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Why the Illini need to fight like Mike Tyson vs. Houston | Chicago Sports Tonight
Former Illini great Kendall Gill joined Tina to preview Illinois' huge Sweet 16 matchup against Houston on Thursday. Kendall gives the keys to an Illini victory and why his former team needs to 'fight like Mike Tyson' against a physical, aggressive Houston defense. Plus, does Kendall believe Billy Donovan comes back next year and is Donovan the right man to lead the Bulls into the future?
When you open an old book, there’s a certain feel to it. An aged text can affect all the senses.
An old manuscript looks, feels and even smells a certain way. The Illinois basketball record book was one of those kinds of books.
Brad Underwood was hired to add a new page to that book. He came close in 2024, but plenty of coaches will remind you: they don’t hang banners for Elite Eight appearances.
It all comes down to the Final Four. The Illini, after 21 years of aspiring, hoping and dreaming, are one of the last four teams standing in the NCAA Tournament after a 71-59 win after closing the book on the Cinderella Iowa Hawkeyes.
"Well," Underwood said, "It's better than I dreamt it would ever be."
The backstory:
Before, there were the 1949, 1951, 1952, 1989 and 2005 teams.
Now, Illinois can add a fresh page to that record book. Add in the 2026 Illinois team. These Illini, the Balkan Boys, a Champaign kid, a superstar freshman and a JUCO coach from Kansas, are back in the Final Four.
Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill, Kenny Battle, Dee Brown, Deron Williams, Luther Head, James Augustine and Roger Powell Jr., you can rest easy. Another team has finally carried your torch back to the Final Four.
That team was made up of the right people, the right talent and the right coach.
Underwood recounted the days when he coached Stephen F. Austin. He told one of his assistants that coaching the Illini was his dream job. The guy coaching Dodge City Community College basketball, who would crawl to a city if it meant coaching a Final Four, had enough love in his heart for the Illini to keep them in his heart as he finally got his moments.
"I dreamt about doing it at Illinois," Underwood said. "Back in the day when my wife bought Tyler, who was maybe 2, a Brian Cook jersey, and you knew what a special place this was. And it always has been, and there's been no other thing for me. This is my dream job, and it's very fulfilling to get where we're going."
The coach is just one part of it.
Underwood has put together great teams at Illinois. He was a No. 1 seed in 2021 with a team headlined by Ayo Dosunmu and made an Elite Eight in 2024 with a team paced by Terrence Shannon Jr.
Now, Underwood will head to a Final Four with the deepest team he’s had in Champaign.
The Ivisic brothers, Tomislav and Zvonimir, David Mirkovic, Keaton Wagler, Andrej Stojakovic, Kylan Boswell, Jake Davis and Ben Humrichous are the team that finally took Illinois over the hump.
Part of why this team got to the Final Four is because of the talent. Wagler put another stamp on his All-American season, scoring 27 in the Elite Eight. Wagler had a highlight-reel moment where his crossover dropped an Iowa defender, and he hit a massive 3-pointer.
"This is what kids dream of," Wagler said. "I know I dreamed of this when I was growing up, playing in the Final Four, competing for a National Championship. To be able to do it with the people around me, you know, teammates, coaches, fans, managers, everyone, it means a lot. Like he said, like, we got here, but we're not done yet."
That’s just one piece of the puzzle.
Another reason why is that Boswell, Humrichous, Davis and Stojakovic give Illinois the experience it needed to enjoy a deep run.
Stojakovic is one of those players who was brought in to have the experience Illinois needed. His offensive and defensive prowess was what pulled the Illini away from Iowa on Saturday night with 17 points.
That kind of experience is what leads to the Final Four where, while it’s fun to celebrate the present, the job isn’t done.
"I don't want anybody to think this is it," Stojakovic said. "We're coming to win two more games."
What's next:
That’s all that stands between Illinois and immortality: two games.
The Illini will either play UConn or Duke, two college basketball blue bloods aiming for the same immortality that all teams strive for.
But, whatever happens, Illinois will still hang a banner. The Illini set a precedent for future teams. Underwood is the coach Illinois fans hoped he’d be when he was hired.
That’s all worth celebrating.
The team knows the job isn’t finished. But tonight is a perfect night for Kams to stay open later than usual. It’s a perfect night for the Illini lifers who imagined this would never happen again to smile through the night. It’s a perfect night to celebrate the work took years to bring this night to life.
"You can never not celebrate winning," Underwood said. "We work our asses off. And these guys work all year long -- and it doesn't matter, regular season games, you can ask any of 'em, we're going to have some sort of celebration after a win. And I want them to not ever feel relieved. We understand that we've got to win one more game twice to get where we want to go. That's all we talk about is winning a National Championship. We know we're going to have another opponent that's going to be very, very good whoever it is. You're going to play with the right to play in the National Championship game."