Over the years, Brad Underwood has transformed Illinois basketball into a three-point shooting program.
That doesn’t mean we can make them, though. The Illini is a three-point shooting team, but we aren’t a good one, or at least we weren’t last season.
For the 2024-25 campaign, Illinois attempted 30.1 three-pointers per game, which ranked No. 5 in the country. These numbers skyrocketed compared the prior four years. Back in 2020-21, Illinois was only attempting 17.6 three-pointers per game, which ranked No. 310 in the nation.
The following three seasons after that 2020-21 campaign, Illinois attempted 24.9, 24.7, and 23.9 three-point attempts, respectively. All three seasons ranked inside the top 100 nationally.
Underwood clearly has a style of basketball he wants to play, and to think he is going to change his stripes is a bit misguided. While I don’t expect Illinois to attempt north of 30 three-pointers per game again, I do fully expect us to be in the top 50 in the country in attempts. But who is making those attempts?
The bad part for the Illini last season wasn’t taking 30.1 three-pointers per game, it was only making them at a clip of 31.3%, which ranked No. 305 in the country.
A bright spot about Illinois’ three-point shooting is that we are returning our best snipers. Tomislav Ivisic led the team at 35.7%. Jake Davis and Ben Humrichous shot 34.4% and 34.3%, respectively. All three are back on the roster
Illinois is going to need to see a bump up from Kylan Boswell. I think he is the elephant in the room right now. Shooting 24.5% while attempting 143 three-pointers last season is a brutal number, and I am sure he would admit that. If Illinois can get Boswell around 32-34% and Humrichous around 36%, we will be a dangerous team.
The new kids on the block aren’t bringing Illinois basketball a ton of 3-point production
Natural improvement should help Illinois’ three-point shooting next season. Boswell is a career 33.2% three-point shooter, so his 24.5% was a bit of an outlier. He is going to need to come up big for the Illini because I don’t think we are going to get a lot of three-point shooting from the newcomers.
Illinois has six new faces coming into the program. I am eyeing the two transfer portal additions as the biggest help in the three-point department.
Tomislav Ivisic’s brother, Zvonimir, shot 37.6% from three-point range with Arkansas last season. Much like his brother, he can stretch the floor and pull his man out to the three-point arc. I see a combination of Tomislav and Zvonimir being a headache for opposing teams.
My hope is that Andrej Stojakovic catches a bit of a his dad’s three-point shooting. He only shot 31.8% from distance last season, and it would be nice if that number was 33% or better.
Honestly, those are the two big hopes when it comes to newcomers affecting the three-point arc. Illinois’ two overseas additions in David Mirkovic and Mihailo Petrovic shot 28.1% and 33.3% last season, respectively. Petrovic is going to be more of a point guard in Illinois’ system, though.
When it comes to the two freshmen Illinois has coming in, unless you are one of the top players in the country, usually Underwood doesn’t play you a ton of minutes. So, while Keaton Wagler shot 44.8% from three-point range last season, he probably won’t get a ton of action on the court.
At the end of the day, I think the main three-point production is going to have to come from incumbent players. We are going to need to see improvement from within the program. Boswell is the key to Illinois’ increased three-point production. If we can get him up about 8-10% and then Humrichous a couple of percentage points, then Illinois will be clicking.