says. “It’s invaluable what he brings to us. His teams win [in practice] every day in almost everything we do. He creates more opportunities. He doesn’t need the ball. He’s had a tremendous offseason in terms of handling the ball and getting better with his shot fakes, his sidestep 3, with playing in transition.”
A couple defining Davis snapshots: With one second left on Feb. 7 at Michigan State in a clash of two top 10 teams, Davis gets fouled on an attempted putback. Though he had taken only 11 free throws all year to that point—and with the Izzone ringing in his ears—Davis sank both free throws to force OT.
Another: Six days earlier, Illinois was trying to hand No. 5 Nebraska its first home loss of the year. With the shot clock running out, Mirkovic had the ball on the right wing and tried to feed Tomislav Ivisic in the paint. Ivisic somehow swatted that pass all the way into the left corner for the waiting Davis – who caught and shot in one motion with Braden Frager flying at him to beat the clock and give the Illini a 56-52 lead on the way to a 9-point triumph.
“The ultimate gravity guy,” Underwood says. “You give him a hair of a clean look and he’s gonna make it.”
Now for the stuff that fans don’t always notice or grasp:
“Never misses assignments,” Underwood says. “There’s not a player in our program who does more things that we ask than him. He just does everything that’s conducive to helping a team win and him not being your best player -- and he’s great with that.
“And he’s our best leader. He’s not afraid of confrontation. He’s not afraid to challenge guys.”
TOP NEWCOMERS CG-LUCAS MORILLO (6-7, 210 lbs., FR, #23, 16.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.2 spg, The Newman School (Mass.)/Mount Vernon, N.Y.). In the ultra-competitive NEPSAC (New England Preparatory School Athletic Council), there are a slew of top-flight Division I recruits each year. This year, in fact, there was a McDonald’s All-American: Morillo’s teammate, Michigan-bound forward Quinn Costello.
But when it came time for the coaches to vote for the conference’s player of the year, Morillo claimed the honor for his all-around game. RSCI’s No. 47 prospect in the Class of 2026 led the Newman School to its first national prep championship as he averaged 21.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists when the Cardinals won four games in three days.
Though Morillo didn’t hit the floor in earnest until late July so he could rest a bothersome back, Underwood is banking on Morillo’s virtuoso versatility to be an important part of the team’s rotation.
“He can play on the ball, he can play off it,” Underwood says. “Great facilitator. Unbelievable rebounder for his size and position. He’s a guy a little bit in the Marcus Domask mode to play booty ball because he can really handle and pass. His biggest assets are his versatility and his rebounding—and his high IQ. High, high IQ.
“He’s just a guy that elevates everybody on his team. And he does all the little things that helps you win.”
G-ETHAN BROWN (6-4, 185 lbs., FR, #34, 24.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 6.4 apg, 3.2 spg; Rolla HS/Rolla, Mo.). While Coleman and Morillo have been projected as important contributors from the moment they committed to Illinois, the same sentiment has not been attached to Brown’s name. But if he winds up carving out a relevant role, especially if Underwood carries out his promise to play at a quicker pace this year, it should not be a surprise.
At the bare minimum, Brown’s 3-point release is virtually as quick and clean as Jake Davis’.
"He’s got a terrific release,” Underwood says.
After not making many shots in June, Brown cranked it up in July. But Underwood thinks of him as much more than a shooter.
“Very, very gifted athlete,” he says. “Special athlete. Special speed. Elite vertically. Great instincts. I’m really excited about this kid. He’s got a lot of the intangible things that I can’t coach that are just instinctive. Great anticipation.”
He piled up great all-around numbers at Rolla, where he crushed the school records for career points (2,523), assists (605) and steals (348).
“Does he have to get stronger? Yes,” Underwood says. “But he does things that help you and allow you to win games.”
OTHER NEWCOMERS F-ZAVIER ZENS (6-7, 215 lbs., FR, #22, 23.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.4 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.8 bpg, .618 FG, .417 3PT, .743 FT; Wisconsin Lutheran/Milwaukee, Wis.). For starters, let’s make it clear Underwood has not decided the fate of any of his freshmen. It’s just that not many teams go more than nine-deep, so this happens to be the random place to draw the line.
Zens signed with Northern Iowa early in his senior year, but asked to be released from his commitment in late March once head coach Ben Jacobsen moved to Utah State. Considering that Zens earned Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year awards while leading Wisconsin Lutheran to a 30-0 record and the Division 1 state title, he was a hot item.
There are many reasons Underwood was thrilled to get Zens. For starters, he’s part of the first family of Wisconsin hoops: His first cousins are Memphis Grizzlies stud Kon Knueppel and the rest of the Knueppel crew. Kager, Kinston and Kash were Wisconsin Lutheran teammates this year.
His uncle, Jeff Nordgaard, scored 1,911 points at Green Bay before becoming the Milwaukee Bucks’ second-round pick in 1996. His father, Greg, played for Southwest Minnesota State. His mother, Kami Nordgaard Davis, was a 6-foot setter at South Carolina. Another uncle, Tod Kowalczyk, has won 451 games at Green Bay and Toledo.
“Zavier has won at a very, very high level throughout his career,” says Underwood, referencing his three straight state titles. “He has played basketball the right way for a long time. He has practiced it the right way. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter, but he has played it and practiced the right way for his whole life. He knows what it looks like.”
He has proven it off the court as well. Whenever a recruit visits Illinois, the team gives him the S2 Cognition test. Long used by NBA teams, it measures a player’s ability to process and learn, etc., and offers a score that becomes their Athletic Intelligence Quotient. It’s a video game-like test that takes 35 minutes.
Wagler posted an extremely high score. All six of Illinois’ incoming freshmen performed well, too, but Zens was best, which helps to explain why Underwood says he doesn’t get sped up on the floor—just as Wagler deconstructed opponents at his own pace.
So Zens’ future should be as an “action guy” in Illinois’ system, but it might not be his present.
“He’s got great, great instincts,” Underwood says. “It’ll be just what time we start to let him do some of that. This year, he could be more of a spacer role guy for us.
“This is the first summer that I haven’t felt like there was someone that wasn’t ready as a freshman. This group, the cerebral piece, the evaluations our staff did, these guys have been able to retain [information]. They’ve been able to make instinctive plays. It has just been learning each other and learning concepts.”
G-LINCOLN WILLIAMS (6-5, 180 lbs., FR, #1, 26 ppg, 6 rpg, 3 apg, 3 spg, 2 bpg; Kankakee HS/Kankakee, Ill.). If you enjoy watching players who make flying seem effortless, then Williams will be on your short list of must-sees.
A two-time Class 3A all-stater and his school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,853 points, Williams got to the rim—and above it—with alarming frequency.
“He’s great in the open court,” Underwood says. “He’s an elite finisher. He’s versatile. He’s got a nose for the ball. Between he and Quentin and Lucas, the ball finds them a lot. It just ends up in their hands.”
Less concrete is his ability to shoot from distance, in part because it didn’t need to be a crucial part of his game. While Underwood says he’s “quietly” a good shooter, it seems far more likely Williams will earn initial minutes if he can disrupt opponents defensively.
“He has great anticipation,” Underwood says. “He’s got great length. I can see him being an impact guy for us, especially on that end, early.”
F-LANDON DAVIS (6-9, 240 lbs., FR, #27, 13.9 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 3.8 apg, 0.7 spg, 3.4 bpg, .595 FG, .283 3PT, .682 FT; Waukee Northwest HS/Waukee, Iowa). Davis tag-teamed with Nebraska recruit Colin Rice to lead their school to Iowa’s state quarterfinals. While he was more of a post player in high school, Illinois views Davis as a physical face-up four who happens to have a 7-foot-1 wingspan.
“His upside is through the roof,” Underwood says. “Been very, very, very well-coached. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter. Very, very gifted athlete. Very good shot-blocker.”
Underwood likes how Davis picked up Illinois’ concepts quickly during the eight weeks of summer. The trick to getting legit minutes -- in addition to acknowledging the veteran returnees in front of him -- will be how quickly he can feel comfortable playing while facing the basket.
“Physically, I wouldn’t be afraid at all to put him on the court this year,” Underwood says. “We’re going to throw a bunch of guys out there who look like him.”
OTHER RETURNEES C-JASON JAKSTYS (6-10, 220 lbs., r-SO, #31, 1.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 0.4 bpg, 5.3 mpg, .800 FG, .667 FT; Yorkville HS/Yorkville, Illinois). It’s not easy to earn time in the frontcourt when Mirkovic and the Ivisic twins are directly ahead of you. It’s even tougher when your body rebels against you.
In late January, after experiencing problems with his left shoulder, Jakstys was sidelined for the year with a blood clot that soon was diagnosed as venous thoracic outlet syndrome. That led to surgery to remove his uppermost rib.
Jakstys returned to the practice floor in the summer, which started his quest to regain the body and the skills that had atrophied during his recovery. He flashed some of his upside during his college debut last Nov. 3 when he grabbed nine rebounds in 12 minutes against Jackson State.
“It’s too early to define where he’s going to be, but he had a very good summer and he’s healthy,” Underwood says. “That’s the biggest thing. He gained his weight back.
“He’s got what I call a volleyball jump: He’s very quick off his feet. I think he’s a guy who can give us some minutes in certain roles.”
G-BLAKE FAGBEMI (6-0, 180 lbs., SO, #8, 0.2 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 0.4 apg, 3.6 mpg, .200 FG, Naperville, IL/Benet Academy). If you get a chance to watch Illinois go through pregame warmups, it won’t take long for Fagbemi to catch your eye. While he’s a point guard in height and temperament, he’s a prodigy in flight and tomahawk dunks. He can throw it down in warmups any way you please.
He’s also a solid player. But at a school that prizes positional size and perimeter shooting, it’s not realistic to expect Fagbemi to carve out a rotation spot.
Considering he gave back his Div. II commitment to Truman State in the spring of 2025 in order to join Illinois, it seems safe to say he’s good with his decision.
BACKCOURT A- FRONTCOURT A BENCH/DEPTH A INTANGIBLES A-
For all those college basketball fans raised on Phi Slama Jama and the Flying Illini and other rim-wrecking crews, watching Illinois’ Final Four bunch must have been confusing as heck.
Four of Illinois’ five starters combined for one dunk all year. Wagler, Mirkovic and Davis teamed up for zero dunks while Boswell managed one when he flew in for an impressive tip jam at USC.
Underwood snorts at the idea that dunks matter in this era.
“I almost look at it like a badge of honor,” he says. “It’s one of the greatest things ever because the game isn’t about any of that anymore. The game’s about processing. It’s about intelligence. ‘Whoa, his vertical is 44 inches.’ Well, you get about five of those a year where you get to wow everybody. And ESPN plays it to be the greatest thing ever. It doesn’t matter.’
“Keaton Wagler just destroyed you -- destroyed you -- with his decel. It was slow. And wait until you see Mirk’s this year. Because it’s slower.”
Illinois will test its processing, decel and Final Four-worthiness against another powerful non-conference slate that features trips to Duke and Texas Tech and neutral-court showdowns with UConn, North Carolina and Missouri. -30-
Brandon Schrock of Laredo, Texas, told the federal government that his employer was “poop,” and his occupation was “pooper.”
"He suffered a high ankle sprain against Michigan State on Feb. 7 that put him on the sidelines for two games and gave Jake Davis to take his starting spot for the rest of the year."
missing a word or 2 in there I think
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You guys have entertained me for 25-ish years. It's about time I started contributing a little bit around this joint.
My story for Blue Ribbon:
ILLINOIS
LOCATION Champaign, IL CONFERENCE Big Ten LAST SEASON 28-9 (.757) CONFERENCE RECORD 15-5 (t-2nd) STARTERS RETURNING/LOST 3/2 NICKNAME Fighting Illini COLORS Orange & Blue HOMECOURT State Farm Center (15,544) OFFICIAL WEBSITE FightingIllini.com COACH Brad Underwood (Kansas State ’86) RECORD AT SCHOOL 193-110 (9 years) CAREER RECORD 302-137 (13 years) ASSISTANTS Orlando Antigua (Pittsburgh ’95) Geoff Alexander (Western Illinois ’00) Tyler Underwood (Illinois ’19) Camryn Crocker (Penn ’15) Zach Hamer (Vanderbilt ’17) WINS (LAST 5 YRS.) 23-20-29-22-28 NET RANKING (LAST 5 YRS.) 15-36-12-17-5 2025-26 FINISH Lost in Final Four.
COACH AND PROGRAM
Between the Saturday when Illinois defeated Iowa to earn its first Final Four berth since 2005 and the Saturday when UConn ended Illinois’ bid for its first national championship with a 71-62 victory before a largely orange-clad crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium, former Illini coach Bill Self chatted with Brad Underwood and offered a few points of advice.
For starters, he suggested reserving a separate hotel suite where Underwood could entertain family, friends, key donors and the like – so when he needed to get some rest or do some work, he could leave and let everyone else continue enjoying the Final Four party.
“I had high school buddies who came in that I hadn’t seen in 15 or 20 years,” Underwood says. “Our hotel lobby was always packed. And you weren’t going to a restaurant or anything like that. But we could go back to the room and they could have a drink and we could sit and talk and they could stay as long as they wanted. That part of it was nice.”
Self, who has won two NCAA titles and coached in two other Final Fours since going from Illinois to Kansas in 2003, had one other crucial observation to share with Underwood.
“He said, ‘You’ll realize how tired you are and how tiring it is,’ ” Underwood says. “And it is exhausting. You’re coming off three weeks of pretty intense basketball and it all hits you pretty quick.
“The magnitude of it hit during the [Friday] practice when we walked out and there’s 17,000 there in orange.”
And the finality of Illinois’ Final Four journey hit during the actual game, as the Illini managed only one lead, 22-21, with five minutes left in the first half. We won’t spend much space revisiting that game here, but just know Underwood still thinks about how his team got seven straight defensive stops during that first-half stretch.
He thinks about the handful of open offensive opportunities—two missed free throws here, a missed layup and a missed open 3-pointer there—that might have swiped the momentum and forced UConn on its heels, at least for a while.
“If those go in, now we’ve got a 9-point lead or a 10-point lead and the game’s completely different,” Underwood says. “We never capitalized on what we were doing defensively.”
While the national semifinal loss was crushing at the time, the Final Four appearance triggered a new level of respect, interest and intrigue in Underwood and the Illini.
“The importance of it has manifested itself after,” Underwood says. “Just the attention, the celebrity piece, the speaking engagements. Those things are all through the roof.”
And, yes, it has sent the team’s prospects through the roof as well.
On the Friday of Final Four weekend, guard Quentin Coleman, the No. 17 prospect in the Class of 2026 per Recruiting Services Consensus Index, committed to the Illini.
Not long after the Final Four, five of the six rotation players eligible to return to college ball decided to stay at Illinois: David Mirkovic, Andrej Stojakovic, Tomislav Ivisic, Zvonimir Ivisic and Jake Davis.
(Keaton Wagler, the sixth possible returnee, can be excused for leaving because he signed a four-year, $43,958,324 deal with the LA Clippers after being the fifth pick in the NBA draft. Even with the way NIL figures have exploded, that’s tough to beat.)
That quintet enables Illinois to rank third among Big Ten teams in points returning (57.0%) and minutes returning (57.3%).
Then Underwood lured the guy he considered to be the best offensive player in the portal – Providence guard Stefan Vaaks – to become Illinois’ lone transfer.
Last but not least, two more freshmen – four-star forward Zavier Zens (Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball) and uber-athletic guard Lincoln Williams – pledged to give the Illini six rookies to go with four sophomores and four fourth-year players.
How does all this position the Illini as they attempt to earn the program’s first back-to-back Final Four berths since 1951-52?
“I think we’re better athletically, which probably cost us some games last year,” Underwood says. “Our overtime games [Michigan State, Wisconsin and UCLA]. We got beat twice at the buzzer [UCLA and Nebraska] and we got beat when we got defensive stops, but we didn’t get a rebound maybe because we weren’t athletic enough or didn’t chase down a rebound because we didn’t have that ability.
“So we’re more athletic, we’re bigger and I do think we shoot the ball better.”
Considering Illinois owned the KenPom-era record for best offensive efficiency until losing it to Purdue over the final two games, that’s a frightening thought.
“Yeah, but what last year’s team had that we still have to find is elite role players,” Underwood says. “Kylan [Boswell] became an elite role player. Ben Humrichous was one of the best in the country. Jake [Davis] became an elite role player. They didn’t want the ball. They didn’t need the ball. But, yet, if you didn’t guard them, they were going to make shots.
“You can only have one best player. Everybody wants to be that, but not everybody can be that. That’s our job, to make sure we’re defined in that. It took us a little bit last year to figure out Keaton was our best player. Then it took us a while to figure out how to play ‘Mirk.’ I look back at our first UConn game last year and we were playing Mirk as a center and trying to post him. And now he’s our point guard.”
A few paragraphs above, the 62-year-old Underwood alluded to the perks that have come with reaching the Final Four for the first time. Here’s one he particularly relishes:
In July, he got an email from the National Association of Basketball Coaches needing to know what size sport coat he wears. The Spalding Final Four Coaches Club customizes a dark blue blazer for each coach who reaches the national semifinals.
“You start looking at the names in it, going back through the history of the game, and you go, ‘OK, that’s pretty cool,’ ” he says.
On the day of the Final Four semifinals, the NABC hosts a coaches luncheon. That’s when the new honorees receive their jackets and take their first picture with all the other coaches who’ve made the Final Four—but coaches in the current Final Four are too busy and don’t attend.
It was in these pages last year where Underwood proclaimed “Keaton’s a pro.” But at this point last year, Underwood figured he might get to coach Wagler for two years before he moved on. Instead, Wagler became the nation’s biggest “out of nowhere” story as he went from being the nation’s 150th ranked recruit to second-team Associated Press All-American to fifth pick overall in the NBA Draft. If anyone ever forgets how efficiently he played or how well he could shoot, just remember he needed only 17 field-goal attempts to put 46 points on Purdue on the Boilers’ home floor. Suffice it to say the Illini will miss him. But the same goes for Boswell, the hometown kid who did not flinch when the coaches decided after the Nov. 28 loss to UConn at Madison Square Garden that Wagler should be the primary playmaker instead of playing off the ball. Boswell continued to be the team’s best and most versatile defender -- taking on everyone from point guards to posts -- while scoring and rebounding and facilitating as the team needed. He signed a two-way deal with the Charlotte Hornets.
For two guys on this list -- Humrichous and Redd -- their Illini experience played out better than they could have imagined. Humrichous averaged the sixth-most minutes on the squad and showed enough with his long-range shooting and eager to chase offensive rebounds that the New Jersey Nets signed him to an Exhibit-10 deal. Redd started as a team manager, but became the beloved guy on the bench that has all the students chanting his name. When he hit his first career 3-pointer and rang up 5 points in three minutes on Senior Night, State Farm Center went wild.
Petrovic, on the other hand, was supposed to be Illinois’ starting point guard. But he injured his hamstring in the fall, which opened up more opportunities for Keaton Wagler and Petrovic rarely got minutes that mattered. Rodgers started for the 2024 Elite Eight team and was beloved even though he sat out the last two years. He suffered another injury this summer at Boise State, which bummed out everyone in C-U.
Lee, the son of Marquette Final Four legend Butch Lee, rarely got important minutes as well, though he showed some defensive chops in those rare opportunities.
PROJECTED STARTERS G-STEFAN VAAKS (6-7, 215 lbs., SO, #7, 15.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.3 bpg, 31.5 mpg, .403 FG, .350 3PT, .839 FT; Tabasalu, Estonia/Providence). It seems odd to start with a geography lesson, but Illinois’ signing of Vaaks out of the transfer portal did not constitute an addition to their group of Balkans. Estonia is a Baltic state in northern Europe and Vaaks’ hometown is roughly 1,150 miles from Vodice, Croatia, where the Ivisic twins are from.
That having been said, Vaaks should fit in perfectly with Balkans, Missourians, Illinoisans and anyone else who dons an Illini uniform this year.
“He’s the one guy that we identified in the portal that fit us,” Underwood says. “Elite shooter. Elite shooter off the dribble. We just lost that in Keaton.
“He’s a matchup problem. He can play downhill. He can play in ball screens. He’s instinctive. Just your typical big European guard. He makes right plays a lot. And has the ability to shoot it.”
The 21-year-old Vaaks played on and off the ball last year for Providence, which ranked No. 32 per KenPom in offensive efficiency. He scored in double figures in each of the Friars’ first 23 games, even though he came off the bench in eight of them.
He drilled 8 of 13 3-point attempts against Butler in the Big East tournament on the way to a career-high 28 points.
For Illini fans wondering how he might be able to get the squad over the hump against UConn, the Friars lost by 5 and 6 points to the Huskies as Vaaks averaged 11.5 points, 3.0 assists and 1.5 turnovers while shooting 7 of 23 from the field.
Underwood acknowledges the small elephant in the room -- that Vaaks was one of many indifferent defenders on Providence last year -- but believes there’s more there.
“His big adjustment is he’s got the ability to be a good defender,” Underwood says. “But he’s a very talented player. I mean, a very, very talented offensive player. But I don’t want to say just offense because he’s got great instincts on the defensive side as well.”
Vaaks spent part of his summer running the show for Estonia’s national team in the 2027 FIBA European Qualifiers. In the two game he played, Vaaks averaged a team-high 19.5 points, 6 assists and 1.5 turnovers per game while shooting 7 of 20 from 3-point range.
G-QUENTIN COLEMAN (6-4, 180, FR, #11, 23.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 3.9 apg, 2.7 spg, .649 FG, .506 3PT, .897 FT; Principia HS/St. Louis, Mo.). Just as Vaaks will not be directly responsible for emulating Keaton Wagler or replacing his production, it would be wrong to expect Missouri’s Mr. Basketball with some acrobatic tendencies to fill Wagler’s NIKEs.
“He’s not a Keaton-like shooter off the bounce,” Underwood says. “He’s a different personality. He’s a way better athlete than Keaton.”
At the same time, Coleman will have a chance to affect winning on a Wagler-like basis—as suggested by his international debut this summer.
When USA Basketball picked its roster for the FIBA U18 AmeriCup 2026 competition in Leon, Mexico, Coleman was joined by Michigan State’s Jasiah Jervis and Ethan Taylor. BYU’s Bruce Branch III (RSCI No. 5 recruit), Miami’s Caleb Gaskins (RSCI 15), Kansas’ Taylen Kinney (RSCI 21), UConn’s Colben Landrew (RSCI 26) and Arkansas’ Davion Thompson were the other incoming freshmen on the squad.
At the end of the five-game tournament, which concluded with Canada upsetting the USA for gold, Coleman was the only American on the five-man all-star team as he averaged 11.2 points, a tournament-best 11.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists along a team-high +114 plus/minus rating and team-high 17.2 efficiency rating.
“He is very, very competitive,” Underwood says. “Very high motor. Great athleticism. Great tenacity and grit. You usually don’t link those things together with very talented guys, but he is that. His effort and tenacity raise the level of everybody else—or he embarrasses you. Because his motor doesn’t stop, but he’s also very talented.”
Perhaps this is what Underwood means: When Principia High School won its first Class 3A state title in March, Coleman went off for 50 points on 18-for-21 shooting from the field that included 5 of 7 from 3-point range. The other team finished with 34 points. But Coleman isn’t a finished product.
“He’s learning how to play with other really good players,” Underwood says. “He’s learning concepts instead of sets. But he’s got some tools.”
SF-ANDREJ STOJAKOVIC (6-7, 205 lbs., SR, #2, 13.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 26.3 mpg, .500 FG, .244 3PT, .805 FT, Jesuit HS/Carmichael, Calif./Stanford/California). There were nights when Stojakovic did not exactly stuff the stat sheet.
In Illinois’ only crack at national champion Michigan on Feb. 27, he went scoreless with one rebound in 12 minutes. In Illinois’ first meeting with UConn on Black Friday, he scored three points with two assists in 24 minutes.
But then there were the nights when Illinois could not have won without him.
In the NCAA Tournament’s second round against VCU, the Illini offense was stuck in neutral until Stojakovic came off the bench and unleashed his blizzard of moves, spins and flourishes as he delivered a game-high 21 points in 26 minutes off the bench. One week later against Iowa in the Elite Eight, Stojakovic struck again with 17 points on just nine shots.
To be fair, some of his issues were injury-based. He missed nearly two months in the fall due to a knee sprain. He suffered a high ankle sprain against Michigan State on Feb. 7 that put him on the sidelines for two games and gave Jake Davis to take his starting spot for the rest of the year.
While Stojakovic endured another knee injury during this offseason —- he tweaked his knee at the NBA Draft combine that forced him to miss some time after a knee scope —- Underwood witnessed him healthy at the end of summer ball and sees something massive in his immediate future.
“I think that he will make —- and it’s unfair to say this -— but I think there’s a Terrence Shannon jump,” Underwood says. “We have that with a lot of transfers who are with us from one year to the next.”
As context, Terrence Shannon Jr. transferred from Texas Tech to Illinois prior to his fourth college season. He was perfectly fine that year with 17.0 points per game and a .445/.320/.790 shooting line. But in his fifth year, Shannon went berserk and averaged 23.0 points with a .475/.362/.801 line. He was more confident from the arc, more assertive on his kamikaze slashes to the basket and generally dominant, as his third-team all-American honor might suggest.
In Stojakovic, Underwood sees a stronger player now who plays through contact better and generates more And-1s. The question that will linger until the games begin is how much confidence he can build from the 3-point arc. In his three years of college, he has gone from .327 at Stanford to .318 at Cal to .244 at Illinois.
“I think he’s gaining confidence in his jump shot,” Underwood says. “I don’t think he’s a bad shooter. I just think he has been a reluctant shooter. We’ve got to get him out of that. Go shoot the shot.”
PF-DAVID MIRKOVIC (6-9, 250 lbs., FR, #0, 13.3 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 29.5 mpg, .484 FG, .375 3PT, .757 FT; Niksic, Montenegro; SC Derby). One of the most enjoyable aspects of Illinois’ run to the Final Four was the chance for the college basketball world to get to know Mirkovic, a true original.
From Illinois’ Final Four Friday “mic’d up” video where he charmed and confounded with his confessed love for the movie “Air Bud” and so many other humorous tidbits to C.J. Moore’s story in The Athletic that allowed others in the program to share their favorite “Mirk” stories, it turns out he’s a treasure.
But he’s also a young man on a basketball mission -- and Underwood won’t put anything past him after an offseason spent transforming his frame. It wasn’t by accident that Illinois’ social media account shared shots of Mirk without a shirt on several occasions.
“I think Mirk’s got a chance to be the best player in the country,” Underwood says. “And I’m not saying that lightly. I just don’t know how you guard him.”
Here’s another Big Ten coach’s view of Mirkovic (who adopted the moniker “DJ Smirk” for the deejay class he took in the spring with former teammate Ty Rodgers):
“He changes the whole dynamic for them. I thought he was their best player last year. If he sets a ball screen, what do you do? Because if you switch, then he can post you. If you put a coverage on it, they can pick and pop. If you don’t do anything on it, then the guard can score enough to keep you honest. But the whole threat is him. The whole fear is him.”
When Underwood wanted to take a little pressure off Wagler last year and give him a few possessions off the ball, he would have Mirkovic trigger the action.
That’s going to happen much more frequently this year. When offensive coordinator Tyler Underwood, Brad’s son, visited some NBA teams this offseason and Zoomed with others, the idea was to learn concepts to allow Mirkovic to facilitate like Luka Doncic or Nikola Jokic or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. You know, NBA MVPs.
Mirkovic’s skill set and Illinois’ increased depth—and the departure of Wagler—means the Illini won’t look the same as last year’s patient, ball screen-heavy attack. More cutting, more movement, more pace.
“Keaton was so good in ball screens, we just played to that strength,” Underwood says. “But we’ve probably had a summer of as many significant changes offensively as we’ve had in a while. We’re just trying to get great at what we’re good at. It’s playing in concepts and the reads.”
Underwood could go on about Mirkovic for a long time. But if the comparisons to Doncic, Jokic and SGA seem too wild, then Underwood can offer a college comparison from his days as Frank Martin’s assistant at Kansas State that might resonate.
“I really believe this: He’s as talented offensively as any guy I’ve been around since Michael Beasley,” Underwood says.
Remember, Beasley was a one-and-done who went No. 2 in the 2008 NBA draft behind Derrick Rose.
“Because there wasn’t anything we couldn’t do with ‘Beas,’ and that’s saying something with Mirk. There’s nothing he can’t do on the court,” Underwood says. “Now, I’m not saying he’s going out and getting 26 and 12 every night, but teams are going to have to figure him out. He will be the top of the scouting report guy. And if you don’t [figure it out], he’s going to be capable of [26 and 12]. There aren’t many guys capable of that in the country.”
C-TOMISLAV IVISIC (7-1, 270 lbs., SR, #13, 10.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.6 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.6 bpg, 25.4 mpg, .483 FG, .313 3PT, .778 FT; Vodice, Croatia/SC Derby). All of Ivisic’s numbers slumped from his first year at Illinois except for his free-throw percentage.
As Wagler and Mirkovic and Stojakovic emerged -- and as an early-season bone bruise on his knee limited his mobility for much of the year -- Ivisic became the team’s fourth or fifth option. His minutes also decreased.
But when the NCAA Tournament began, Ivisic went back into the “cheat code” mode from the year before. In the five March Madness games, Ivisic averaged 12.4 points and 6.6 rebounds while hitting seven 3-pointers and shooting .523 from the field.
“We saw the best form of him the last third of the season,” Underwood says. “We’ve got a different version of that guy now. He’s still going to be an effective spacer, an effective passer, shooter.”
For this season, Ivisic worked to get into the 270- to 280-pound range to have a stronger base and increase his mobility.
“One key improvement is looking like you have some physicality to you,” Underwood says. “He’ll be better at handling switches and physically being able to cut and take bumps. He got knocked off balance so easy. Both [Ivisics] did. This will help both of those guys.”
If all Ivisic did during his first year at Illinois was deliver one of the defining highlights of the NCAA Tournament—his block at one end and his in-your-face tomahawk dunk in transition at the other end against VCU that had Bill Raftery howling “Take me to the Balkans, please!”—then that was plenty.
But on a serious note, Ivisic did not accomplish much more in the NCAAs. He posted 14 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks in 68 minutes as his playing time declined as the rounds got tougher. He also went 0-for-7 from 3-point range, which capped a 3-for-31 slump over the last 14 games.
On the positive side, Ivisic went 25 for 69 from 3-point range (.362) in Illinois’ first 23 games -- perhaps the tallest floor spacer in America -- and finished the year fourth in the nation in block percentage (12.9%).
Even more so than his younger brother, Ivisic packed on the pounds during the offseason. When he arrived at Illinois at the end of May in 2025, he checked in at 222. When he weighed himself on July 30, he was 266.
“That is the power of [Assistant Athletic Director, Sports Performance] Adam Fletcher and a great nutrition program,” Underwood says. “He’s got a base under him now. He’s a guy who doesn’t look like a stick figure now. He looks like a basketball player. He’s running better. He’s got better endurance. He just had very little endurance. Z is, I hope, ready for a healthy year.”
One of Underwood’s internal campaigns this year is for the Illini to become a better shot-blocking team. They were the nation’s tallest team last year and they’re taller this year. While 29th in the nation at 4.6 blocks per game doesn’t sound bad, Michigan was No. 2 nationally with 6.1.
“We need ‘Z’ to be the best shot-blocker in the country and have the ability to protect the rim,” Underwood says. “Vertical challenges at the rim have to be a strength of this team. We have to make teams score the ball over our size. Whether that leads to a blocked shot or a bad shot at the rim, we’ve got to be elite at that.
“Both of those guys being physical and having a wall at the rim is advantage, Illinois.”
G-JAKE DAVIS (6-6, 210 lbs., SR, #15, 5.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.2 bpg, 19.6 mpg, .429 FG, .406 3PT, .750 FT, Indianapolis Cathedral HS/McCordsville, Indiana/Mercer). Just because Davis is in this section doesn’t mean Underwood has decided on a starting lineup.
“I know he’s going to be on the court,” he says. “I don’t know what role that’ll be yet.”
If it winds up being a reserve, Davis started Illinois’ final 19 games last year and he’ll always be able to say he started on a Final Four team.
He’ll also always be able to say he was a KenPom champion. Nobody in the country delivered as good of an Offensive Efficiency rating as Davis, who clocked in with a 146.6 rating because he rarely shot or turned over the ball—but he drilled 54 of 133 3-point attempts (versus 9 of 14 from inside the arc).
To put that 146.6 rating into some context, only one player in the last 10 years has matched it: 7-foot-1 Wake Forest center Matthew Marsh, who shot 83 of 94 (.883) from the field in 2022-23. Basically, he dunked everything.
Davis, like several of his teammates, dunked nothing last year. But in Underwood’s eyes, that’s the only thing he didn’t do.
“Jake is a championship-level role player,” Underwood says. “It’s invaluable what he brings to us. His teams win [in practice] every day in almost everything we do. He creates more opportunities. He doesn’t need the ball. He’s had a tremendous offseason in terms of handling the ball and getting better with his shot fakes, his sidestep 3, with playing in transition.”
A couple defining Davis snapshots: With one second left on Feb. 7 at Michigan State in a clash of two top 10 teams, Davis gets fouled on an attempted putback. Though he had taken only 11 free throws all year to that point—and with the Izzone ringing in his ears—Davis sank both free throws to force OT.
Another: Six days earlier, Illinois was trying to hand No. 5 Nebraska its first home loss of the year. With the shot clock running out, Mirkovic had the ball on the right wing and tried to feed Tomislav Ivisic in the paint. Ivisic somehow swatted that pass all the way into the left corner for the waiting Davis – who caught and shot in one motion with Braden Frager flying at him to beat the clock and give the Illini a 56-52 lead on the way to a 9-point triumph.
“The ultimate gravity guy,” Underwood says. “You give him a hair of a clean look and he’s gonna make it.”
Now for the stuff that fans don’t always notice or grasp:
“Never misses assignments,” Underwood says. “There’s not a player in our program who does more things that we ask than him. He just does everything that’s conducive to helping a team win and him not being your best player -- and he’s great with that.
“And he’s our best leader. He’s not afraid of confrontation. He’s not afraid to challenge guys.”
TOP NEWCOMERS CG-LUCAS MORILLO (6-7, 210 lbs., FR, #23, 16.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.2 spg, The Newman School (Mass.)/Mount Vernon, N.Y.). In the ultra-competitive NEPSAC (New England Preparatory School Athletic Council), there are a slew of top-flight Division I recruits each year. This year, in fact, there was a McDonald’s All-American: Morillo’s teammate, Michigan-bound forward Quinn Costello.
But when it came time for the coaches to vote for the conference’s player of the year, Morillo claimed the honor for his all-around game. RSCI’s No. 47 prospect in the Class of 2026 led the Newman School to its first national prep championship as he averaged 21.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists when the Cardinals won four games in three days.
Though Morillo didn’t hit the floor in earnest until late July so he could rest a bothersome back, Underwood is banking on Morillo’s virtuoso versatility to be an important part of the team’s rotation.
“He can play on the ball, he can play off it,” Underwood says. “Great facilitator. Unbelievable rebounder for his size and position. He’s a guy a little bit in the Marcus Domask mode to play booty ball because he can really handle and pass. His biggest assets are his versatility and his rebounding—and his high IQ. High, high IQ.
“He’s just a guy that elevates everybody on his team. And he does all the little things that helps you win.”
G-ETHAN BROWN (6-4, 185 lbs., FR, #34, 24.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 6.4 apg, 3.2 spg; Rolla HS/Rolla, Mo.). While Coleman and Morillo have been projected as important contributors from the moment they committed to Illinois, the same sentiment has not been attached to Brown’s name. But if he winds up carving out a relevant role, especially if Underwood carries out his promise to play at a quicker pace this year, it should not be a surprise.
At the bare minimum, Brown’s 3-point release is virtually as quick and clean as Jake Davis’.
"He’s got a terrific release,” Underwood says.
After not making many shots in June, Brown cranked it up in July. But Underwood thinks of him as much more than a shooter.
“Very, very gifted athlete,” he says. “Special athlete. Special speed. Elite vertically. Great instincts. I’m really excited about this kid. He’s got a lot of the intangible things that I can’t coach that are just instinctive. Great anticipation.”
He piled up great all-around numbers at Rolla, where he crushed the school records for career points (2,523), assists (605) and steals (348).
“Does he have to get stronger? Yes,” Underwood says. “But he does things that help you and allow you to win games.”
OTHER NEWCOMERS F-ZAVIER ZENS (6-7, 215 lbs., FR, #22, 23.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.4 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.8 bpg, .618 FG, .417 3PT, .743 FT; Wisconsin Lutheran/Milwaukee, Wis.). For starters, let’s make it clear Underwood has not decided the fate of any of his freshmen. It’s just that not many teams go more than nine-deep, so this happens to be the random place to draw the line.
Zens signed with Northern Iowa early in his senior year, but asked to be released from his commitment in late March once head coach Ben Jacobsen moved to Utah State. Considering that Zens earned Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year awards while leading Wisconsin Lutheran to a 30-0 record and the Division 1 state title, he was a hot item.
There are many reasons Underwood was thrilled to get Zens. For starters, he’s part of the first family of Wisconsin hoops: His first cousins are Memphis Grizzlies stud Kon Knueppel and the rest of the Knueppel crew. Kager, Kinston and Kash were Wisconsin Lutheran teammates this year.
His uncle, Jeff Nordgaard, scored 1,911 points at Green Bay before becoming the Milwaukee Bucks’ second-round pick in 1996. His father, Greg, played for Southwest Minnesota State. His mother, Kami Nordgaard Davis, was a 6-foot setter at South Carolina. Another uncle, Tod Kowalczyk, has won 451 games at Green Bay and Toledo.
“Zavier has won at a very, very high level throughout his career,” says Underwood, referencing his three straight state titles. “He has played basketball the right way for a long time. He has practiced it the right way. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter, but he has played it and practiced the right way for his whole life. He knows what it looks like.”
He has proven it off the court as well. Whenever a recruit visits Illinois, the team gives him the S2 Cognition test. Long used by NBA teams, it measures a player’s ability to process and learn, etc., and offers a score that becomes their Athletic Intelligence Quotient. It’s a video game-like test that takes 35 minutes.
Wagler posted an extremely high score. All six of Illinois’ incoming freshmen performed well, too, but Zens was best, which helps to explain why Underwood says he doesn’t get sped up on the floor—just as Wagler deconstructed opponents at his own pace.
So Zens’ future should be as an “action guy” in Illinois’ system, but it might not be his present.
“He’s got great, great instincts,” Underwood says. “It’ll be just what time we start to let him do some of that. This year, he could be more of a spacer role guy for us.
“This is the first summer that I haven’t felt like there was someone that wasn’t ready as a freshman. This group, the cerebral piece, the evaluations our staff did, these guys have been able to retain [information]. They’ve been able to make instinctive plays. It has just been learning each other and learning concepts.”
G-LINCOLN WILLIAMS (6-5, 180 lbs., FR, #1, 26 ppg, 6 rpg, 3 apg, 3 spg, 2 bpg; Kankakee HS/Kankakee, Ill.). If you enjoy watching players who make flying seem effortless, then Williams will be on your short list of must-sees.
A two-time Class 3A all-stater and his school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,853 points, Williams got to the rim—and above it—with alarming frequency.
“He’s great in the open court,” Underwood says. “He’s an elite finisher. He’s versatile. He’s got a nose for the ball. Between he and Quentin and Lucas, the ball finds them a lot. It just ends up in their hands.”
Less concrete is his ability to shoot from distance, in part because it didn’t need to be a crucial part of his game. While Underwood says he’s “quietly” a good shooter, it seems far more likely Williams will earn initial minutes if he can disrupt opponents defensively.
“He has great anticipation,” Underwood says. “He’s got great length. I can see him being an impact guy for us, especially on that end, early.”
F-LANDON DAVIS (6-9, 240 lbs., FR, #27, 13.9 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 3.8 apg, 0.7 spg, 3.4 bpg, .595 FG, .283 3PT, .682 FT; Waukee Northwest HS/Waukee, Iowa). Davis tag-teamed with Nebraska recruit Colin Rice to lead their school to Iowa’s state quarterfinals. While he was more of a post player in high school, Illinois views Davis as a physical face-up four who happens to have a 7-foot-1 wingspan.
“His upside is through the roof,” Underwood says. “Been very, very, very well-coached. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter. Very, very gifted athlete. Very good shot-blocker.”
Underwood likes how Davis picked up Illinois’ concepts quickly during the eight weeks of summer. The trick to getting legit minutes -- in addition to acknowledging the veteran returnees in front of him -- will be how quickly he can feel comfortable playing while facing the basket.
“Physically, I wouldn’t be afraid at all to put him on the court this year,” Underwood says. “We’re going to throw a bunch of guys out there who look like him.”
OTHER RETURNEES C-JASON JAKSTYS (6-10, 220 lbs., r-SO, #31, 1.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 0.4 bpg, 5.3 mpg, .800 FG, .667 FT; Yorkville HS/Yorkville, Illinois). It’s not easy to earn time in the frontcourt when Mirkovic and the Ivisic twins are directly ahead of you. It’s even tougher when your body rebels against you.
In late January, after experiencing problems with his left shoulder, Jakstys was sidelined for the year with a blood clot that soon was diagnosed as venous thoracic outlet syndrome. That led to surgery to remove his uppermost rib.
Jakstys returned to the practice floor in the summer, which started his quest to regain the body and the skills that had atrophied during his recovery. He flashed some of his upside during his college debut last Nov. 3 when he grabbed nine rebounds in 12 minutes against Jackson State.
“It’s too early to define where he’s going to be, but he had a very good summer and he’s healthy,” Underwood says. “That’s the biggest thing. He gained his weight back.
“He’s got what I call a volleyball jump: He’s very quick off his feet. I think he’s a guy who can give us some minutes in certain roles.”
G-BLAKE FAGBEMI (6-0, 180 lbs., SO, #8, 0.2 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 0.4 apg, 3.6 mpg, .200 FG, Naperville, IL/Benet Academy). If you get a chance to watch Illinois go through pregame warmups, it won’t take long for Fagbemi to catch your eye. While he’s a point guard in height and temperament, he’s a prodigy in flight and tomahawk dunks. He can throw it down in warmups any way you please.
He’s also a solid player. But at a school that prizes positional size and perimeter shooting, it’s not realistic to expect Fagbemi to carve out a rotation spot.
Considering he gave back his Div. II commitment to Truman State in the spring of 2025 in order to join Illinois, it seems safe to say he’s good with his decision.
BACKCOURT A- FRONTCOURT A BENCH/DEPTH A INTANGIBLES A-
For all those college basketball fans raised on Phi Slama Jama and the Flying Illini and other rim-wrecking crews, watching Illinois’ Final Four bunch must have been confusing as heck.
Four of Illinois’ five starters combined for one dunk all year. Wagler, Mirkovic and Davis teamed up for zero dunks while Boswell managed one when he flew in for an impressive tip jam at USC.
Underwood snorts at the idea that dunks matter in this era.
“I almost look at it like a badge of honor,” he says. “It’s one of the greatest things ever because the game isn’t about any of that anymore. The game’s about processing. It’s about intelligence. ‘Whoa, his vertical is 44 inches.’ Well, you get about five of those a year where you get to wow everybody. And ESPN plays it to be the greatest thing ever. It doesn’t matter.’
“Keaton Wagler just destroyed you -- destroyed you -- with his decel. It was slow. And wait until you see Mirk’s this year. Because it’s slower.”
Illinois will test its processing, decel and Final Four-worthiness against another powerful non-conference slate that features trips to Duke and Texas Tech and neutral-court showdowns with UConn, North Carolina and Missouri. -30-
You guys have entertained me for 25-ish years. It's about time I started contributing a little bit around this joint.
My story for Blue Ribbon:
ILLINOIS
LOCATION Champaign, IL CONFERENCE Big Ten LAST SEASON 28-9 (.757) CONFERENCE RECORD 15-5 (t-2nd) STARTERS RETURNING/LOST 3/2 NICKNAME Fighting Illini COLORS Orange & Blue HOMECOURT State Farm Center (15,544) OFFICIAL WEBSITE FightingIllini.com COACH Brad Underwood (Kansas State ’86) RECORD AT SCHOOL 193-110 (9 years) CAREER RECORD 302-137 (13 years) ASSISTANTS Orlando Antigua (Pittsburgh ’95) Geoff Alexander (Western Illinois ’00) Tyler Underwood (Illinois ’19) Camryn Crocker (Penn ’15) Zach Hamer (Vanderbilt ’17) WINS (LAST 5 YRS.) 23-20-29-22-28 NET RANKING (LAST 5 YRS.) 15-36-12-17-5 2025-26 FINISH Lost in Final Four.
COACH AND PROGRAM
Between the Saturday when Illinois defeated Iowa to earn its first Final Four berth since 2005 and the Saturday when UConn ended Illinois’ bid for its first national championship with a 71-62 victory before a largely orange-clad crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium, former Illini coach Bill Self chatted with Brad Underwood and offered a few points of advice.
For starters, he suggested reserving a separate hotel suite where Underwood could entertain family, friends, key donors and the like – so when he needed to get some rest or do some work, he could leave and let everyone else continue enjoying the Final Four party.
“I had high school buddies who came in that I hadn’t seen in 15 or 20 years,” Underwood says. “Our hotel lobby was always packed. And you weren’t going to a restaurant or anything like that. But we could go back to the room and they could have a drink and we could sit and talk and they could stay as long as they wanted. That part of it was nice.”
Self, who has won two NCAA titles and coached in two other Final Fours since going from Illinois to Kansas in 2003, had one other crucial observation to share with Underwood.
“He said, ‘You’ll realize how tired you are and how tiring it is,’ ” Underwood says. “And it is exhausting. You’re coming off three weeks of pretty intense basketball and it all hits you pretty quick.
“The magnitude of it hit during the [Friday] practice when we walked out and there’s 17,000 there in orange.”
And the finality of Illinois’ Final Four journey hit during the actual game, as the Illini managed only one lead, 22-21, with five minutes left in the first half. We won’t spend much space revisiting that game here, but just know Underwood still thinks about how his team got seven straight defensive stops during that first-half stretch.
He thinks about the handful of open offensive opportunities—two missed free throws here, a missed layup and a missed open 3-pointer there—that might have swiped the momentum and forced UConn on its heels, at least for a while.
“If those go in, now we’ve got a 9-point lead or a 10-point lead and the game’s completely different,” Underwood says. “We never capitalized on what we were doing defensively.”
While the national semifinal loss was crushing at the time, the Final Four appearance triggered a new level of respect, interest and intrigue in Underwood and the Illini.
“The importance of it has manifested itself after,” Underwood says. “Just the attention, the celebrity piece, the speaking engagements. Those things are all through the roof.”
And, yes, it has sent the team’s prospects through the roof as well.
On the Friday of Final Four weekend, guard Quentin Coleman, the No. 17 prospect in the Class of 2026 per Recruiting Services Consensus Index, committed to the Illini.
Not long after the Final Four, five of the six rotation players eligible to return to college ball decided to stay at Illinois: David Mirkovic, Andrej Stojakovic, Tomislav Ivisic, Zvonimir Ivisic and Jake Davis.
(Keaton Wagler, the sixth possible returnee, can be excused for leaving because he signed a four-year, $43,958,324 deal with the LA Clippers after being the fifth pick in the NBA draft. Even with the way NIL figures have exploded, that’s tough to beat.)
That quintet enables Illinois to rank third among Big Ten teams in points returning (57.0%) and minutes returning (57.3%).
Then Underwood lured the guy he considered to be the best offensive player in the portal – Providence guard Stefan Vaaks – to become Illinois’ lone transfer.
Last but not least, two more freshmen – four-star forward Zavier Zens (Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball) and uber-athletic guard Lincoln Williams – pledged to give the Illini six rookies to go with four sophomores and four fourth-year players.
How does all this position the Illini as they attempt to earn the program’s first back-to-back Final Four berths since 1951-52?
“I think we’re better athletically, which probably cost us some games last year,” Underwood says. “Our overtime games [Michigan State, Wisconsin and UCLA]. We got beat twice at the buzzer [UCLA and Nebraska] and we got beat when we got defensive stops, but we didn’t get a rebound maybe because we weren’t athletic enough or didn’t chase down a rebound because we didn’t have that ability.
“So we’re more athletic, we’re bigger and I do think we shoot the ball better.”
Considering Illinois owned the KenPom-era record for best offensive efficiency until losing it to Purdue over the final two games, that’s a frightening thought.
“Yeah, but what last year’s team had that we still have to find is elite role players,” Underwood says. “Kylan [Boswell] became an elite role player. Ben Humrichous was one of the best in the country. Jake [Davis] became an elite role player. They didn’t want the ball. They didn’t need the ball. But, yet, if you didn’t guard them, they were going to make shots.
“You can only have one best player. Everybody wants to be that, but not everybody can be that. That’s our job, to make sure we’re defined in that. It took us a little bit last year to figure out Keaton was our best player. Then it took us a while to figure out how to play ‘Mirk.’ I look back at our first UConn game last year and we were playing Mirk as a center and trying to post him. And now he’s our point guard.”
A few paragraphs above, the 62-year-old Underwood alluded to the perks that have come with reaching the Final Four for the first time. Here’s one he particularly relishes:
In July, he got an email from the National Association of Basketball Coaches needing to know what size sport coat he wears. The Spalding Final Four Coaches Club customizes a dark blue blazer for each coach who reaches the national semifinals.
“You start looking at the names in it, going back through the history of the game, and you go, ‘OK, that’s pretty cool,’ ” he says.
On the day of the Final Four semifinals, the NABC hosts a coaches luncheon. That’s when the new honorees receive their jackets and take their first picture with all the other coaches who’ve made the Final Four—but coaches in the current Final Four are too busy and don’t attend.
It was in these pages last year where Underwood proclaimed “Keaton’s a pro.” But at this point last year, Underwood figured he might get to coach Wagler for two years before he moved on. Instead, Wagler became the nation’s biggest “out of nowhere” story as he went from being the nation’s 150th ranked recruit to second-team Associated Press All-American to fifth pick overall in the NBA Draft. If anyone ever forgets how efficiently he played or how well he could shoot, just remember he needed only 17 field-goal attempts to put 46 points on Purdue on the Boilers’ home floor. Suffice it to say the Illini will miss him. But the same goes for Boswell, the hometown kid who did not flinch when the coaches decided after the Nov. 28 loss to UConn at Madison Square Garden that Wagler should be the primary playmaker instead of playing off the ball. Boswell continued to be the team’s best and most versatile defender -- taking on everyone from point guards to posts -- while scoring and rebounding and facilitating as the team needed. He signed a two-way deal with the Charlotte Hornets.
For two guys on this list -- Humrichous and Redd -- their Illini experience played out better than they could have imagined. Humrichous averaged the sixth-most minutes on the squad and showed enough with his long-range shooting and eager to chase offensive rebounds that the New Jersey Nets signed him to an Exhibit-10 deal. Redd started as a team manager, but became the beloved guy on the bench that has all the students chanting his name. When he hit his first career 3-pointer and rang up 5 points in three minutes on Senior Night, State Farm Center went wild.
Petrovic, on the other hand, was supposed to be Illinois’ starting point guard. But he injured his hamstring in the fall, which opened up more opportunities for Keaton Wagler and Petrovic rarely got minutes that mattered. Rodgers started for the 2024 Elite Eight team and was beloved even though he sat out the last two years. He suffered another injury this summer at Boise State, which bummed out everyone in C-U.
Lee, the son of Marquette Final Four legend Butch Lee, rarely got important minutes as well, though he showed some defensive chops in those rare opportunities.
PROJECTED STARTERS G-STEFAN VAAKS (6-7, 215 lbs., SO, #7, 15.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.3 bpg, 31.5 mpg, .403 FG, .350 3PT, .839 FT; Tabasalu, Estonia/Providence). It seems odd to start with a geography lesson, but Illinois’ signing of Vaaks out of the transfer portal did not constitute an addition to their group of Balkans. Estonia is a Baltic state in northern Europe and Vaaks’ hometown is roughly 1,150 miles from Vodice, Croatia, where the Ivisic twins are from.
That having been said, Vaaks should fit in perfectly with Balkans, Missourians, Illinoisans and anyone else who dons an Illini uniform this year.
“He’s the one guy that we identified in the portal that fit us,” Underwood says. “Elite shooter. Elite shooter off the dribble. We just lost that in Keaton.
“He’s a matchup problem. He can play downhill. He can play in ball screens. He’s instinctive. Just your typical big European guard. He makes right plays a lot. And has the ability to shoot it.”
The 21-year-old Vaaks played on and off the ball last year for Providence, which ranked No. 32 per KenPom in offensive efficiency. He scored in double figures in each of the Friars’ first 23 games, even though he came off the bench in eight of them.
He drilled 8 of 13 3-point attempts against Butler in the Big East tournament on the way to a career-high 28 points.
For Illini fans wondering how he might be able to get the squad over the hump against UConn, the Friars lost by 5 and 6 points to the Huskies as Vaaks averaged 11.5 points, 3.0 assists and 1.5 turnovers while shooting 7 of 23 from the field.
Underwood acknowledges the small elephant in the room -- that Vaaks was one of many indifferent defenders on Providence last year -- but believes there’s more there.
“His big adjustment is he’s got the ability to be a good defender,” Underwood says. “But he’s a very talented player. I mean, a very, very talented offensive player. But I don’t want to say just offense because he’s got great instincts on the defensive side as well.”
Vaaks spent part of his summer running the show for Estonia’s national team in the 2027 FIBA European Qualifiers. In the two game he played, Vaaks averaged a team-high 19.5 points, 6 assists and 1.5 turnovers per game while shooting 7 of 20 from 3-point range.
G-QUENTIN COLEMAN (6-4, 180, FR, #11, 23.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 3.9 apg, 2.7 spg, .649 FG, .506 3PT, .897 FT; Principia HS/St. Louis, Mo.). Just as Vaaks will not be directly responsible for emulating Keaton Wagler or replacing his production, it would be wrong to expect Missouri’s Mr. Basketball with some acrobatic tendencies to fill Wagler’s NIKEs.
“He’s not a Keaton-like shooter off the bounce,” Underwood says. “He’s a different personality. He’s a way better athlete than Keaton.”
At the same time, Coleman will have a chance to affect winning on a Wagler-like basis—as suggested by his international debut this summer.
When USA Basketball picked its roster for the FIBA U18 AmeriCup 2026 competition in Leon, Mexico, Coleman was joined by Michigan State’s Jasiah Jervis and Ethan Taylor. BYU’s Bruce Branch III (RSCI No. 5 recruit), Miami’s Caleb Gaskins (RSCI 15), Kansas’ Taylen Kinney (RSCI 21), UConn’s Colben Landrew (RSCI 26) and Arkansas’ Davion Thompson were the other incoming freshmen on the squad.
At the end of the five-game tournament, which concluded with Canada upsetting the USA for gold, Coleman was the only American on the five-man all-star team as he averaged 11.2 points, a tournament-best 11.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists along a team-high +114 plus/minus rating and team-high 17.2 efficiency rating.
“He is very, very competitive,” Underwood says. “Very high motor. Great athleticism. Great tenacity and grit. You usually don’t link those things together with very talented guys, but he is that. His effort and tenacity raise the level of everybody else—or he embarrasses you. Because his motor doesn’t stop, but he’s also very talented.”
Perhaps this is what Underwood means: When Principia High School won its first Class 3A state title in March, Coleman went off for 50 points on 18-for-21 shooting from the field that included 5 of 7 from 3-point range. The other team finished with 34 points. But Coleman isn’t a finished product.
“He’s learning how to play with other really good players,” Underwood says. “He’s learning concepts instead of sets. But he’s got some tools.”
SF-ANDREJ STOJAKOVIC (6-7, 205 lbs., SR, #2, 13.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 26.3 mpg, .500 FG, .244 3PT, .805 FT, Jesuit HS/Carmichael, Calif./Stanford/California). There were nights when Stojakovic did not exactly stuff the stat sheet.
In Illinois’ only crack at national champion Michigan on Feb. 27, he went scoreless with one rebound in 12 minutes. In Illinois’ first meeting with UConn on Black Friday, he scored three points with two assists in 24 minutes.
But then there were the nights when Illinois could not have won without him.
In the NCAA Tournament’s second round against VCU, the Illini offense was stuck in neutral until Stojakovic came off the bench and unleashed his blizzard of moves, spins and flourishes as he delivered a game-high 21 points in 26 minutes off the bench. One week later against Iowa in the Elite Eight, Stojakovic struck again with 17 points on just nine shots.
To be fair, some of his issues were injury-based. He missed nearly two months in the fall due to a knee sprain. He suffered a high ankle sprain against Michigan State on Feb. 7 that put him on the sidelines for two games and gave Jake Davis to take his starting spot for the rest of the year.
While Stojakovic endured another knee injury during this offseason —- he tweaked his knee at the NBA Draft combine that forced him to miss some time after a knee scope —- Underwood witnessed him healthy at the end of summer ball and sees something massive in his immediate future.
“I think that he will make —- and it’s unfair to say this -— but I think there’s a Terrence Shannon jump,” Underwood says. “We have that with a lot of transfers who are with us from one year to the next.”
As context, Terrence Shannon Jr. transferred from Texas Tech to Illinois prior to his fourth college season. He was perfectly fine that year with 17.0 points per game and a .445/.320/.790 shooting line. But in his fifth year, Shannon went berserk and averaged 23.0 points with a .475/.362/.801 line. He was more confident from the arc, more assertive on his kamikaze slashes to the basket and generally dominant, as his third-team all-American honor might suggest.
In Stojakovic, Underwood sees a stronger player now who plays through contact better and generates more And-1s. The question that will linger until the games begin is how much confidence he can build from the 3-point arc. In his three years of college, he has gone from .327 at Stanford to .318 at Cal to .244 at Illinois.
“I think he’s gaining confidence in his jump shot,” Underwood says. “I don’t think he’s a bad shooter. I just think he has been a reluctant shooter. We’ve got to get him out of that. Go shoot the shot.”
PF-DAVID MIRKOVIC (6-9, 250 lbs., FR, #0, 13.3 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 29.5 mpg, .484 FG, .375 3PT, .757 FT; Niksic, Montenegro; SC Derby). One of the most enjoyable aspects of Illinois’ run to the Final Four was the chance for the college basketball world to get to know Mirkovic, a true original.
From Illinois’ Final Four Friday “mic’d up” video where he charmed and confounded with his confessed love for the movie “Air Bud” and so many other humorous tidbits to C.J. Moore’s story in The Athletic that allowed others in the program to share their favorite “Mirk” stories, it turns out he’s a treasure.
But he’s also a young man on a basketball mission -- and Underwood won’t put anything past him after an offseason spent transforming his frame. It wasn’t by accident that Illinois’ social media account shared shots of Mirk without a shirt on several occasions.
“I think Mirk’s got a chance to be the best player in the country,” Underwood says. “And I’m not saying that lightly. I just don’t know how you guard him.”
Here’s another Big Ten coach’s view of Mirkovic (who adopted the moniker “DJ Smirk” for the deejay class he took in the spring with former teammate Ty Rodgers):
“He changes the whole dynamic for them. I thought he was their best player last year. If he sets a ball screen, what do you do? Because if you switch, then he can post you. If you put a coverage on it, they can pick and pop. If you don’t do anything on it, then the guard can score enough to keep you honest. But the whole threat is him. The whole fear is him.”
When Underwood wanted to take a little pressure off Wagler last year and give him a few possessions off the ball, he would have Mirkovic trigger the action.
That’s going to happen much more frequently this year. When offensive coordinator Tyler Underwood, Brad’s son, visited some NBA teams this offseason and Zoomed with others, the idea was to learn concepts to allow Mirkovic to facilitate like Luka Doncic or Nikola Jokic or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. You know, NBA MVPs.
Mirkovic’s skill set and Illinois’ increased depth—and the departure of Wagler—means the Illini won’t look the same as last year’s patient, ball screen-heavy attack. More cutting, more movement, more pace.
“Keaton was so good in ball screens, we just played to that strength,” Underwood says. “But we’ve probably had a summer of as many significant changes offensively as we’ve had in a while. We’re just trying to get great at what we’re good at. It’s playing in concepts and the reads.”
Underwood could go on about Mirkovic for a long time. But if the comparisons to Doncic, Jokic and SGA seem too wild, then Underwood can offer a college comparison from his days as Frank Martin’s assistant at Kansas State that might resonate.
“I really believe this: He’s as talented offensively as any guy I’ve been around since Michael Beasley,” Underwood says.
Remember, Beasley was a one-and-done who went No. 2 in the 2008 NBA draft behind Derrick Rose.
“Because there wasn’t anything we couldn’t do with ‘Beas,’ and that’s saying something with Mirk. There’s nothing he can’t do on the court,” Underwood says. “Now, I’m not saying he’s going out and getting 26 and 12 every night, but teams are going to have to figure him out. He will be the top of the scouting report guy. And if you don’t [figure it out], he’s going to be capable of [26 and 12]. There aren’t many guys capable of that in the country.”
C-TOMISLAV IVISIC (7-1, 270 lbs., SR, #13, 10.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.6 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.6 bpg, 25.4 mpg, .483 FG, .313 3PT, .778 FT; Vodice, Croatia/SC Derby). All of Ivisic’s numbers slumped from his first year at Illinois except for his free-throw percentage.
As Wagler and Mirkovic and Stojakovic emerged -- and as an early-season bone bruise on his knee limited his mobility for much of the year -- Ivisic became the team’s fourth or fifth option. His minutes also decreased.
But when the NCAA Tournament began, Ivisic went back into the “cheat code” mode from the year before. In the five March Madness games, Ivisic averaged 12.4 points and 6.6 rebounds while hitting seven 3-pointers and shooting .523 from the field.
“We saw the best form of him the last third of the season,” Underwood says. “We’ve got a different version of that guy now. He’s still going to be an effective spacer, an effective passer, shooter.”
For this season, Ivisic worked to get into the 270- to 280-pound range to have a stronger base and increase his mobility.
“One key improvement is looking like you have some physicality to you,” Underwood says. “He’ll be better at handling switches and physically being able to cut and take bumps. He got knocked off balance so easy. Both [Ivisics] did. This will help both of those guys.”
If all Ivisic did during his first year at Illinois was deliver one of the defining highlights of the NCAA Tournament—his block at one end and his in-your-face tomahawk dunk in transition at the other end against VCU that had Bill Raftery howling “Take me to the Balkans, please!”—then that was plenty.
But on a serious note, Ivisic did not accomplish much more in the NCAAs. He posted 14 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks in 68 minutes as his playing time declined as the rounds got tougher. He also went 0-for-7 from 3-point range, which capped a 3-for-31 slump over the last 14 games.
On the positive side, Ivisic went 25 for 69 from 3-point range (.362) in Illinois’ first 23 games -- perhaps the tallest floor spacer in America -- and finished the year fourth in the nation in block percentage (12.9%).
Even more so than his younger brother, Ivisic packed on the pounds during the offseason. When he arrived at Illinois at the end of May in 2025, he checked in at 222. When he weighed himself on July 30, he was 266.
“That is the power of [Assistant Athletic Director, Sports Performance] Adam Fletcher and a great nutrition program,” Underwood says. “He’s got a base under him now. He’s a guy who doesn’t look like a stick figure now. He looks like a basketball player. He’s running better. He’s got better endurance. He just had very little endurance. Z is, I hope, ready for a healthy year.”
One of Underwood’s internal campaigns this year is for the Illini to become a better shot-blocking team. They were the nation’s tallest team last year and they’re taller this year. While 29th in the nation at 4.6 blocks per game doesn’t sound bad, Michigan was No. 2 nationally with 6.1.
“We need ‘Z’ to be the best shot-blocker in the country and have the ability to protect the rim,” Underwood says. “Vertical challenges at the rim have to be a strength of this team. We have to make teams score the ball over our size. Whether that leads to a blocked shot or a bad shot at the rim, we’ve got to be elite at that.
“Both of those guys being physical and having a wall at the rim is advantage, Illinois.”
G-JAKE DAVIS (6-6, 210 lbs., SR, #15, 5.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.2 bpg, 19.6 mpg, .429 FG, .406 3PT, .750 FT, Indianapolis Cathedral HS/McCordsville, Indiana/Mercer). Just because Davis is in this section doesn’t mean Underwood has decided on a starting lineup.
“I know he’s going to be on the court,” he says. “I don’t know what role that’ll be yet.”
If it winds up being a reserve, Davis started Illinois’ final 19 games last year and he’ll always be able to say he started on a Final Four team.
He’ll also always be able to say he was a KenPom champion. Nobody in the country delivered as good of an Offensive Efficiency rating as Davis, who clocked in with a 146.6 rating because he rarely shot or turned over the ball—but he drilled 54 of 133 3-point attempts (versus 9 of 14 from inside the arc).
To put that 146.6 rating into some context, only one player in the last 10 years has matched it: 7-foot-1 Wake Forest center Matthew Marsh, who shot 83 of 94 (.883) from the field in 2022-23. Basically, he dunked everything.
Davis, like several of his teammates, dunked nothing last year. But in Underwood’s eyes, that’s the only thing he didn’t do.
“Jake is a championship-level role player,” Underwood says. “It’s invaluable what he brings to us. His teams win [in practice] every day in almost everything we do. He creates more opportunities. He doesn’t need the ball. He’s had a tremendous offseason in terms of handling the ball and getting better with his shot fakes, his sidestep 3, with playing in transition.”
A couple defining Davis snapshots: With one second left on Feb. 7 at Michigan State in a clash of two top 10 teams, Davis gets fouled on an attempted putback. Though he had taken only 11 free throws all year to that point—and with the Izzone ringing in his ears—Davis sank both free throws to force OT.
Another: Six days earlier, Illinois was trying to hand No. 5 Nebraska its first home loss of the year. With the shot clock running out, Mirkovic had the ball on the right wing and tried to feed Tomislav Ivisic in the paint. Ivisic somehow swatted that pass all the way into the left corner for the waiting Davis – who caught and shot in one motion with Braden Frager flying at him to beat the clock and give the Illini a 56-52 lead on the way to a 9-point triumph.
“The ultimate gravity guy,” Underwood says. “You give him a hair of a clean look and he’s gonna make it.”
Now for the stuff that fans don’t always notice or grasp:
“Never misses assignments,” Underwood says. “There’s not a player in our program who does more things that we ask than him. He just does everything that’s conducive to helping a team win and him not being your best player -- and he’s great with that.
“And he’s our best leader. He’s not afraid of confrontation. He’s not afraid to challenge guys.”
TOP NEWCOMERS CG-LUCAS MORILLO (6-7, 210 lbs., FR, #23, 16.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.2 spg, The Newman School (Mass.)/Mount Vernon, N.Y.). In the ultra-competitive NEPSAC (New England Preparatory School Athletic Council), there are a slew of top-flight Division I recruits each year. This year, in fact, there was a McDonald’s All-American: Morillo’s teammate, Michigan-bound forward Quinn Costello.
But when it came time for the coaches to vote for the conference’s player of the year, Morillo claimed the honor for his all-around game. RSCI’s No. 47 prospect in the Class of 2026 led the Newman School to its first national prep championship as he averaged 21.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists when the Cardinals won four games in three days.
Though Morillo didn’t hit the floor in earnest until late July so he could rest a bothersome back, Underwood is banking on Morillo’s virtuoso versatility to be an important part of the team’s rotation.
“He can play on the ball, he can play off it,” Underwood says. “Great facilitator. Unbelievable rebounder for his size and position. He’s a guy a little bit in the Marcus Domask mode to play booty ball because he can really handle and pass. His biggest assets are his versatility and his rebounding—and his high IQ. High, high IQ.
“He’s just a guy that elevates everybody on his team. And he does all the little things that helps you win.”
G-ETHAN BROWN (6-4, 185 lbs., FR, #34, 24.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 6.4 apg, 3.2 spg; Rolla HS/Rolla, Mo.). While Coleman and Morillo have been projected as important contributors from the moment they committed to Illinois, the same sentiment has not been attached to Brown’s name. But if he winds up carving out a relevant role, especially if Underwood carries out his promise to play at a quicker pace this year, it should not be a surprise.
At the bare minimum, Brown’s 3-point release is virtually as quick and clean as Jake Davis’.
"He’s got a terrific release,” Underwood says.
After not making many shots in June, Brown cranked it up in July. But Underwood thinks of him as much more than a shooter.
“Very, very gifted athlete,” he says. “Special athlete. Special speed. Elite vertically. Great instincts. I’m really excited about this kid. He’s got a lot of the intangible things that I can’t coach that are just instinctive. Great anticipation.”
He piled up great all-around numbers at Rolla, where he crushed the school records for career points (2,523), assists (605) and steals (348).
“Does he have to get stronger? Yes,” Underwood says. “But he does things that help you and allow you to win games.”
OTHER NEWCOMERS F-ZAVIER ZENS (6-7, 215 lbs., FR, #22, 23.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.4 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.8 bpg, .618 FG, .417 3PT, .743 FT; Wisconsin Lutheran/Milwaukee, Wis.). For starters, let’s make it clear Underwood has not decided the fate of any of his freshmen. It’s just that not many teams go more than nine-deep, so this happens to be the random place to draw the line.
Zens signed with Northern Iowa early in his senior year, but asked to be released from his commitment in late March once head coach Ben Jacobsen moved to Utah State. Considering that Zens earned Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year awards while leading Wisconsin Lutheran to a 30-0 record and the Division 1 state title, he was a hot item.
There are many reasons Underwood was thrilled to get Zens. For starters, he’s part of the first family of Wisconsin hoops: His first cousins are Memphis Grizzlies stud Kon Knueppel and the rest of the Knueppel crew. Kager, Kinston and Kash were Wisconsin Lutheran teammates this year.
His uncle, Jeff Nordgaard, scored 1,911 points at Green Bay before becoming the Milwaukee Bucks’ second-round pick in 1996. His father, Greg, played for Southwest Minnesota State. His mother, Kami Nordgaard Davis, was a 6-foot setter at South Carolina. Another uncle, Tod Kowalczyk, has won 451 games at Green Bay and Toledo.
“Zavier has won at a very, very high level throughout his career,” says Underwood, referencing his three straight state titles. “He has played basketball the right way for a long time. He has practiced it the right way. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter, but he has played it and practiced the right way for his whole life. He knows what it looks like.”
He has proven it off the court as well. Whenever a recruit visits Illinois, the team gives him the S2 Cognition test. Long used by NBA teams, it measures a player’s ability to process and learn, etc., and offers a score that becomes their Athletic Intelligence Quotient. It’s a video game-like test that takes 35 minutes.
Wagler posted an extremely high score. All six of Illinois’ incoming freshmen performed well, too, but Zens was best, which helps to explain why Underwood says he doesn’t get sped up on the floor—just as Wagler deconstructed opponents at his own pace.
So Zens’ future should be as an “action guy” in Illinois’ system, but it might not be his present.
“He’s got great, great instincts,” Underwood says. “It’ll be just what time we start to let him do some of that. This year, he could be more of a spacer role guy for us.
“This is the first summer that I haven’t felt like there was someone that wasn’t ready as a freshman. This group, the cerebral piece, the evaluations our staff did, these guys have been able to retain [information]. They’ve been able to make instinctive plays. It has just been learning each other and learning concepts.”
G-LINCOLN WILLIAMS (6-5, 180 lbs., FR, #1, 26 ppg, 6 rpg, 3 apg, 3 spg, 2 bpg; Kankakee HS/Kankakee, Ill.). If you enjoy watching players who make flying seem effortless, then Williams will be on your short list of must-sees.
A two-time Class 3A all-stater and his school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,853 points, Williams got to the rim—and above it—with alarming frequency.
“He’s great in the open court,” Underwood says. “He’s an elite finisher. He’s versatile. He’s got a nose for the ball. Between he and Quentin and Lucas, the ball finds them a lot. It just ends up in their hands.”
Less concrete is his ability to shoot from distance, in part because it didn’t need to be a crucial part of his game. While Underwood says he’s “quietly” a good shooter, it seems far more likely Williams will earn initial minutes if he can disrupt opponents defensively.
“He has great anticipation,” Underwood says. “He’s got great length. I can see him being an impact guy for us, especially on that end, early.”
F-LANDON DAVIS (6-9, 240 lbs., FR, #27, 13.9 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 3.8 apg, 0.7 spg, 3.4 bpg, .595 FG, .283 3PT, .682 FT; Waukee Northwest HS/Waukee, Iowa). Davis tag-teamed with Nebraska recruit Colin Rice to lead their school to Iowa’s state quarterfinals. While he was more of a post player in high school, Illinois views Davis as a physical face-up four who happens to have a 7-foot-1 wingspan.
“His upside is through the roof,” Underwood says. “Been very, very, very well-coached. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter. Very, very gifted athlete. Very good shot-blocker.”
Underwood likes how Davis picked up Illinois’ concepts quickly during the eight weeks of summer. The trick to getting legit minutes -- in addition to acknowledging the veteran returnees in front of him -- will be how quickly he can feel comfortable playing while facing the basket.
“Physically, I wouldn’t be afraid at all to put him on the court this year,” Underwood says. “We’re going to throw a bunch of guys out there who look like him.”
OTHER RETURNEES C-JASON JAKSTYS (6-10, 220 lbs., r-SO, #31, 1.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 0.4 bpg, 5.3 mpg, .800 FG, .667 FT; Yorkville HS/Yorkville, Illinois). It’s not easy to earn time in the frontcourt when Mirkovic and the Ivisic twins are directly ahead of you. It’s even tougher when your body rebels against you.
In late January, after experiencing problems with his left shoulder, Jakstys was sidelined for the year with a blood clot that soon was diagnosed as venous thoracic outlet syndrome. That led to surgery to remove his uppermost rib.
Jakstys returned to the practice floor in the summer, which started his quest to regain the body and the skills that had atrophied during his recovery. He flashed some of his upside during his college debut last Nov. 3 when he grabbed nine rebounds in 12 minutes against Jackson State.
“It’s too early to define where he’s going to be, but he had a very good summer and he’s healthy,” Underwood says. “That’s the biggest thing. He gained his weight back.
“He’s got what I call a volleyball jump: He’s very quick off his feet. I think he’s a guy who can give us some minutes in certain roles.”
G-BLAKE FAGBEMI (6-0, 180 lbs., SO, #8, 0.2 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 0.4 apg, 3.6 mpg, .200 FG, Naperville, IL/Benet Academy). If you get a chance to watch Illinois go through pregame warmups, it won’t take long for Fagbemi to catch your eye. While he’s a point guard in height and temperament, he’s a prodigy in flight and tomahawk dunks. He can throw it down in warmups any way you please.
He’s also a solid player. But at a school that prizes positional size and perimeter shooting, it’s not realistic to expect Fagbemi to carve out a rotation spot.
Considering he gave back his Div. II commitment to Truman State in the spring of 2025 in order to join Illinois, it seems safe to say he’s good with his decision.
BACKCOURT A- FRONTCOURT A BENCH/DEPTH A INTANGIBLES A-
For all those college basketball fans raised on Phi Slama Jama and the Flying Illini and other rim-wrecking crews, watching Illinois’ Final Four bunch must have been confusing as heck.
Four of Illinois’ five starters combined for one dunk all year. Wagler, Mirkovic and Davis teamed up for zero dunks while Boswell managed one when he flew in for an impressive tip jam at USC.
Underwood snorts at the idea that dunks matter in this era.
“I almost look at it like a badge of honor,” he says. “It’s one of the greatest things ever because the game isn’t about any of that anymore. The game’s about processing. It’s about intelligence. ‘Whoa, his vertical is 44 inches.’ Well, you get about five of those a year where you get to wow everybody. And ESPN plays it to be the greatest thing ever. It doesn’t matter.’
“Keaton Wagler just destroyed you -- destroyed you -- with his decel. It was slow. And wait until you see Mirk’s this year. Because it’s slower.”
Illinois will test its processing, decel and Final Four-worthiness against another powerful non-conference slate that features trips to Duke and Texas Tech and neutral-court showdowns with UConn, North Carolina and Missouri. -30-
You guys have entertained me for 25-ish years. It's about time I started contributing a little bit around this joint.
My story for Blue Ribbon:
ILLINOIS
LOCATION Champaign, IL CONFERENCE Big Ten LAST SEASON 28-9 (.757) CONFERENCE RECORD 15-5 (t-2nd) STARTERS RETURNING/LOST 3/2 NICKNAME Fighting Illini COLORS Orange & Blue HOMECOURT State Farm Center (15,544) OFFICIAL WEBSITE FightingIllini.com COACH Brad Underwood (Kansas State ’86) RECORD AT SCHOOL 193-110 (9 years) CAREER RECORD 302-137 (13 years) ASSISTANTS Orlando Antigua (Pittsburgh ’95) Geoff Alexander (Western Illinois ’00) Tyler Underwood (Illinois ’19) Camryn Crocker (Penn ’15) Zach Hamer (Vanderbilt ’17) WINS (LAST 5 YRS.) 23-20-29-22-28 NET RANKING (LAST 5 YRS.) 15-36-12-17-5 2025-26 FINISH Lost in Final Four.
COACH AND PROGRAM
Between the Saturday when Illinois defeated Iowa to earn its first Final Four berth since 2005 and the Saturday when UConn ended Illinois’ bid for its first national championship with a 71-62 victory before a largely orange-clad crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium, former Illini coach Bill Self chatted with Brad Underwood and offered a few points of advice.
For starters, he suggested reserving a separate hotel suite where Underwood could entertain family, friends, key donors and the like – so when he needed to get some rest or do some work, he could leave and let everyone else continue enjoying the Final Four party.
“I had high school buddies who came in that I hadn’t seen in 15 or 20 years,” Underwood says. “Our hotel lobby was always packed. And you weren’t going to a restaurant or anything like that. But we could go back to the room and they could have a drink and we could sit and talk and they could stay as long as they wanted. That part of it was nice.”
Self, who has won two NCAA titles and coached in two other Final Fours since going from Illinois to Kansas in 2003, had one other crucial observation to share with Underwood.
“He said, ‘You’ll realize how tired you are and how tiring it is,’ ” Underwood says. “And it is exhausting. You’re coming off three weeks of pretty intense basketball and it all hits you pretty quick.
“The magnitude of it hit during the [Friday] practice when we walked out and there’s 17,000 there in orange.”
And the finality of Illinois’ Final Four journey hit during the actual game, as the Illini managed only one lead, 22-21, with five minutes left in the first half. We won’t spend much space revisiting that game here, but just know Underwood still thinks about how his team got seven straight defensive stops during that first-half stretch.
He thinks about the handful of open offensive opportunities—two missed free throws here, a missed layup and a missed open 3-pointer there—that might have swiped the momentum and forced UConn on its heels, at least for a while.
“If those go in, now we’ve got a 9-point lead or a 10-point lead and the game’s completely different,” Underwood says. “We never capitalized on what we were doing defensively.”
While the national semifinal loss was crushing at the time, the Final Four appearance triggered a new level of respect, interest and intrigue in Underwood and the Illini.
“The importance of it has manifested itself after,” Underwood says. “Just the attention, the celebrity piece, the speaking engagements. Those things are all through the roof.”
And, yes, it has sent the team’s prospects through the roof as well.
On the Friday of Final Four weekend, guard Quentin Coleman, the No. 17 prospect in the Class of 2026 per Recruiting Services Consensus Index, committed to the Illini.
Not long after the Final Four, five of the six rotation players eligible to return to college ball decided to stay at Illinois: David Mirkovic, Andrej Stojakovic, Tomislav Ivisic, Zvonimir Ivisic and Jake Davis.
(Keaton Wagler, the sixth possible returnee, can be excused for leaving because he signed a four-year, $43,958,324 deal with the LA Clippers after being the fifth pick in the NBA draft. Even with the way NIL figures have exploded, that’s tough to beat.)
That quintet enables Illinois to rank third among Big Ten teams in points returning (57.0%) and minutes returning (57.3%).
Then Underwood lured the guy he considered to be the best offensive player in the portal – Providence guard Stefan Vaaks – to become Illinois’ lone transfer.
Last but not least, two more freshmen – four-star forward Zavier Zens (Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball) and uber-athletic guard Lincoln Williams – pledged to give the Illini six rookies to go with four sophomores and four fourth-year players.
How does all this position the Illini as they attempt to earn the program’s first back-to-back Final Four berths since 1951-52?
“I think we’re better athletically, which probably cost us some games last year,” Underwood says. “Our overtime games [Michigan State, Wisconsin and UCLA]. We got beat twice at the buzzer [UCLA and Nebraska] and we got beat when we got defensive stops, but we didn’t get a rebound maybe because we weren’t athletic enough or didn’t chase down a rebound because we didn’t have that ability.
“So we’re more athletic, we’re bigger and I do think we shoot the ball better.”
Considering Illinois owned the KenPom-era record for best offensive efficiency until losing it to Purdue over the final two games, that’s a frightening thought.
“Yeah, but what last year’s team had that we still have to find is elite role players,” Underwood says. “Kylan [Boswell] became an elite role player. Ben Humrichous was one of the best in the country. Jake [Davis] became an elite role player. They didn’t want the ball. They didn’t need the ball. But, yet, if you didn’t guard them, they were going to make shots.
“You can only have one best player. Everybody wants to be that, but not everybody can be that. That’s our job, to make sure we’re defined in that. It took us a little bit last year to figure out Keaton was our best player. Then it took us a while to figure out how to play ‘Mirk.’ I look back at our first UConn game last year and we were playing Mirk as a center and trying to post him. And now he’s our point guard.”
A few paragraphs above, the 62-year-old Underwood alluded to the perks that have come with reaching the Final Four for the first time. Here’s one he particularly relishes:
In July, he got an email from the National Association of Basketball Coaches needing to know what size sport coat he wears. The Spalding Final Four Coaches Club customizes a dark blue blazer for each coach who reaches the national semifinals.
“You start looking at the names in it, going back through the history of the game, and you go, ‘OK, that’s pretty cool,’ ” he says.
On the day of the Final Four semifinals, the NABC hosts a coaches luncheon. That’s when the new honorees receive their jackets and take their first picture with all the other coaches who’ve made the Final Four—but coaches in the current Final Four are too busy and don’t attend.
It was in these pages last year where Underwood proclaimed “Keaton’s a pro.” But at this point last year, Underwood figured he might get to coach Wagler for two years before he moved on. Instead, Wagler became the nation’s biggest “out of nowhere” story as he went from being the nation’s 150th ranked recruit to second-team Associated Press All-American to fifth pick overall in the NBA Draft. If anyone ever forgets how efficiently he played or how well he could shoot, just remember he needed only 17 field-goal attempts to put 46 points on Purdue on the Boilers’ home floor. Suffice it to say the Illini will miss him. But the same goes for Boswell, the hometown kid who did not flinch when the coaches decided after the Nov. 28 loss to UConn at Madison Square Garden that Wagler should be the primary playmaker instead of playing off the ball. Boswell continued to be the team’s best and most versatile defender -- taking on everyone from point guards to posts -- while scoring and rebounding and facilitating as the team needed. He signed a two-way deal with the Charlotte Hornets.
For two guys on this list -- Humrichous and Redd -- their Illini experience played out better than they could have imagined. Humrichous averaged the sixth-most minutes on the squad and showed enough with his long-range shooting and eager to chase offensive rebounds that the New Jersey Nets signed him to an Exhibit-10 deal. Redd started as a team manager, but became the beloved guy on the bench that has all the students chanting his name. When he hit his first career 3-pointer and rang up 5 points in three minutes on Senior Night, State Farm Center went wild.
Petrovic, on the other hand, was supposed to be Illinois’ starting point guard. But he injured his hamstring in the fall, which opened up more opportunities for Keaton Wagler and Petrovic rarely got minutes that mattered. Rodgers started for the 2024 Elite Eight team and was beloved even though he sat out the last two years. He suffered another injury this summer at Boise State, which bummed out everyone in C-U.
Lee, the son of Marquette Final Four legend Butch Lee, rarely got important minutes as well, though he showed some defensive chops in those rare opportunities.
PROJECTED STARTERS G-STEFAN VAAKS (6-7, 215 lbs., SO, #7, 15.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.3 bpg, 31.5 mpg, .403 FG, .350 3PT, .839 FT; Tabasalu, Estonia/Providence). It seems odd to start with a geography lesson, but Illinois’ signing of Vaaks out of the transfer portal did not constitute an addition to their group of Balkans. Estonia is a Baltic state in northern Europe and Vaaks’ hometown is roughly 1,150 miles from Vodice, Croatia, where the Ivisic twins are from.
That having been said, Vaaks should fit in perfectly with Balkans, Missourians, Illinoisans and anyone else who dons an Illini uniform this year.
“He’s the one guy that we identified in the portal that fit us,” Underwood says. “Elite shooter. Elite shooter off the dribble. We just lost that in Keaton.
“He’s a matchup problem. He can play downhill. He can play in ball screens. He’s instinctive. Just your typical big European guard. He makes right plays a lot. And has the ability to shoot it.”
The 21-year-old Vaaks played on and off the ball last year for Providence, which ranked No. 32 per KenPom in offensive efficiency. He scored in double figures in each of the Friars’ first 23 games, even though he came off the bench in eight of them.
He drilled 8 of 13 3-point attempts against Butler in the Big East tournament on the way to a career-high 28 points.
For Illini fans wondering how he might be able to get the squad over the hump against UConn, the Friars lost by 5 and 6 points to the Huskies as Vaaks averaged 11.5 points, 3.0 assists and 1.5 turnovers while shooting 7 of 23 from the field.
Underwood acknowledges the small elephant in the room -- that Vaaks was one of many indifferent defenders on Providence last year -- but believes there’s more there.
“His big adjustment is he’s got the ability to be a good defender,” Underwood says. “But he’s a very talented player. I mean, a very, very talented offensive player. But I don’t want to say just offense because he’s got great instincts on the defensive side as well.”
Vaaks spent part of his summer running the show for Estonia’s national team in the 2027 FIBA European Qualifiers. In the two game he played, Vaaks averaged a team-high 19.5 points, 6 assists and 1.5 turnovers per game while shooting 7 of 20 from 3-point range.
G-QUENTIN COLEMAN (6-4, 180, FR, #11, 23.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 3.9 apg, 2.7 spg, .649 FG, .506 3PT, .897 FT; Principia HS/St. Louis, Mo.). Just as Vaaks will not be directly responsible for emulating Keaton Wagler or replacing his production, it would be wrong to expect Missouri’s Mr. Basketball with some acrobatic tendencies to fill Wagler’s NIKEs.
“He’s not a Keaton-like shooter off the bounce,” Underwood says. “He’s a different personality. He’s a way better athlete than Keaton.”
At the same time, Coleman will have a chance to affect winning on a Wagler-like basis—as suggested by his international debut this summer.
When USA Basketball picked its roster for the FIBA U18 AmeriCup 2026 competition in Leon, Mexico, Coleman was joined by Michigan State’s Jasiah Jervis and Ethan Taylor. BYU’s Bruce Branch III (RSCI No. 5 recruit), Miami’s Caleb Gaskins (RSCI 15), Kansas’ Taylen Kinney (RSCI 21), UConn’s Colben Landrew (RSCI 26) and Arkansas’ Davion Thompson were the other incoming freshmen on the squad.
At the end of the five-game tournament, which concluded with Canada upsetting the USA for gold, Coleman was the only American on the five-man all-star team as he averaged 11.2 points, a tournament-best 11.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists along a team-high +114 plus/minus rating and team-high 17.2 efficiency rating.
“He is very, very competitive,” Underwood says. “Very high motor. Great athleticism. Great tenacity and grit. You usually don’t link those things together with very talented guys, but he is that. His effort and tenacity raise the level of everybody else—or he embarrasses you. Because his motor doesn’t stop, but he’s also very talented.”
Perhaps this is what Underwood means: When Principia High School won its first Class 3A state title in March, Coleman went off for 50 points on 18-for-21 shooting from the field that included 5 of 7 from 3-point range. The other team finished with 34 points. But Coleman isn’t a finished product.
“He’s learning how to play with other really good players,” Underwood says. “He’s learning concepts instead of sets. But he’s got some tools.”
SF-ANDREJ STOJAKOVIC (6-7, 205 lbs., SR, #2, 13.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 26.3 mpg, .500 FG, .244 3PT, .805 FT, Jesuit HS/Carmichael, Calif./Stanford/California). There were nights when Stojakovic did not exactly stuff the stat sheet.
In Illinois’ only crack at national champion Michigan on Feb. 27, he went scoreless with one rebound in 12 minutes. In Illinois’ first meeting with UConn on Black Friday, he scored three points with two assists in 24 minutes.
But then there were the nights when Illinois could not have won without him.
In the NCAA Tournament’s second round against VCU, the Illini offense was stuck in neutral until Stojakovic came off the bench and unleashed his blizzard of moves, spins and flourishes as he delivered a game-high 21 points in 26 minutes off the bench. One week later against Iowa in the Elite Eight, Stojakovic struck again with 17 points on just nine shots.
To be fair, some of his issues were injury-based. He missed nearly two months in the fall due to a knee sprain. He suffered a high ankle sprain against Michigan State on Feb. 7 that put him on the sidelines for two games and gave Jake Davis to take his starting spot for the rest of the year.
While Stojakovic endured another knee injury during this offseason —- he tweaked his knee at the NBA Draft combine that forced him to miss some time after a knee scope —- Underwood witnessed him healthy at the end of summer ball and sees something massive in his immediate future.
“I think that he will make —- and it’s unfair to say this -— but I think there’s a Terrence Shannon jump,” Underwood says. “We have that with a lot of transfers who are with us from one year to the next.”
As context, Terrence Shannon Jr. transferred from Texas Tech to Illinois prior to his fourth college season. He was perfectly fine that year with 17.0 points per game and a .445/.320/.790 shooting line. But in his fifth year, Shannon went berserk and averaged 23.0 points with a .475/.362/.801 line. He was more confident from the arc, more assertive on his kamikaze slashes to the basket and generally dominant, as his third-team all-American honor might suggest.
In Stojakovic, Underwood sees a stronger player now who plays through contact better and generates more And-1s. The question that will linger until the games begin is how much confidence he can build from the 3-point arc. In his three years of college, he has gone from .327 at Stanford to .318 at Cal to .244 at Illinois.
“I think he’s gaining confidence in his jump shot,” Underwood says. “I don’t think he’s a bad shooter. I just think he has been a reluctant shooter. We’ve got to get him out of that. Go shoot the shot.”
PF-DAVID MIRKOVIC (6-9, 250 lbs., FR, #0, 13.3 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 29.5 mpg, .484 FG, .375 3PT, .757 FT; Niksic, Montenegro; SC Derby). One of the most enjoyable aspects of Illinois’ run to the Final Four was the chance for the college basketball world to get to know Mirkovic, a true original.
From Illinois’ Final Four Friday “mic’d up” video where he charmed and confounded with his confessed love for the movie “Air Bud” and so many other humorous tidbits to C.J. Moore’s story in The Athletic that allowed others in the program to share their favorite “Mirk” stories, it turns out he’s a treasure.
But he’s also a young man on a basketball mission -- and Underwood won’t put anything past him after an offseason spent transforming his frame. It wasn’t by accident that Illinois’ social media account shared shots of Mirk without a shirt on several occasions.
“I think Mirk’s got a chance to be the best player in the country,” Underwood says. “And I’m not saying that lightly. I just don’t know how you guard him.”
Here’s another Big Ten coach’s view of Mirkovic (who adopted the moniker “DJ Smirk” for the deejay class he took in the spring with former teammate Ty Rodgers):
“He changes the whole dynamic for them. I thought he was their best player last year. If he sets a ball screen, what do you do? Because if you switch, then he can post you. If you put a coverage on it, they can pick and pop. If you don’t do anything on it, then the guard can score enough to keep you honest. But the whole threat is him. The whole fear is him.”
When Underwood wanted to take a little pressure off Wagler last year and give him a few possessions off the ball, he would have Mirkovic trigger the action.
That’s going to happen much more frequently this year. When offensive coordinator Tyler Underwood, Brad’s son, visited some NBA teams this offseason and Zoomed with others, the idea was to learn concepts to allow Mirkovic to facilitate like Luka Doncic or Nikola Jokic or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. You know, NBA MVPs.
Mirkovic’s skill set and Illinois’ increased depth—and the departure of Wagler—means the Illini won’t look the same as last year’s patient, ball screen-heavy attack. More cutting, more movement, more pace.
“Keaton was so good in ball screens, we just played to that strength,” Underwood says. “But we’ve probably had a summer of as many significant changes offensively as we’ve had in a while. We’re just trying to get great at what we’re good at. It’s playing in concepts and the reads.”
Underwood could go on about Mirkovic for a long time. But if the comparisons to Doncic, Jokic and SGA seem too wild, then Underwood can offer a college comparison from his days as Frank Martin’s assistant at Kansas State that might resonate.
“I really believe this: He’s as talented offensively as any guy I’ve been around since Michael Beasley,” Underwood says.
Remember, Beasley was a one-and-done who went No. 2 in the 2008 NBA draft behind Derrick Rose.
“Because there wasn’t anything we couldn’t do with ‘Beas,’ and that’s saying something with Mirk. There’s nothing he can’t do on the court,” Underwood says. “Now, I’m not saying he’s going out and getting 26 and 12 every night, but teams are going to have to figure him out. He will be the top of the scouting report guy. And if you don’t [figure it out], he’s going to be capable of [26 and 12]. There aren’t many guys capable of that in the country.”
C-TOMISLAV IVISIC (7-1, 270 lbs., SR, #13, 10.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.6 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.6 bpg, 25.4 mpg, .483 FG, .313 3PT, .778 FT; Vodice, Croatia/SC Derby). All of Ivisic’s numbers slumped from his first year at Illinois except for his free-throw percentage.
As Wagler and Mirkovic and Stojakovic emerged -- and as an early-season bone bruise on his knee limited his mobility for much of the year -- Ivisic became the team’s fourth or fifth option. His minutes also decreased.
But when the NCAA Tournament began, Ivisic went back into the “cheat code” mode from the year before. In the five March Madness games, Ivisic averaged 12.4 points and 6.6 rebounds while hitting seven 3-pointers and shooting .523 from the field.
“We saw the best form of him the last third of the season,” Underwood says. “We’ve got a different version of that guy now. He’s still going to be an effective spacer, an effective passer, shooter.”
For this season, Ivisic worked to get into the 270- to 280-pound range to have a stronger base and increase his mobility.
“One key improvement is looking like you have some physicality to you,” Underwood says. “He’ll be better at handling switches and physically being able to cut and take bumps. He got knocked off balance so easy. Both [Ivisics] did. This will help both of those guys.”
If all Ivisic did during his first year at Illinois was deliver one of the defining highlights of the NCAA Tournament—his block at one end and his in-your-face tomahawk dunk in transition at the other end against VCU that had Bill Raftery howling “Take me to the Balkans, please!”—then that was plenty.
But on a serious note, Ivisic did not accomplish much more in the NCAAs. He posted 14 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks in 68 minutes as his playing time declined as the rounds got tougher. He also went 0-for-7 from 3-point range, which capped a 3-for-31 slump over the last 14 games.
On the positive side, Ivisic went 25 for 69 from 3-point range (.362) in Illinois’ first 23 games -- perhaps the tallest floor spacer in America -- and finished the year fourth in the nation in block percentage (12.9%).
Even more so than his younger brother, Ivisic packed on the pounds during the offseason. When he arrived at Illinois at the end of May in 2025, he checked in at 222. When he weighed himself on July 30, he was 266.
“That is the power of [Assistant Athletic Director, Sports Performance] Adam Fletcher and a great nutrition program,” Underwood says. “He’s got a base under him now. He’s a guy who doesn’t look like a stick figure now. He looks like a basketball player. He’s running better. He’s got better endurance. He just had very little endurance. Z is, I hope, ready for a healthy year.”
One of Underwood’s internal campaigns this year is for the Illini to become a better shot-blocking team. They were the nation’s tallest team last year and they’re taller this year. While 29th in the nation at 4.6 blocks per game doesn’t sound bad, Michigan was No. 2 nationally with 6.1.
“We need ‘Z’ to be the best shot-blocker in the country and have the ability to protect the rim,” Underwood says. “Vertical challenges at the rim have to be a strength of this team. We have to make teams score the ball over our size. Whether that leads to a blocked shot or a bad shot at the rim, we’ve got to be elite at that.
“Both of those guys being physical and having a wall at the rim is advantage, Illinois.”
G-JAKE DAVIS (6-6, 210 lbs., SR, #15, 5.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.2 bpg, 19.6 mpg, .429 FG, .406 3PT, .750 FT, Indianapolis Cathedral HS/McCordsville, Indiana/Mercer). Just because Davis is in this section doesn’t mean Underwood has decided on a starting lineup.
“I know he’s going to be on the court,” he says. “I don’t know what role that’ll be yet.”
If it winds up being a reserve, Davis started Illinois’ final 19 games last year and he’ll always be able to say he started on a Final Four team.
He’ll also always be able to say he was a KenPom champion. Nobody in the country delivered as good of an Offensive Efficiency rating as Davis, who clocked in with a 146.6 rating because he rarely shot or turned over the ball—but he drilled 54 of 133 3-point attempts (versus 9 of 14 from inside the arc).
To put that 146.6 rating into some context, only one player in the last 10 years has matched it: 7-foot-1 Wake Forest center Matthew Marsh, who shot 83 of 94 (.883) from the field in 2022-23. Basically, he dunked everything.
Davis, like several of his teammates, dunked nothing last year. But in Underwood’s eyes, that’s the only thing he didn’t do.
“Jake is a championship-level role player,” Underwood says. “It’s invaluable what he brings to us. His teams win [in practice] every day in almost everything we do. He creates more opportunities. He doesn’t need the ball. He’s had a tremendous offseason in terms of handling the ball and getting better with his shot fakes, his sidestep 3, with playing in transition.”
A couple defining Davis snapshots: With one second left on Feb. 7 at Michigan State in a clash of two top 10 teams, Davis gets fouled on an attempted putback. Though he had taken only 11 free throws all year to that point—and with the Izzone ringing in his ears—Davis sank both free throws to force OT.
Another: Six days earlier, Illinois was trying to hand No. 5 Nebraska its first home loss of the year. With the shot clock running out, Mirkovic had the ball on the right wing and tried to feed Tomislav Ivisic in the paint. Ivisic somehow swatted that pass all the way into the left corner for the waiting Davis – who caught and shot in one motion with Braden Frager flying at him to beat the clock and give the Illini a 56-52 lead on the way to a 9-point triumph.
“The ultimate gravity guy,” Underwood says. “You give him a hair of a clean look and he’s gonna make it.”
Now for the stuff that fans don’t always notice or grasp:
“Never misses assignments,” Underwood says. “There’s not a player in our program who does more things that we ask than him. He just does everything that’s conducive to helping a team win and him not being your best player -- and he’s great with that.
“And he’s our best leader. He’s not afraid of confrontation. He’s not afraid to challenge guys.”
TOP NEWCOMERS CG-LUCAS MORILLO (6-7, 210 lbs., FR, #23, 16.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.2 spg, The Newman School (Mass.)/Mount Vernon, N.Y.). In the ultra-competitive NEPSAC (New England Preparatory School Athletic Council), there are a slew of top-flight Division I recruits each year. This year, in fact, there was a McDonald’s All-American: Morillo’s teammate, Michigan-bound forward Quinn Costello.
But when it came time for the coaches to vote for the conference’s player of the year, Morillo claimed the honor for his all-around game. RSCI’s No. 47 prospect in the Class of 2026 led the Newman School to its first national prep championship as he averaged 21.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists when the Cardinals won four games in three days.
Though Morillo didn’t hit the floor in earnest until late July so he could rest a bothersome back, Underwood is banking on Morillo’s virtuoso versatility to be an important part of the team’s rotation.
“He can play on the ball, he can play off it,” Underwood says. “Great facilitator. Unbelievable rebounder for his size and position. He’s a guy a little bit in the Marcus Domask mode to play booty ball because he can really handle and pass. His biggest assets are his versatility and his rebounding—and his high IQ. High, high IQ.
“He’s just a guy that elevates everybody on his team. And he does all the little things that helps you win.”
G-ETHAN BROWN (6-4, 185 lbs., FR, #34, 24.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 6.4 apg, 3.2 spg; Rolla HS/Rolla, Mo.). While Coleman and Morillo have been projected as important contributors from the moment they committed to Illinois, the same sentiment has not been attached to Brown’s name. But if he winds up carving out a relevant role, especially if Underwood carries out his promise to play at a quicker pace this year, it should not be a surprise.
At the bare minimum, Brown’s 3-point release is virtually as quick and clean as Jake Davis’.
"He’s got a terrific release,” Underwood says.
After not making many shots in June, Brown cranked it up in July. But Underwood thinks of him as much more than a shooter.
“Very, very gifted athlete,” he says. “Special athlete. Special speed. Elite vertically. Great instincts. I’m really excited about this kid. He’s got a lot of the intangible things that I can’t coach that are just instinctive. Great anticipation.”
He piled up great all-around numbers at Rolla, where he crushed the school records for career points (2,523), assists (605) and steals (348).
“Does he have to get stronger? Yes,” Underwood says. “But he does things that help you and allow you to win games.”
OTHER NEWCOMERS F-ZAVIER ZENS (6-7, 215 lbs., FR, #22, 23.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.4 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.8 bpg, .618 FG, .417 3PT, .743 FT; Wisconsin Lutheran/Milwaukee, Wis.). For starters, let’s make it clear Underwood has not decided the fate of any of his freshmen. It’s just that not many teams go more than nine-deep, so this happens to be the random place to draw the line.
Zens signed with Northern Iowa early in his senior year, but asked to be released from his commitment in late March once head coach Ben Jacobsen moved to Utah State. Considering that Zens earned Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year awards while leading Wisconsin Lutheran to a 30-0 record and the Division 1 state title, he was a hot item.
There are many reasons Underwood was thrilled to get Zens. For starters, he’s part of the first family of Wisconsin hoops: His first cousins are Memphis Grizzlies stud Kon Knueppel and the rest of the Knueppel crew. Kager, Kinston and Kash were Wisconsin Lutheran teammates this year.
His uncle, Jeff Nordgaard, scored 1,911 points at Green Bay before becoming the Milwaukee Bucks’ second-round pick in 1996. His father, Greg, played for Southwest Minnesota State. His mother, Kami Nordgaard Davis, was a 6-foot setter at South Carolina. Another uncle, Tod Kowalczyk, has won 451 games at Green Bay and Toledo.
“Zavier has won at a very, very high level throughout his career,” says Underwood, referencing his three straight state titles. “He has played basketball the right way for a long time. He has practiced it the right way. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter, but he has played it and practiced the right way for his whole life. He knows what it looks like.”
He has proven it off the court as well. Whenever a recruit visits Illinois, the team gives him the S2 Cognition test. Long used by NBA teams, it measures a player’s ability to process and learn, etc., and offers a score that becomes their Athletic Intelligence Quotient. It’s a video game-like test that takes 35 minutes.
Wagler posted an extremely high score. All six of Illinois’ incoming freshmen performed well, too, but Zens was best, which helps to explain why Underwood says he doesn’t get sped up on the floor—just as Wagler deconstructed opponents at his own pace.
So Zens’ future should be as an “action guy” in Illinois’ system, but it might not be his present.
“He’s got great, great instincts,” Underwood says. “It’ll be just what time we start to let him do some of that. This year, he could be more of a spacer role guy for us.
“This is the first summer that I haven’t felt like there was someone that wasn’t ready as a freshman. This group, the cerebral piece, the evaluations our staff did, these guys have been able to retain [information]. They’ve been able to make instinctive plays. It has just been learning each other and learning concepts.”
G-LINCOLN WILLIAMS (6-5, 180 lbs., FR, #1, 26 ppg, 6 rpg, 3 apg, 3 spg, 2 bpg; Kankakee HS/Kankakee, Ill.). If you enjoy watching players who make flying seem effortless, then Williams will be on your short list of must-sees.
A two-time Class 3A all-stater and his school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,853 points, Williams got to the rim—and above it—with alarming frequency.
“He’s great in the open court,” Underwood says. “He’s an elite finisher. He’s versatile. He’s got a nose for the ball. Between he and Quentin and Lucas, the ball finds them a lot. It just ends up in their hands.”
Less concrete is his ability to shoot from distance, in part because it didn’t need to be a crucial part of his game. While Underwood says he’s “quietly” a good shooter, it seems far more likely Williams will earn initial minutes if he can disrupt opponents defensively.
“He has great anticipation,” Underwood says. “He’s got great length. I can see him being an impact guy for us, especially on that end, early.”
F-LANDON DAVIS (6-9, 240 lbs., FR, #27, 13.9 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 3.8 apg, 0.7 spg, 3.4 bpg, .595 FG, .283 3PT, .682 FT; Waukee Northwest HS/Waukee, Iowa). Davis tag-teamed with Nebraska recruit Colin Rice to lead their school to Iowa’s state quarterfinals. While he was more of a post player in high school, Illinois views Davis as a physical face-up four who happens to have a 7-foot-1 wingspan.
“His upside is through the roof,” Underwood says. “Been very, very, very well-coached. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter. Very, very gifted athlete. Very good shot-blocker.”
Underwood likes how Davis picked up Illinois’ concepts quickly during the eight weeks of summer. The trick to getting legit minutes -- in addition to acknowledging the veteran returnees in front of him -- will be how quickly he can feel comfortable playing while facing the basket.
“Physically, I wouldn’t be afraid at all to put him on the court this year,” Underwood says. “We’re going to throw a bunch of guys out there who look like him.”
OTHER RETURNEES C-JASON JAKSTYS (6-10, 220 lbs., r-SO, #31, 1.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 0.4 bpg, 5.3 mpg, .800 FG, .667 FT; Yorkville HS/Yorkville, Illinois). It’s not easy to earn time in the frontcourt when Mirkovic and the Ivisic twins are directly ahead of you. It’s even tougher when your body rebels against you.
In late January, after experiencing problems with his left shoulder, Jakstys was sidelined for the year with a blood clot that soon was diagnosed as venous thoracic outlet syndrome. That led to surgery to remove his uppermost rib.
Jakstys returned to the practice floor in the summer, which started his quest to regain the body and the skills that had atrophied during his recovery. He flashed some of his upside during his college debut last Nov. 3 when he grabbed nine rebounds in 12 minutes against Jackson State.
“It’s too early to define where he’s going to be, but he had a very good summer and he’s healthy,” Underwood says. “That’s the biggest thing. He gained his weight back.
“He’s got what I call a volleyball jump: He’s very quick off his feet. I think he’s a guy who can give us some minutes in certain roles.”
G-BLAKE FAGBEMI (6-0, 180 lbs., SO, #8, 0.2 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 0.4 apg, 3.6 mpg, .200 FG, Naperville, IL/Benet Academy). If you get a chance to watch Illinois go through pregame warmups, it won’t take long for Fagbemi to catch your eye. While he’s a point guard in height and temperament, he’s a prodigy in flight and tomahawk dunks. He can throw it down in warmups any way you please.
He’s also a solid player. But at a school that prizes positional size and perimeter shooting, it’s not realistic to expect Fagbemi to carve out a rotation spot.
Considering he gave back his Div. II commitment to Truman State in the spring of 2025 in order to join Illinois, it seems safe to say he’s good with his decision.
BACKCOURT A- FRONTCOURT A BENCH/DEPTH A INTANGIBLES A-
For all those college basketball fans raised on Phi Slama Jama and the Flying Illini and other rim-wrecking crews, watching Illinois’ Final Four bunch must have been confusing as heck.
Four of Illinois’ five starters combined for one dunk all year. Wagler, Mirkovic and Davis teamed up for zero dunks while Boswell managed one when he flew in for an impressive tip jam at USC.
Underwood snorts at the idea that dunks matter in this era.
“I almost look at it like a badge of honor,” he says. “It’s one of the greatest things ever because the game isn’t about any of that anymore. The game’s about processing. It’s about intelligence. ‘Whoa, his vertical is 44 inches.’ Well, you get about five of those a year where you get to wow everybody. And ESPN plays it to be the greatest thing ever. It doesn’t matter.’
“Keaton Wagler just destroyed you -- destroyed you -- with his decel. It was slow. And wait until you see Mirk’s this year. Because it’s slower.”
Illinois will test its processing, decel and Final Four-worthiness against another powerful non-conference slate that features trips to Duke and Texas Tech and neutral-court showdowns with UConn, North Carolina and Missouri. -30-
You guys have entertained me for 25-ish years. It's about time I started contributing a little bit around this joint.
My story for Blue Ribbon:
ILLINOIS
LOCATION Champaign, IL CONFERENCE Big Ten LAST SEASON 28-9 (.757) CONFERENCE RECORD 15-5 (t-2nd) STARTERS RETURNING/LOST 3/2 NICKNAME Fighting Illini COLORS Orange & Blue HOMECOURT State Farm Center (15,544) OFFICIAL WEBSITE FightingIllini.com COACH Brad Underwood (Kansas State ’86) RECORD AT SCHOOL 193-110 (9 years) CAREER RECORD 302-137 (13 years) ASSISTANTS Orlando Antigua (Pittsburgh ’95) Geoff Alexander (Western Illinois ’00) Tyler Underwood (Illinois ’19) Camryn Crocker (Penn ’15) Zach Hamer (Vanderbilt ’17) WINS (LAST 5 YRS.) 23-20-29-22-28 NET RANKING (LAST 5 YRS.) 15-36-12-17-5 2025-26 FINISH Lost in Final Four.
COACH AND PROGRAM
Between the Saturday when Illinois defeated Iowa to earn its first Final Four berth since 2005 and the Saturday when UConn ended Illinois’ bid for its first national championship with a 71-62 victory before a largely orange-clad crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium, former Illini coach Bill Self chatted with Brad Underwood and offered a few points of advice.
For starters, he suggested reserving a separate hotel suite where Underwood could entertain family, friends, key donors and the like – so when he needed to get some rest or do some work, he could leave and let everyone else continue enjoying the Final Four party.
“I had high school buddies who came in that I hadn’t seen in 15 or 20 years,” Underwood says. “Our hotel lobby was always packed. And you weren’t going to a restaurant or anything like that. But we could go back to the room and they could have a drink and we could sit and talk and they could stay as long as they wanted. That part of it was nice.”
Self, who has won two NCAA titles and coached in two other Final Fours since going from Illinois to Kansas in 2003, had one other crucial observation to share with Underwood.
“He said, ‘You’ll realize how tired you are and how tiring it is,’ ” Underwood says. “And it is exhausting. You’re coming off three weeks of pretty intense basketball and it all hits you pretty quick.
“The magnitude of it hit during the [Friday] practice when we walked out and there’s 17,000 there in orange.”
And the finality of Illinois’ Final Four journey hit during the actual game, as the Illini managed only one lead, 22-21, with five minutes left in the first half. We won’t spend much space revisiting that game here, but just know Underwood still thinks about how his team got seven straight defensive stops during that first-half stretch.
He thinks about the handful of open offensive opportunities—two missed free throws here, a missed layup and a missed open 3-pointer there—that might have swiped the momentum and forced UConn on its heels, at least for a while.
“If those go in, now we’ve got a 9-point lead or a 10-point lead and the game’s completely different,” Underwood says. “We never capitalized on what we were doing defensively.”
While the national semifinal loss was crushing at the time, the Final Four appearance triggered a new level of respect, interest and intrigue in Underwood and the Illini.
“The importance of it has manifested itself after,” Underwood says. “Just the attention, the celebrity piece, the speaking engagements. Those things are all through the roof.”
And, yes, it has sent the team’s prospects through the roof as well.
On the Friday of Final Four weekend, guard Quentin Coleman, the No. 17 prospect in the Class of 2026 per Recruiting Services Consensus Index, committed to the Illini.
Not long after the Final Four, five of the six rotation players eligible to return to college ball decided to stay at Illinois: David Mirkovic, Andrej Stojakovic, Tomislav Ivisic, Zvonimir Ivisic and Jake Davis.
(Keaton Wagler, the sixth possible returnee, can be excused for leaving because he signed a four-year, $43,958,324 deal with the LA Clippers after being the fifth pick in the NBA draft. Even with the way NIL figures have exploded, that’s tough to beat.)
That quintet enables Illinois to rank third among Big Ten teams in points returning (57.0%) and minutes returning (57.3%).
Then Underwood lured the guy he considered to be the best offensive player in the portal – Providence guard Stefan Vaaks – to become Illinois’ lone transfer.
Last but not least, two more freshmen – four-star forward Zavier Zens (Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball) and uber-athletic guard Lincoln Williams – pledged to give the Illini six rookies to go with four sophomores and four fourth-year players.
How does all this position the Illini as they attempt to earn the program’s first back-to-back Final Four berths since 1951-52?
“I think we’re better athletically, which probably cost us some games last year,” Underwood says. “Our overtime games [Michigan State, Wisconsin and UCLA]. We got beat twice at the buzzer [UCLA and Nebraska] and we got beat when we got defensive stops, but we didn’t get a rebound maybe because we weren’t athletic enough or didn’t chase down a rebound because we didn’t have that ability.
“So we’re more athletic, we’re bigger and I do think we shoot the ball better.”
Considering Illinois owned the KenPom-era record for best offensive efficiency until losing it to Purdue over the final two games, that’s a frightening thought.
“Yeah, but what last year’s team had that we still have to find is elite role players,” Underwood says. “Kylan [Boswell] became an elite role player. Ben Humrichous was one of the best in the country. Jake [Davis] became an elite role player. They didn’t want the ball. They didn’t need the ball. But, yet, if you didn’t guard them, they were going to make shots.
“You can only have one best player. Everybody wants to be that, but not everybody can be that. That’s our job, to make sure we’re defined in that. It took us a little bit last year to figure out Keaton was our best player. Then it took us a while to figure out how to play ‘Mirk.’ I look back at our first UConn game last year and we were playing Mirk as a center and trying to post him. And now he’s our point guard.”
A few paragraphs above, the 62-year-old Underwood alluded to the perks that have come with reaching the Final Four for the first time. Here’s one he particularly relishes:
In July, he got an email from the National Association of Basketball Coaches needing to know what size sport coat he wears. The Spalding Final Four Coaches Club customizes a dark blue blazer for each coach who reaches the national semifinals.
“You start looking at the names in it, going back through the history of the game, and you go, ‘OK, that’s pretty cool,’ ” he says.
On the day of the Final Four semifinals, the NABC hosts a coaches luncheon. That’s when the new honorees receive their jackets and take their first picture with all the other coaches who’ve made the Final Four—but coaches in the current Final Four are too busy and don’t attend.
It was in these pages last year where Underwood proclaimed “Keaton’s a pro.” But at this point last year, Underwood figured he might get to coach Wagler for two years before he moved on. Instead, Wagler became the nation’s biggest “out of nowhere” story as he went from being the nation’s 150th ranked recruit to second-team Associated Press All-American to fifth pick overall in the NBA Draft. If anyone ever forgets how efficiently he played or how well he could shoot, just remember he needed only 17 field-goal attempts to put 46 points on Purdue on the Boilers’ home floor. Suffice it to say the Illini will miss him. But the same goes for Boswell, the hometown kid who did not flinch when the coaches decided after the Nov. 28 loss to UConn at Madison Square Garden that Wagler should be the primary playmaker instead of playing off the ball. Boswell continued to be the team’s best and most versatile defender -- taking on everyone from point guards to posts -- while scoring and rebounding and facilitating as the team needed. He signed a two-way deal with the Charlotte Hornets.
For two guys on this list -- Humrichous and Redd -- their Illini experience played out better than they could have imagined. Humrichous averaged the sixth-most minutes on the squad and showed enough with his long-range shooting and eager to chase offensive rebounds that the New Jersey Nets signed him to an Exhibit-10 deal. Redd started as a team manager, but became the beloved guy on the bench that has all the students chanting his name. When he hit his first career 3-pointer and rang up 5 points in three minutes on Senior Night, State Farm Center went wild.
Petrovic, on the other hand, was supposed to be Illinois’ starting point guard. But he injured his hamstring in the fall, which opened up more opportunities for Keaton Wagler and Petrovic rarely got minutes that mattered. Rodgers started for the 2024 Elite Eight team and was beloved even though he sat out the last two years. He suffered another injury this summer at Boise State, which bummed out everyone in C-U.
Lee, the son of Marquette Final Four legend Butch Lee, rarely got important minutes as well, though he showed some defensive chops in those rare opportunities.
PROJECTED STARTERS G-STEFAN VAAKS (6-7, 215 lbs., SO, #7, 15.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.3 bpg, 31.5 mpg, .403 FG, .350 3PT, .839 FT; Tabasalu, Estonia/Providence). It seems odd to start with a geography lesson, but Illinois’ signing of Vaaks out of the transfer portal did not constitute an addition to their group of Balkans. Estonia is a Baltic state in northern Europe and Vaaks’ hometown is roughly 1,150 miles from Vodice, Croatia, where the Ivisic twins are from.
That having been said, Vaaks should fit in perfectly with Balkans, Missourians, Illinoisans and anyone else who dons an Illini uniform this year.
“He’s the one guy that we identified in the portal that fit us,” Underwood says. “Elite shooter. Elite shooter off the dribble. We just lost that in Keaton.
“He’s a matchup problem. He can play downhill. He can play in ball screens. He’s instinctive. Just your typical big European guard. He makes right plays a lot. And has the ability to shoot it.”
The 21-year-old Vaaks played on and off the ball last year for Providence, which ranked No. 32 per KenPom in offensive efficiency. He scored in double figures in each of the Friars’ first 23 games, even though he came off the bench in eight of them.
He drilled 8 of 13 3-point attempts against Butler in the Big East tournament on the way to a career-high 28 points.
For Illini fans wondering how he might be able to get the squad over the hump against UConn, the Friars lost by 5 and 6 points to the Huskies as Vaaks averaged 11.5 points, 3.0 assists and 1.5 turnovers while shooting 7 of 23 from the field.
Underwood acknowledges the small elephant in the room -- that Vaaks was one of many indifferent defenders on Providence last year -- but believes there’s more there.
“His big adjustment is he’s got the ability to be a good defender,” Underwood says. “But he’s a very talented player. I mean, a very, very talented offensive player. But I don’t want to say just offense because he’s got great instincts on the defensive side as well.”
Vaaks spent part of his summer running the show for Estonia’s national team in the 2027 FIBA European Qualifiers. In the two game he played, Vaaks averaged a team-high 19.5 points, 6 assists and 1.5 turnovers per game while shooting 7 of 20 from 3-point range.
G-QUENTIN COLEMAN (6-4, 180, FR, #11, 23.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 3.9 apg, 2.7 spg, .649 FG, .506 3PT, .897 FT; Principia HS/St. Louis, Mo.). Just as Vaaks will not be directly responsible for emulating Keaton Wagler or replacing his production, it would be wrong to expect Missouri’s Mr. Basketball with some acrobatic tendencies to fill Wagler’s NIKEs.
“He’s not a Keaton-like shooter off the bounce,” Underwood says. “He’s a different personality. He’s a way better athlete than Keaton.”
At the same time, Coleman will have a chance to affect winning on a Wagler-like basis—as suggested by his international debut this summer.
When USA Basketball picked its roster for the FIBA U18 AmeriCup 2026 competition in Leon, Mexico, Coleman was joined by Michigan State’s Jasiah Jervis and Ethan Taylor. BYU’s Bruce Branch III (RSCI No. 5 recruit), Miami’s Caleb Gaskins (RSCI 15), Kansas’ Taylen Kinney (RSCI 21), UConn’s Colben Landrew (RSCI 26) and Arkansas’ Davion Thompson were the other incoming freshmen on the squad.
At the end of the five-game tournament, which concluded with Canada upsetting the USA for gold, Coleman was the only American on the five-man all-star team as he averaged 11.2 points, a tournament-best 11.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists along a team-high +114 plus/minus rating and team-high 17.2 efficiency rating.
“He is very, very competitive,” Underwood says. “Very high motor. Great athleticism. Great tenacity and grit. You usually don’t link those things together with very talented guys, but he is that. His effort and tenacity raise the level of everybody else—or he embarrasses you. Because his motor doesn’t stop, but he’s also very talented.”
Perhaps this is what Underwood means: When Principia High School won its first Class 3A state title in March, Coleman went off for 50 points on 18-for-21 shooting from the field that included 5 of 7 from 3-point range. The other team finished with 34 points. But Coleman isn’t a finished product.
“He’s learning how to play with other really good players,” Underwood says. “He’s learning concepts instead of sets. But he’s got some tools.”
SF-ANDREJ STOJAKOVIC (6-7, 205 lbs., SR, #2, 13.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 26.3 mpg, .500 FG, .244 3PT, .805 FT, Jesuit HS/Carmichael, Calif./Stanford/California). There were nights when Stojakovic did not exactly stuff the stat sheet.
In Illinois’ only crack at national champion Michigan on Feb. 27, he went scoreless with one rebound in 12 minutes. In Illinois’ first meeting with UConn on Black Friday, he scored three points with two assists in 24 minutes.
But then there were the nights when Illinois could not have won without him.
In the NCAA Tournament’s second round against VCU, the Illini offense was stuck in neutral until Stojakovic came off the bench and unleashed his blizzard of moves, spins and flourishes as he delivered a game-high 21 points in 26 minutes off the bench. One week later against Iowa in the Elite Eight, Stojakovic struck again with 17 points on just nine shots.
To be fair, some of his issues were injury-based. He missed nearly two months in the fall due to a knee sprain. He suffered a high ankle sprain against Michigan State on Feb. 7 that put him on the sidelines for two games and gave Jake Davis to take his starting spot for the rest of the year.
While Stojakovic endured another knee injury during this offseason —- he tweaked his knee at the NBA Draft combine that forced him to miss some time after a knee scope —- Underwood witnessed him healthy at the end of summer ball and sees something massive in his immediate future.
“I think that he will make —- and it’s unfair to say this -— but I think there’s a Terrence Shannon jump,” Underwood says. “We have that with a lot of transfers who are with us from one year to the next.”
As context, Terrence Shannon Jr. transferred from Texas Tech to Illinois prior to his fourth college season. He was perfectly fine that year with 17.0 points per game and a .445/.320/.790 shooting line. But in his fifth year, Shannon went berserk and averaged 23.0 points with a .475/.362/.801 line. He was more confident from the arc, more assertive on his kamikaze slashes to the basket and generally dominant, as his third-team all-American honor might suggest.
In Stojakovic, Underwood sees a stronger player now who plays through contact better and generates more And-1s. The question that will linger until the games begin is how much confidence he can build from the 3-point arc. In his three years of college, he has gone from .327 at Stanford to .318 at Cal to .244 at Illinois.
“I think he’s gaining confidence in his jump shot,” Underwood says. “I don’t think he’s a bad shooter. I just think he has been a reluctant shooter. We’ve got to get him out of that. Go shoot the shot.”
PF-DAVID MIRKOVIC (6-9, 250 lbs., FR, #0, 13.3 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.4 bpg, 29.5 mpg, .484 FG, .375 3PT, .757 FT; Niksic, Montenegro; SC Derby). One of the most enjoyable aspects of Illinois’ run to the Final Four was the chance for the college basketball world to get to know Mirkovic, a true original.
From Illinois’ Final Four Friday “mic’d up” video where he charmed and confounded with his confessed love for the movie “Air Bud” and so many other humorous tidbits to C.J. Moore’s story in The Athletic that allowed others in the program to share their favorite “Mirk” stories, it turns out he’s a treasure.
But he’s also a young man on a basketball mission -- and Underwood won’t put anything past him after an offseason spent transforming his frame. It wasn’t by accident that Illinois’ social media account shared shots of Mirk without a shirt on several occasions.
“I think Mirk’s got a chance to be the best player in the country,” Underwood says. “And I’m not saying that lightly. I just don’t know how you guard him.”
Here’s another Big Ten coach’s view of Mirkovic (who adopted the moniker “DJ Smirk” for the deejay class he took in the spring with former teammate Ty Rodgers):
“He changes the whole dynamic for them. I thought he was their best player last year. If he sets a ball screen, what do you do? Because if you switch, then he can post you. If you put a coverage on it, they can pick and pop. If you don’t do anything on it, then the guard can score enough to keep you honest. But the whole threat is him. The whole fear is him.”
When Underwood wanted to take a little pressure off Wagler last year and give him a few possessions off the ball, he would have Mirkovic trigger the action.
That’s going to happen much more frequently this year. When offensive coordinator Tyler Underwood, Brad’s son, visited some NBA teams this offseason and Zoomed with others, the idea was to learn concepts to allow Mirkovic to facilitate like Luka Doncic or Nikola Jokic or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. You know, NBA MVPs.
Mirkovic’s skill set and Illinois’ increased depth—and the departure of Wagler—means the Illini won’t look the same as last year’s patient, ball screen-heavy attack. More cutting, more movement, more pace.
“Keaton was so good in ball screens, we just played to that strength,” Underwood says. “But we’ve probably had a summer of as many significant changes offensively as we’ve had in a while. We’re just trying to get great at what we’re good at. It’s playing in concepts and the reads.”
Underwood could go on about Mirkovic for a long time. But if the comparisons to Doncic, Jokic and SGA seem too wild, then Underwood can offer a college comparison from his days as Frank Martin’s assistant at Kansas State that might resonate.
“I really believe this: He’s as talented offensively as any guy I’ve been around since Michael Beasley,” Underwood says.
Remember, Beasley was a one-and-done who went No. 2 in the 2008 NBA draft behind Derrick Rose.
“Because there wasn’t anything we couldn’t do with ‘Beas,’ and that’s saying something with Mirk. There’s nothing he can’t do on the court,” Underwood says. “Now, I’m not saying he’s going out and getting 26 and 12 every night, but teams are going to have to figure him out. He will be the top of the scouting report guy. And if you don’t [figure it out], he’s going to be capable of [26 and 12]. There aren’t many guys capable of that in the country.”
C-TOMISLAV IVISIC (7-1, 270 lbs., SR, #13, 10.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.6 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.6 bpg, 25.4 mpg, .483 FG, .313 3PT, .778 FT; Vodice, Croatia/SC Derby). All of Ivisic’s numbers slumped from his first year at Illinois except for his free-throw percentage.
As Wagler and Mirkovic and Stojakovic emerged -- and as an early-season bone bruise on his knee limited his mobility for much of the year -- Ivisic became the team’s fourth or fifth option. His minutes also decreased.
But when the NCAA Tournament began, Ivisic went back into the “cheat code” mode from the year before. In the five March Madness games, Ivisic averaged 12.4 points and 6.6 rebounds while hitting seven 3-pointers and shooting .523 from the field.
“We saw the best form of him the last third of the season,” Underwood says. “We’ve got a different version of that guy now. He’s still going to be an effective spacer, an effective passer, shooter.”
For this season, Ivisic worked to get into the 270- to 280-pound range to have a stronger base and increase his mobility.
“One key improvement is looking like you have some physicality to you,” Underwood says. “He’ll be better at handling switches and physically being able to cut and take bumps. He got knocked off balance so easy. Both [Ivisics] did. This will help both of those guys.”
If all Ivisic did during his first year at Illinois was deliver one of the defining highlights of the NCAA Tournament—his block at one end and his in-your-face tomahawk dunk in transition at the other end against VCU that had Bill Raftery howling “Take me to the Balkans, please!”—then that was plenty.
But on a serious note, Ivisic did not accomplish much more in the NCAAs. He posted 14 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks in 68 minutes as his playing time declined as the rounds got tougher. He also went 0-for-7 from 3-point range, which capped a 3-for-31 slump over the last 14 games.
On the positive side, Ivisic went 25 for 69 from 3-point range (.362) in Illinois’ first 23 games -- perhaps the tallest floor spacer in America -- and finished the year fourth in the nation in block percentage (12.9%).
Even more so than his younger brother, Ivisic packed on the pounds during the offseason. When he arrived at Illinois at the end of May in 2025, he checked in at 222. When he weighed himself on July 30, he was 266.
“That is the power of [Assistant Athletic Director, Sports Performance] Adam Fletcher and a great nutrition program,” Underwood says. “He’s got a base under him now. He’s a guy who doesn’t look like a stick figure now. He looks like a basketball player. He’s running better. He’s got better endurance. He just had very little endurance. Z is, I hope, ready for a healthy year.”
One of Underwood’s internal campaigns this year is for the Illini to become a better shot-blocking team. They were the nation’s tallest team last year and they’re taller this year. While 29th in the nation at 4.6 blocks per game doesn’t sound bad, Michigan was No. 2 nationally with 6.1.
“We need ‘Z’ to be the best shot-blocker in the country and have the ability to protect the rim,” Underwood says. “Vertical challenges at the rim have to be a strength of this team. We have to make teams score the ball over our size. Whether that leads to a blocked shot or a bad shot at the rim, we’ve got to be elite at that.
“Both of those guys being physical and having a wall at the rim is advantage, Illinois.”
G-JAKE DAVIS (6-6, 210 lbs., SR, #15, 5.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.2 bpg, 19.6 mpg, .429 FG, .406 3PT, .750 FT, Indianapolis Cathedral HS/McCordsville, Indiana/Mercer). Just because Davis is in this section doesn’t mean Underwood has decided on a starting lineup.
“I know he’s going to be on the court,” he says. “I don’t know what role that’ll be yet.”
If it winds up being a reserve, Davis started Illinois’ final 19 games last year and he’ll always be able to say he started on a Final Four team.
He’ll also always be able to say he was a KenPom champion. Nobody in the country delivered as good of an Offensive Efficiency rating as Davis, who clocked in with a 146.6 rating because he rarely shot or turned over the ball—but he drilled 54 of 133 3-point attempts (versus 9 of 14 from inside the arc).
To put that 146.6 rating into some context, only one player in the last 10 years has matched it: 7-foot-1 Wake Forest center Matthew Marsh, who shot 83 of 94 (.883) from the field in 2022-23. Basically, he dunked everything.
Davis, like several of his teammates, dunked nothing last year. But in Underwood’s eyes, that’s the only thing he didn’t do.
“Jake is a championship-level role player,” Underwood says. “It’s invaluable what he brings to us. His teams win [in practice] every day in almost everything we do. He creates more opportunities. He doesn’t need the ball. He’s had a tremendous offseason in terms of handling the ball and getting better with his shot fakes, his sidestep 3, with playing in transition.”
A couple defining Davis snapshots: With one second left on Feb. 7 at Michigan State in a clash of two top 10 teams, Davis gets fouled on an attempted putback. Though he had taken only 11 free throws all year to that point—and with the Izzone ringing in his ears—Davis sank both free throws to force OT.
Another: Six days earlier, Illinois was trying to hand No. 5 Nebraska its first home loss of the year. With the shot clock running out, Mirkovic had the ball on the right wing and tried to feed Tomislav Ivisic in the paint. Ivisic somehow swatted that pass all the way into the left corner for the waiting Davis – who caught and shot in one motion with Braden Frager flying at him to beat the clock and give the Illini a 56-52 lead on the way to a 9-point triumph.
“The ultimate gravity guy,” Underwood says. “You give him a hair of a clean look and he’s gonna make it.”
Now for the stuff that fans don’t always notice or grasp:
“Never misses assignments,” Underwood says. “There’s not a player in our program who does more things that we ask than him. He just does everything that’s conducive to helping a team win and him not being your best player -- and he’s great with that.
“And he’s our best leader. He’s not afraid of confrontation. He’s not afraid to challenge guys.”
TOP NEWCOMERS CG-LUCAS MORILLO (6-7, 210 lbs., FR, #23, 16.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.2 spg, The Newman School (Mass.)/Mount Vernon, N.Y.). In the ultra-competitive NEPSAC (New England Preparatory School Athletic Council), there are a slew of top-flight Division I recruits each year. This year, in fact, there was a McDonald’s All-American: Morillo’s teammate, Michigan-bound forward Quinn Costello.
But when it came time for the coaches to vote for the conference’s player of the year, Morillo claimed the honor for his all-around game. RSCI’s No. 47 prospect in the Class of 2026 led the Newman School to its first national prep championship as he averaged 21.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists when the Cardinals won four games in three days.
Though Morillo didn’t hit the floor in earnest until late July so he could rest a bothersome back, Underwood is banking on Morillo’s virtuoso versatility to be an important part of the team’s rotation.
“He can play on the ball, he can play off it,” Underwood says. “Great facilitator. Unbelievable rebounder for his size and position. He’s a guy a little bit in the Marcus Domask mode to play booty ball because he can really handle and pass. His biggest assets are his versatility and his rebounding—and his high IQ. High, high IQ.
“He’s just a guy that elevates everybody on his team. And he does all the little things that helps you win.”
G-ETHAN BROWN (6-4, 185 lbs., FR, #34, 24.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 6.4 apg, 3.2 spg; Rolla HS/Rolla, Mo.). While Coleman and Morillo have been projected as important contributors from the moment they committed to Illinois, the same sentiment has not been attached to Brown’s name. But if he winds up carving out a relevant role, especially if Underwood carries out his promise to play at a quicker pace this year, it should not be a surprise.
At the bare minimum, Brown’s 3-point release is virtually as quick and clean as Jake Davis’.
"He’s got a terrific release,” Underwood says.
After not making many shots in June, Brown cranked it up in July. But Underwood thinks of him as much more than a shooter.
“Very, very gifted athlete,” he says. “Special athlete. Special speed. Elite vertically. Great instincts. I’m really excited about this kid. He’s got a lot of the intangible things that I can’t coach that are just instinctive. Great anticipation.”
He piled up great all-around numbers at Rolla, where he crushed the school records for career points (2,523), assists (605) and steals (348).
“Does he have to get stronger? Yes,” Underwood says. “But he does things that help you and allow you to win games.”
OTHER NEWCOMERS F-ZAVIER ZENS (6-7, 215 lbs., FR, #22, 23.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.4 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.8 bpg, .618 FG, .417 3PT, .743 FT; Wisconsin Lutheran/Milwaukee, Wis.). For starters, let’s make it clear Underwood has not decided the fate of any of his freshmen. It’s just that not many teams go more than nine-deep, so this happens to be the random place to draw the line.
Zens signed with Northern Iowa early in his senior year, but asked to be released from his commitment in late March once head coach Ben Jacobsen moved to Utah State. Considering that Zens earned Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year awards while leading Wisconsin Lutheran to a 30-0 record and the Division 1 state title, he was a hot item.
There are many reasons Underwood was thrilled to get Zens. For starters, he’s part of the first family of Wisconsin hoops: His first cousins are Memphis Grizzlies stud Kon Knueppel and the rest of the Knueppel crew. Kager, Kinston and Kash were Wisconsin Lutheran teammates this year.
His uncle, Jeff Nordgaard, scored 1,911 points at Green Bay before becoming the Milwaukee Bucks’ second-round pick in 1996. His father, Greg, played for Southwest Minnesota State. His mother, Kami Nordgaard Davis, was a 6-foot setter at South Carolina. Another uncle, Tod Kowalczyk, has won 451 games at Green Bay and Toledo.
“Zavier has won at a very, very high level throughout his career,” says Underwood, referencing his three straight state titles. “He has played basketball the right way for a long time. He has practiced it the right way. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter, but he has played it and practiced the right way for his whole life. He knows what it looks like.”
He has proven it off the court as well. Whenever a recruit visits Illinois, the team gives him the S2 Cognition test. Long used by NBA teams, it measures a player’s ability to process and learn, etc., and offers a score that becomes their Athletic Intelligence Quotient. It’s a video game-like test that takes 35 minutes.
Wagler posted an extremely high score. All six of Illinois’ incoming freshmen performed well, too, but Zens was best, which helps to explain why Underwood says he doesn’t get sped up on the floor—just as Wagler deconstructed opponents at his own pace.
So Zens’ future should be as an “action guy” in Illinois’ system, but it might not be his present.
“He’s got great, great instincts,” Underwood says. “It’ll be just what time we start to let him do some of that. This year, he could be more of a spacer role guy for us.
“This is the first summer that I haven’t felt like there was someone that wasn’t ready as a freshman. This group, the cerebral piece, the evaluations our staff did, these guys have been able to retain [information]. They’ve been able to make instinctive plays. It has just been learning each other and learning concepts.”
G-LINCOLN WILLIAMS (6-5, 180 lbs., FR, #1, 26 ppg, 6 rpg, 3 apg, 3 spg, 2 bpg; Kankakee HS/Kankakee, Ill.). If you enjoy watching players who make flying seem effortless, then Williams will be on your short list of must-sees.
A two-time Class 3A all-stater and his school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,853 points, Williams got to the rim—and above it—with alarming frequency.
“He’s great in the open court,” Underwood says. “He’s an elite finisher. He’s versatile. He’s got a nose for the ball. Between he and Quentin and Lucas, the ball finds them a lot. It just ends up in their hands.”
Less concrete is his ability to shoot from distance, in part because it didn’t need to be a crucial part of his game. While Underwood says he’s “quietly” a good shooter, it seems far more likely Williams will earn initial minutes if he can disrupt opponents defensively.
“He has great anticipation,” Underwood says. “He’s got great length. I can see him being an impact guy for us, especially on that end, early.”
F-LANDON DAVIS (6-9, 240 lbs., FR, #27, 13.9 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 3.8 apg, 0.7 spg, 3.4 bpg, .595 FG, .283 3PT, .682 FT; Waukee Northwest HS/Waukee, Iowa). Davis tag-teamed with Nebraska recruit Colin Rice to lead their school to Iowa’s state quarterfinals. While he was more of a post player in high school, Illinois views Davis as a physical face-up four who happens to have a 7-foot-1 wingspan.
“His upside is through the roof,” Underwood says. “Been very, very, very well-coached. He’s an excellent, excellent, excellent shooter. Very, very gifted athlete. Very good shot-blocker.”
Underwood likes how Davis picked up Illinois’ concepts quickly during the eight weeks of summer. The trick to getting legit minutes -- in addition to acknowledging the veteran returnees in front of him -- will be how quickly he can feel comfortable playing while facing the basket.
“Physically, I wouldn’t be afraid at all to put him on the court this year,” Underwood says. “We’re going to throw a bunch of guys out there who look like him.”
OTHER RETURNEES C-JASON JAKSTYS (6-10, 220 lbs., r-SO, #31, 1.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 0.4 bpg, 5.3 mpg, .800 FG, .667 FT; Yorkville HS/Yorkville, Illinois). It’s not easy to earn time in the frontcourt when Mirkovic and the Ivisic twins are directly ahead of you. It’s even tougher when your body rebels against you.
In late January, after experiencing problems with his left shoulder, Jakstys was sidelined for the year with a blood clot that soon was diagnosed as venous thoracic outlet syndrome. That led to surgery to remove his uppermost rib.
Jakstys returned to the practice floor in the summer, which started his quest to regain the body and the skills that had atrophied during his recovery. He flashed some of his upside during his college debut last Nov. 3 when he grabbed nine rebounds in 12 minutes against Jackson State.
“It’s too early to define where he’s going to be, but he had a very good summer and he’s healthy,” Underwood says. “That’s the biggest thing. He gained his weight back.
“He’s got what I call a volleyball jump: He’s very quick off his feet. I think he’s a guy who can give us some minutes in certain roles.”
G-BLAKE FAGBEMI (6-0, 180 lbs., SO, #8, 0.2 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 0.4 apg, 3.6 mpg, .200 FG, Naperville, IL/Benet Academy). If you get a chance to watch Illinois go through pregame warmups, it won’t take long for Fagbemi to catch your eye. While he’s a point guard in height and temperament, he’s a prodigy in flight and tomahawk dunks. He can throw it down in warmups any way you please.
He’s also a solid player. But at a school that prizes positional size and perimeter shooting, it’s not realistic to expect Fagbemi to carve out a rotation spot.
Considering he gave back his Div. II commitment to Truman State in the spring of 2025 in order to join Illinois, it seems safe to say he’s good with his decision.
BACKCOURT A- FRONTCOURT A BENCH/DEPTH A INTANGIBLES A-
For all those college basketball fans raised on Phi Slama Jama and the Flying Illini and other rim-wrecking crews, watching Illinois’ Final Four bunch must have been confusing as heck.
Four of Illinois’ five starters combined for one dunk all year. Wagler, Mirkovic and Davis teamed up for zero dunks while Boswell managed one when he flew in for an impressive tip jam at USC.
Underwood snorts at the idea that dunks matter in this era.
“I almost look at it like a badge of honor,” he says. “It’s one of the greatest things ever because the game isn’t about any of that anymore. The game’s about processing. It’s about intelligence. ‘Whoa, his vertical is 44 inches.’ Well, you get about five of those a year where you get to wow everybody. And ESPN plays it to be the greatest thing ever. It doesn’t matter.’
“Keaton Wagler just destroyed you -- destroyed you -- with his decel. It was slow. And wait until you see Mirk’s this year. Because it’s slower.”
Illinois will test its processing, decel and Final Four-worthiness against another powerful non-conference slate that features trips to Duke and Texas Tech and neutral-court showdowns with UConn, North Carolina and Missouri. -30-
Don't take offense, better make amends Rip it all to shreds and let it go
Sam Vecenie has Quentin Coleman #7 in his latest mock draft
The Oregon Coast is absolutely beautiful. YOu could also spend a day or so in Portland. Leavenworth, Washington or Hood River, Oregon are also good choices.
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on a good place to stay for a couple days between the two?
Portland (Oregon, not Maine) is between Seattle and Eugene. You could explore
With guys ideally suited to specific roles, so we have answers for everything.
Multiple action guys who can distribute. We can run traditional ball screens or invert. We don't need to run the offense through one specific player. Slashers and cutters, shooters, and at least one failsafe iso guy.
But, all of that assumes that everyone lives up to last year or makes specific leaps forward.
That said, I think the offense will be unstoppable. Defense, however, is a major question mark, both because of personnel and because it has been consistently mediocre across Underwood's entire coaching career, regardless of program, assistant coaches, schemes, and talent.
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I am not trying to be a wet blanket... seriously... I just feel like I'm not quite there... like something may be missing.
and the fanbase is in meltdown mode when the clock hits zero on the UConn game.
Pretty much have resigned myself to the fact that every good Underwood team is going to require a big philosophical or strategic adjustment in December until we see otherwise. We just can’t freak out if it starts out bad again.
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I am not trying to be a wet blanket... seriously... I just feel like I'm not quite there... like something may be missing.
IDK... just can't quite put my finger on it.
When something is happening, young people like to say it’s “lit.”
Similar to what happened with Coleman Hawkins at one point. Mirk is awesome, but I fear we may be expecting a bit too much and as you said it could require a shift towards Vaaks and/or Coleman being the primary initiators.
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But yeah I could see a case where we try to run things through Mirk and it turns out we're better off with Vaaks initiating things instead.
When something is happening, young people like to say it’s “lit.”
Yet very little will call him out for quitting on his team 3 weeks before the season starts. Again that comment is void if there was a health issue for him or a member of his family.
Real-world Nielsen regular-season college basketball viewership averages demonstrate that audience scale between broadcast tiers is non-linear: - Tier 1 (Peacock / BTN): Averages ~200,000 to 250,000 viewers - Tier 2 (FS1): Averages ~300,000 to 450,000 viewers (roughly 1.5x to 2x of BTN/Peacock) - Tier 3 (CBS / FOX / NBC): Averages ~1.35 to 1.50 million viewers (roughly 5x to 7x of BTN/Peacock)
Grounding the three tiers in these actual viewership multiples yields a natural, non-linear point scale: - Tier 1 (BTN / Peacock): 1 point - Tier 2 (FS1): 2 points - Tier 3 (CBS / FOX / NBC): 6 points
do you think illinois goes to? pittsburgh (only one without the state designated on the ncaa email, but let's assume pa), spokane wa, fort worth tx, or omaha ne?
do you think illinois goes to? pittsburgh (only one without the state designated on the ncaa email, but let's assume pa), spokane wa, fort worth tx, or omaha ne?
do you think illinois goes to? pittsburgh (only one without the state designated on the ncaa email, but let's assume pa), spokane wa, fort worth tx, or omaha ne?
but pitt is closest for a drive. so i'm leaning to buy those.
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do you think illinois goes to? pittsburgh (only one without the state designated on the ncaa email, but let's assume pa), spokane wa, fort worth tx, or omaha ne?
on October 1, 2026, 12:48:03
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