The Selection Sunday show blared through the speakers at Ubben Basketball Complex in Champaign on Sunday afternoon, as players, coaches, staffers and media earnestly awaited where Illinois would fall in the 2026 March Madness bracket. The cheers were heard loudly when the Illini received a No. 3 seed, but even with the team being labeled as one of the top-12 contenders in the bracket, they knew they could have been higher.
Illinois quickly reached 20 wins this season, but a concerning end to the year has left the team in a unique position. The Illini lost five of their last nine games, which contained four overtime losses to tournament teams, including blowing a 15-point lead to Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament on Friday. They are talented enough to contend for a national championship, but a lack of consistent focus and full 40 minutes of intensity has been an Achilles heel.
It’s been a frustrating last few weeks, with the Wisconsin loss being the cherry on top. However, that baggage cannot be carried around if the Illini hope to move forward and achieve their ultimate goal: a national championship. Senior guard Kylan Boswell wanted his teammates to be able to move forward, so he set up a players-only meeting on Saturday after freshman forward David Mirković brought up the idea on the team’s ride back to Champaign on Friday.
“I had everybody come over to my crib,” Boswell said. “Texted them to come over. And it wasn’t even about like the Wisconsin loss. It was just more just get on the same page, our mentality, whatever frustrations we had, any thoughts we had about anything throughout the year, things we want to express. Just lay it all out and make sure that we’re all on the same page. So when we come here (Sunday), we have our main focus on one goal and let’s try to get to a national championship.”
Serious conversations were had, but the meeting was mainly focused on getting Illinois mentally back in a good place. Pizza from PapaDel’s and chicken wings from Buffalo Wild Wings were ordered, and whatever happened behind those closed doors left the team with one collective goal: leave it all on the court for 40 minutes so you can say that you gave it all you had.
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No regrets – that’s what Boswell wants when his senior season comes to an end. He’s been to four straight NCAA tournaments, but this one means more as a starting point guard and clear leader of a contending team. Setting up the meeting was just an example – he’s willing to do anything and everything it takes to bring his hometown team postseason glory.
“Sometimes even last year when I was a leader for this team, you get a little timid, but this is my senior year,” Boswell said. “I don’t care anymore about anything other than us winning and us being our best. And at the end of the day, I don’t want to be out of college and thinking like I should have got everybody together and had to talk. But I think that helps us become a better version of ourselves … We all left my crib feeling great.”
Head coach Brad Underwood had not heard about the meeting, but he was glad that it happened. After the Wisconsin loss, he told reporters to ask the players why there wasn’t a consistent effort across a full game. He was happy to see his team holding each other accountable and trying to figure things out.
“That’s what leaders do,” Underwood said. “That’s what people do, and that’s what character is about. This group’s really close, and I think that they know all their goals are in front of them. You know, it’s right there for us to take, you know, one game at a time, and you don’t look past anybody.”
When told that Mirković was the first one to bring up the idea of meeting as a team, Underwood was not surprised. It’s part of the reason Mirković has had such a successful freshman year. This year’s team is veteran-heavy and has multiple guys who know what goes into winning. However, Mirković is right up there in terms of having a winning mentality. He bleeds the orange and blue, and that’s the kind of quality that Illinois needs out of all its players as it fights to extend its season.
“His competitive fire burns – it hurts him,” Underwood said. “We’ve all grown up in locker rooms, or I did, when you lost there were tears and there were holes in the wall … (United States) culture is not quite wired that way … (Europe) is. After meeting his mom, I know where he gets that fire and that burn, but it means a great, great deal to him. So that shows great, great maturity and composure and dedication to what we’re trying to do.”
Illinois will begin its NCAA tournament campaign on Thursday in Greenville, South Carolina, against No. 14 Penn. On paper, it’s a relatively standard game that Illinois should win, but especially in tournament season, you never know what can happen. In ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, the most popular No. 14 upset of a No. 3, chosen by fans, is Penn beating Illinois. Taking care of business is the first priority, and a game-by-game focus is important to make that happen.
“Just going 1-0,” Boswell said. “We don’t want to leave this season. This is the last time this group of guys will ever get to play together. All of us have to go different routes, different ways. We want to leave the season without any regrets or anything that we feel like we left behind or left on the court.”
Boswell and the returning core from last year’s team know what to expect from March Madness. The intensity, the pressure, the excitement and the gut-wrenching feeling of losing and the season coming to an abrupt end.
But, for junior wing Andrej Stojaković and freshman guard Keaton Wagler, this is their first go-around in the Big Dance. The rest of the team is making sure they understand the urgency that comes along with the last and biggest opportunity of the season.
“Every game can be our last,” said junior center Tomislav Ivišić. “Just need 100% from everybody … we need to dive on every ball, fight for each possession, take every game seriously, and only like that we can hope to win … and keep winning.”
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