Illinois seeks a Final Four berth
and Underwood's Eastern European recruiting is a big reason why
[March 28, 2026]
By KRISTIE RIEKEN
HOUSTON (AP) — Given the success Illinois coach Brad Underwood has
had with recruits from Eastern Europe, he plans to keep adding such
players to his team and is sure that many others will follow suit.
“It’s a great marriage and a great fit,” Underwood said Friday. “So,
we’ll continue it. I would think others will continue to migrate
over there and keep trying to recruit those guys.”
Underwood’s third-seeded Illini meet Big Ten foe and No. 9 seed Iowa
Thursday night in the NCAA Tournament's South Region final with a
trip to the Final Four on the line. Led by first-year coach Ben
McCollum, who won four Division II national titles at Northwest
Missouri State, Iowa is in the Elite Eight for the first time since
1987.
Illinois is aiming for its sixth trip to the Final Four and first
since 2005, while Iowa looks to return to the national semifinals
for the first time since 1980 and fourth overall. Neither school has
won a national title.
The Illini will try to end Iowa’s charmed March run with a roster
that includes four players from Eastern Europe and Andrej Stojakovic,
who was born in Greece, but whose father is Serbian three-time NBA
All-Star Peja Stojakovic.
The Eastern Europeans on the team are Croatian twins Zvonimir and
Tomislav Ivisic, Montenegrin forward David Mirkovic and Serbian
guard Mihailo Petrovic.
“It means a lot to represent our countries on this big stage,”
Zvonimir Ivisic said. “Being here together, going through this whole
process and experiencing it together, making memories for life, it
really means everything.”
For Mirkovic, a freshman who led the team with 14 points and 10
rebounds in Thursday night’s win over No. 2 seed Houston, having so
many Eastern Europeans on the team made his transition to the United
States much easier.
“When you move to the other side of the world having someone that
speaks your native language and that’s already had the college
experience means a lot,” he said. “It’s much, much easier. You feel
like home.”
Underwood’s recruiting of Eastern Europeans was made possible by the
advent of the name, image and likeness era, which allowed him to
entice players who could otherwise make money playing professionally
as they pursue the path to the NBA followed by the likes of Nikola
Jokic and Luka Doncic.
Iowa star Bennett Stirtz said he expects to see more players from
the Balkan region playing for U.S. colleges in the years to come.
“It’s a new era now,” he said. “Lots more college teams doing that
and obviously it’s working for them.”
For Underwood, getting European players to Champaign has been a long
process that has paid huge dividends.
[to top of second column] |
Illinois center Zvonimir Ivisic, left, listens as brother and
teammate Tomislav Ivisic, right, answer questions during a news
conference for the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball
tournament, Friday, March 27, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric
Gay)
Mirkovic leads the team in rebounding at 8.0 per
game and is second in scoring at 13.7 points. Tomislav is averaging
10.2 points and 5.7 rebounds, and his brother averages 6.7 points
and 4.7 rebounds.
“It’s taken years,” Underwood said. “NIL has obviously helped
enhance our abilities to attract some of the best players in Europe.
But they’re a great fit for us. It’s not for everybody. I enjoy
coaching them. They fit our university. We’re a diverse university
with a lot of international students, so it’s a perfect fit for
them.”
Although Stojakovic wasn’t raised in Serbia, he is
proud of his heritage and revels in the spotlight this team is
putting on the region.
“It’s always nice to see guys coming from where I come from, where
my family comes from to have success at this level,” he said.
“Obviously everybody talks about the players in the NBA, but you’ve
got guys all over college slowly starting to make a name for
themselves ... so it’s something that you want to be proud of.”
Folgueiras overcomes the language barrier
Iowa forward Alvaro Folgueiras is from Spain and didn’t speak
English very well when he first moved to the U.S. in high school. He
said that led to a tense exchange with a coach one day in practice.
“I wasn’t playing really good on practice, and one of the coaches
came to me saying: ‘Wake up ... you’re not doing good,’” Folgueiras
said. “He was kind of hard on me. And I put a face like he thought I
was challenging him, but the truth is that ... my face was because I
wasn’t understanding him.”
His English is a lot better now and he said basketball helped him
communicate until he became fluent in the language.
“You come here to learn the universal language called basketball,”
he said. “So, I guess on that part, I learned even more than just a
couple words in English.”
Wagler explains rebounding by guards
Freshman guard Keaton Wagler led Illinois with 12 rebounds against
Houston. He said grabbing rebounds as a guard requires different
tactics than the big guys use.
“Bigs, it’s more of a physical battle for them,” he said. “As for
guards, it’s tracking down the ball, getting the longer rebounds.
That’s what it was yesterday for me. Our bigs did a great job
blocking out their bigs, and I just came in there and cleaned up the
boards that way.”
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