The offseason is always a wild ride, as the Illinois basketball team has lost another player to the transfer portal.
The first domino to officially drop for the Illini was point guard Mihailo Petrovic. I would have loved to have seen him play for the Orange and Blue, but he bolted after one season of limited playing time. His 19 games didn’t give us a full sample size.
While Petrovic played in 19 games, Illinois also had another transfer portal departure on Saturday, who said, “19 games? Hold my beer.”
Verbal Commits social media first reported the news that Illinois is losing Toni Bilic to the transfer portal.
Illinois F Toni Bilić has entered the transfer portal. https://t.co/vCGUnnw9pf
— Verbal Commits (@VerbalCommits) April 11, 2026
Who is that, you may ask? That is an understandable question. Back on December 14, Bilic joined the Illini program mid-season.
This was an interesting addition, and many thought that Bilic could be a nice contributor to the Illinois basketball program in 2026-27. Well, that seems not to be the case anymore.
Bilic never saw the court for the Orange and Blue. In fact, he didn’t even make it a full four months with the program before hitting the transfer portal.
The Toni Bilic transfer portal departure doesn’t hurt Illinois basketball in the least bit
When it comes to the transfer portal, there are plenty of players who could depart and hurt the roster. This isn’t one of those.
Losing Bilic is nothing for Brad Underwood. You can’t hurt the team if you have never played for the team. In fact, the only thing Bilic did to the Illini was cost us in travel expenses, and I am sure we had a jersey made with his last name on it.
That is literally the extent of the Bilic impact. Illinois isn’t going to miss a beat with him out of the picture. Actually, it opens up another roster spot. This is the rare occasion when I am okay with the transfer portal taking a player. Good luck in the future, Toni Bilic.