The Illinois basketball team has returned to the Final 4 for the first time in 21 years.
Children born in the months leading up to that Final 4 run by the Illini can celebrate this victory with a drink at Red Lion.
Illinois is only two years removed from an Elite 8 run, but despite the proximity, the two squads are extraordinarily different.
The 2025-26 Illinois basketball team has a true freshman for their nominal superstar, while the 2023-24 squad relied on a super senior supernova.
“Booty Ball” was the name of the game two seasons ago. This year, it’s all about three-point shooting and mismatch exploitation.
Two years ago, Tim Anderson and Chester Frazier’s recruiting and stylistic handprints were all over the roster that fell to Connecticut and their gargantuan problem/problem solver, Donovan Clingan.
This year, Orlando Antigua, Geoff Alexander, and Tyler Underwood have defined what this team is, and Brad Underwood has taken that definition to its logical end.
Now, only two more games stand in the way of Illinois cutting the down the season’s final set of nets
To be clear, Iowa was on a massive heater in terms of beating teams they were not expected to beat. Alvaro Folgueiras had been living up to his billing as a top transfer prospect. Bennett Stirtz is a “put a team on his back and make a deep run” sort of veteran superstar. Iowa was certainly not a pushover opponent.
However, Illinois’ roster was constructed by this staff for this moment. The phrase “built for this” takes on a whole new meaning with this crew.
So let’s briefly break down how the roster got here through the eyes of the gentlemen who architected this house.
Orlando Antigua - The most interesting man in the world
During Antigua’s first tenure at Illinois, his reputation preceded him. He was the star assistant with head coaching experience who had recruited and coached some of the best big men of the past two decades.
Antigua brought a track record of deep relationships with high school and AAU coaches throughout the nation, specifically those regionally congruent to his native South Bronx. His international playing and coaching history also came with rare, substantial ties to Latin America and the Caribbean.
He came back armed with even more connections. The guy who warrants standing ovations at AAU tournaments is now connected to the top levels of European basketball. Antigua's ties to coaches and agents, in addition to his prowess as both a calming influence and an elite teacher, earn him one of the most lucrative assistant coaching paychecks in the nation.
His relationship with the Ivisic twins - Tomislav and Zvonimir - brought Illinois two seven-foot snipers who can stretch the floor. Tomislav’s ability to function as a secondary facilitator in addition to Zvonimir’s ability to block shots at an elite clip are invaluable to the Illini attack.
And while Brandon Lee will, hopefully, have multiple years to parlay his lifelong relationship with Antigua into success in Champaign, David Mirkovic has been a revelation. Whether he’s compared to Draymond Green or Nikola Jokic, he does everything Illinois asks of him. He’s a better shooter than expected, and his leadership intangibles belie his precocious youth.
Antigua also recruited the first five-star player Illinois signed in over a decade: Will Riley.
Speaking of former prep giants, it was Antigua's relationship with Andrej Stojakovic from his Kentucky days that made Illinois a real possibility for the west coast native.
Think about the players on whom Illinois missed/ended pursuit.
Would Illinois have been better with Dame Sarr?
Would Jaylin Sellers’ explosiveness have been a valuable asset?
We’ll never know. But the notion that Illinois waited out the offseason because they had a strong suspicion that Stojakovic was potentially entering the portal had to come from somewhere. Perhaps it came from the ex-Harlem Globetrotter on the coaching staff.
Antigua’s gravitas in coaching circles gives Illinois’ staff additional gravitas. With young staffers like Zach Hamer, Kwa Jones, Tyler Underwood, and Cam Crocker, Antigua’s a Godfather-level figure. Part avuncular big brother, part basketball lifer with a world map on his face.
Geoff Alexander - The future head coach
Speaking of basketball lifers, Geoff Alexander comes from a prominent Illinois coaching family. He served as Brad Underwood’s assistant and was elevated to assistant coach after the assistant coach exodus of 2022.
Alexander's basketball knowledge and acumen are unassailable. He coached big men when Frazier and Anderson were on staff. He works more with wings and guards now that Antigua is back. He helped bring multiple international players to Illinois, including Niccolo Moretti and Zacharie Perrin.
He was also the primary recruiter on one-and-done first round pick Kasparas Jakucionis. Alexander's tandem with Antigua has made Illinois a modern version of Gonzaga in terms of incorporating high-end international talent. His Adriatic League connections helped Illinois land both Mihailo Petrovic and Mirkovic.
Alexander helped draft the Balkan Blueprint that has redefined the talent acquisition infrastructure in Champaign. And that blueprint is a massive reason Illini fans are dancing on Green Street in celebration of their first trip to the Final 4 since Dee Brown led the one-man fastbreak.
Tyler Underwood - The forward thinker
Booty ball worked great. Marcus Domask was excellent in that role. Having Terrence Shannon Jr. obviously opened up the floor for Illinois’ other players to move freely.
That Illinois squad scored a lot of points.
They never reached the heights of the top Offensive Efficiency Rating (OER) of the KenPom era.
But Underwood’s 2025-26 offense did.
Think back to last season and how maligned the head man’s son was. He and Zach Hamer were easy scapegoats for a fan base hungry for improvement. They were unprepared for the stage.
So all Underwood did was reimagine the Illini offense as a mismatch-hunting assassin squad that loads up on open threes and shots at the rim.
He was also the primary recruiter on some kid from Kansas named Keaton Wagler. You may have heard of him. He’s the true freshman who just won the Most Outstanding Player of the South Regional. This came after he was named a Second-Team All-American.
When a coach this young has a philosophy so effective and the ability to find players who fit the scheme perfectly, that’s a powerful weapon in an evolving program.
The nepo hire talk was dramatically overstated. He’s a skilled, thoughtful, creative basketball mind. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
Brad Underwood - The lifelong grinder who is thriving in his dream job
Both Brad Underwood and Alexander have significant roots at Western Illinois University. Coaching in the state, Underwood developed massive respect and admiration for the University of Illinois.
Illinois was his dream job.
He landed the role of his life after just one season as a power conference head coach.
He rebuilt the program.
He shifted directions multiple times.
He has consistently made fools out of people who said he was incapable of adjustments.
And now, he has taken his frequently attacked Illini squad to the Final 4. Champaign wishes and Urbana dreams, for those of you who remember Robin Leach.
His ability to adjust year-over-year resulted in this roster, constructed to win with offensive skill and elite positional size.
It has resulted in his ability to make in-season adjustments, like inserting Jake Davis into the starting lineup and utilizing downhill weapon Stojakovic off the bench.
It has resulted in his ability to make in-game adjustments like the ones that led to better defense against Stirtz and shifting from a three-point centered attack to beating the Hawkeyes at the rim.
This program was never meant to be any one thing. It has been a fluid exercise in doing what's right in the moment and what makes the most sense.
It went from being AAU/prep recruiting-driven to transfer portal-centric to the current status, an international conglomerate of big, skilled, fearless Balkans.
In a world where Arizona, Duke, UConn, and Michigan have been the presumed top tier of the sport, Illinois has made itself relevant to the broader college hoops discussion. It will bring Underwood's brilliance to a broader audience and make prospective players stand up and take notice.
You can come to Illinois and immediately compete for championships. And in an era of NIL with Josh Whitman's statesmanship as the foundation of the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, the Underwood era and its success are just beginning their ascent.