Last Wednesday night, Brad Underwood lured Northwestern coach Chris Collins, Oregon coach Dana Altman and omnipresent TV analyst Robbie Hummel to a horse barn in central Illinois for a great cause. A whopping 1,650 people turned out in Gifford, Illinois — population 883 — to enjoy fine food, laugh at tall tales and spend a mountain of money to help Coaches vs. Cancer. By the end of the night, Underwood and Co. had raised $550,000. That shattered the previous record for the Illinois coach’s annual “Kickin’ Cancer” event.
That’s a massive number in the fight against cancer. But $550,000 barely raises an eyebrow at Underwood’s day job, which requires him to build a competitive roster in the cash-rich Big Ten. “I’m honestly not sure that gets you an eighth man nowadays,” former Illinois guard Mike LaTulip, who works as an analyst for The Field of 68, told Hoops HQ.
The challenge is especially steep as programs around the country are rushing to front load their payments to players in advance of the new revenue sharing system that is expected to be put in place in July. While speaking with the media at the Coaches vs. Cancer event, Underwood projected confidence about his ability to keep up with the NIL Joneses. “Very good. Very good. Very good,” Underwood said of his program’s support. “The Illini Nation is very powerful. Never been more powerful. Never been more involved. And for that, we say thank you. We can’t compete on a national level without that.”
However, Illinois fans keep watching social media — where all college basketball transactions are announced these days — and are waiting for the dollars to pay dividends. While Michigan, Purdue, UCLA, Washington and others keep revealing the addition of big pieces to their rosters, Illinois has been relatively silent. It doesn’t take much for Illini fans to panic, but that feeling is taking hold as the days slip by and Underwood’s roster dwindles.
As of Tuesday, the last day for players to jump into the transfer portal, Illinois officially has one import from the transfer portal (Arkansas’ 7-foot-2 sophomore forward Zvonimir Ivisic) and unofficially has one freshman from overseas (6-foot-9 Montenegro power forward David Mirkovic). With freshmen Kasparas Jakucionis and Will Riley gone to the NBA — the first one-and-dones in Illini annals — starting forward Tre White gone to Kansas, rebounding savant Morez Johnson gone to Michigan and streaky sophomore scorer Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn off to UNLV, the Illini bear no resemblance to the crew that finished No. 17 in the KenPom ratings and earned a No. 6 NCAA seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The program finally got some good news on Tuesday, when Mihailo Petrovic, a 22-year-old point guard Serbian native who plays in the Adriatic League, committed to Illinois. More good news may be on the way as California sharpshooter Andrej Stojakovic visited Champaign on Tuesday. The 6-foot-7 wing was a Top 25 recruit in the Class of 2023. He averaged 17.9 points and 4.7 rebounds last year for the Golden Bears. Illinois is believed to have the inside track to land Stojakovic, although North Carolina is also reportedly in hot pursuit. “He would be such a good fit there,” LaTulip said. “Stojakovic is really interesting because there is evidence of success at the college level. That’s what Illinois is missing right now, scoring punch at the wing spot. If they can land him, that’s a really, really strong pickup that ties a lot of their personnel together.”
Illinois’ roster next season will feature five returnees: 7-foot-1 junior center Tomislav Ivisic (13.0 points, 7.7 rebounds per game, 55 made three-pointers), senior combo guard Kylan Boswell (12.3 points per game), fifth-year stretch four Ben Humrichous (7.6 points per game, team-high 62 three-pointers), junior shooter Jake Davis (3.0 ppg, 22 threes) and redshirt junior Ty Rodgers. Rodgers, the lone starter Illinois returned from its 2024 Elite Eight squad, was assumed to be a goner when he decided to redshirt on the eve of the 2024-25 season. Instead, the 6-foot-6 wing decided to stay and has a big role to play. “He’ll be as versatile a player as there is in the Big Ten,” Underwood said.
The good news for Illinois is that all of the guys likely to be in the rotation — with the exception of Mirkovic, whom LaTulip believes can be a 20-minute guy at the four — are either juniors or seniors. That said, Underwood does not regret bringing in Jakucionis and Riley for nine months. He is hoping their success will help him land another Riley-esque talent in 18-year-old wing Dame Sarr, who starts for FC Barcelona in the Euroleague. “If Illinois gets him, I think he’s a needle-mover that helps you win games,” LaTulip said.
But if Illinois doesn’t bring in any more freshmen this season, Underwood will be okay with that, too. His 2024 Elite Eight team boasted an eight-man rotation that included four fifth-year seniors (Terrence Shannon Jr., Marcus Domask, Quincy Guerrier, Justin Harmon), fourth-year senior Coleman Hawkins, fourth-year junior Dain Dainja and junior Luke Goode. “If the portal presents some older guys, then those are obviously some things that we want to look at and take advantage of,” Underwood said. “It was really good for us a year ago. So why not repeat the recipe?”
That would be nice, but in order for Illinois to really cook, Underwood will need to bring in a few more ingredients.
