It wasn’t pretty, but the Illinois basketball team ended the 2025-26 regular season on a high note.
This was a much closer game than any Illini fan wanted on Sunday afternoon. Maryland threw everything they had at us on senior night, but thankfully, Illinois has too much firepower.
The first half of the game was concerning. Illinois wasn’t playing defense, and Maryland took advantage. They kept with us throughout much of the game, too. If a couple of their shots had fallen at the end of the game, this could have easily been a bad loss on our resume.
Illinois did what had to be done. We went on the road in the Big Ten and notched win No. 24 on the season with a 78-72 victory over Maryland.
Here are five nervous observations from the Illinois basketball win over Maryland
1. David Mirkovic is carrying the Illini right now
I have never seen anything like it, and I am not sure when the next time we will see two freshmen carry the Illinois basketball program to a top-two seed in the NCAA tournament.
Keaton Wagler is going to win the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, but David Mirkovic isn’t going down without a fight. He has been a huge asset to this program this season, and he is hitting his stride at exactly the right time.
Mirkovic was all over the court against Maryland. He was aggressive pulling down rebounds. He was bodying up his man on defense. I loved the intensity he plays with when going to the hoop. Instead of fearing contact, he welcomes it.
Illinois would have fallen to the Terrapins if it weren’t for Mirkovic. He finished the game with 22 points, 11 rebounds, and three assists while shooting 9-of-13 from the floor. It was an incredible performance.
2. Despite offensive struggles, Keaton Wagler helps Illinois in all areas
Illinois’ freshmen aren’t me-guys. They are players who are unselfish and want what is best for the team. That is rare in today’s game.
A perfect example of this is Wagler. He hasn’t played well on the offensive end of the court recently, but he still affects the game in a positive way with his all-around great play.
Wagler had a quiet 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field and missed all four of his three-point attempts. That didn’t get this freshman down, though. Wagler was still one of the most important players on the court.
An element of Wagler’s game that impressed me the most against Maryland was his defense. There were multiple occasions when Wagler was able to read the Terrapins’ offense and was able to get a steal. He had a team-high three steals in the game.
I love the fact that Wagler orchestrates the offense, too. He is someone who has command of the Illini, and that is a rare trait for a freshman. While Wagler wasn’t good offensively, he is still a huge part of this team. Some of the things he does on the court go unnoticed.
3. Illinois needs Tomislav Ivisic to snap out of his funk
There are multiple Illinois players who are extremely frustrating right now. I mentioned in an article this weekend that Illinois needed Tomislav Ivisic to start playing better for us to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament.
The first game after that article, Ivisic comes out and lays an egg. He doesn’t look right, and we need him to desperately get out of this funk he has been in for most of the season.
Ivisic only logged 19 minutes against Maryland, so Brad Underwood clearly sees that he is struggling with something. Only giving Illinois four points, four rebounds, and three assists in that time is something we can’t have moving forward, or we will struggle the rest of the way out.
Over the past three games, Ivisic has a total of 13 points and 16 rebounds. He is just 5-of-19 from the field and 1-of-12 from three-point range.
I don’t know what needs to change, but Ivisic has had his powers taken away. He is a shell of himself right now, and if Illinois can find his magic again in the next week or so, this team could make a deep run in March.
4. The Illini defensive effort was much better in the second half
It was pretty frustrating watching the Illinois defense in the first half against Maryland. We weren’t playing well, and the laziness was enabling the Terrapins to hit shots from everywhere on the floor.
In the first 20 minutes of action, Maryland dropped 34 points and shot 52% from the field and 38.5% from three-point range. That is above their season average, and it had everything to do with Illinois’ lack of defense.
The Illini played zone defense to start the game, but it wasn’t sound defense. Players would be in no-man’s land, and this would leave a wide-open three-point attempt for the Terrapins.
Illinois’ communication was terrible, too. We weren’t communicating on screens and switches, which enabled Maryland to hit open shots.
The second half was a different story, though. Whatever was said at halftime resonated with the team.
Illinois came out in the final 20 minutes with more energy. The shots that Maryland was hitting were just good shots, rather than wide-open practice shots. This resulted in Maryland only shooting 41.9% from the floor and 23.5% from three-point range.
This game wasn’t easy, but Illinois tightened things up defensively in the second half. If we played defense in the second half as we did in the first half, this would have been a loss.
5. Illinois can’t afford to shoot that badly from three-point range in March
There is something off with Illinois’ offense right now. I know that we are technically the most efficient offense in the country, but the Illini have something going on when it comes to making buckets.
Illinois once again had a bad shooting game. We were not good from three-point range, as the Orange and Blue shot just 20.8% from deep.
This is the second game in a row that Illinois has shot sub-30% from three-point range. We haven’t shot above 31% from deep in the last four games. There are some serious issues to be looked at as we move into the Big Ten Tournament.
There are a few reasons behind the bad three-point shooting. Illinois’ bench can usually make shots, but they were 2-of-11 against Maryland. Wagler has been reliable this season, but he was 0-of-4 from deep. And then you have someone like Ivisic, who can’t seem to make a bucket no matter how open he is.
I think there needs to be a big offensive change in what we are doing on the perimeter. I am not sure what the change needs to be, but Illinois isn’t going to go far in March shooting 5-of-24 from three-point range, as we did against Maryland. That is unacceptable.