Illinois basketball coach Brad Underwood on Thursday previewed his club’s upcoming exhibition matchup against Baylor. The Illini have already played one exhibition game – a 105-96 win at Cincinnati – and Friday's outing against the Bears (7 p.m. CT, B1G+) will be their second of three (including UIC on Oct. 28). The season officially tips off on Nov. 2 against FDU.
Brad Underwood offers another David Mirkovic recovery update
“It was without [David] Mirkovic,” Underwood said of the Cincinnati exhibition win. “This one will be without Mirk. We’ll continue to monitor his progress. We’ll always err on the side of patience with him in terms of making sure he’s ready for the long haul, and that nothing reoccurs. And so he will not participate in this one.
“He just does what the doctors tell him to do and the trainer tells him to do,” Underwood said. “And in that recovery, he does his little shooting. And he does all of his pool, and most of his conditioning is all done in the training room with them at this point. Yeah, until we get scans and X-rays and doctor’s opinions, that’s where it continues to stand at this point.”
The Illini have exercised great caution when bringing back injured players – and they are clearly taking no chances with their preseason All-American this time around. If we're reading between the lines, though, Mirkovic is trending in the right direction and still seems to have a shot to play in Illinois' opener – or at least by, say, the Illini's first big test of the season, at Texas Tech on Nov. 10.
Is Illinois’ 2026-27 rotation going to be deeper than expected?
“I expect us to be a team that plays a lot of guys throughout the season, but especially in these exhibitions,” Underwood said. “So I wouldn’t expect too much difference, other than we’ll look at a little more combinations than we did in the first game.”
Twelve Illini played at least five minutes against Cincinnati, and nine cracked the double-digit mark. But considering Underwood has said multiple times that he’s taking an NBA preseason approach to his rotation in exhibition games, that doesn’t signal anything for the actual campaign.
That Underwood seems open to a deeper bench "throughout the season,” though, is fairly surprising.
The Illini are, without a doubt, deep. There are easily 10 players who merit regular minutes right now. But considering Underwood’s track record – he often goes just eight deep in the regular season and then maybe only seven deep in the NCAA Tournament – it’ll be interesting to see how he splits up playing time in tightly contested regular-season games.
Brad Underwood details the challenge Baylor’s backcourt will pose
“This is a very, very good guard backcourt,” Underwood said of Baylor’s guards. “They can shoot it. They can drive it. We’ll be a little more focused on the scouting report. We did nothing for Cincy. We’ll see how we handle those things.
“They’re both really good players,” Underwood said of the Mingo brothers. “Kayden hurt us last year at Penn State. He’s terrific. I saw Dylan on the circuit. I think they’ve got others. I think [Brett] Decker’s a proven 17-, 18-point a game scorer at Liberty. Both Mingoes have tremendous midrange [games]. I think that Decker and [Elijah] Williams are guys that can really, really shoot it.”
The Mingo brothers are fantastic. And the Illini can’t seem to get a handle on slowing gifted opposing guards. If Illinois is digging in and scouting for this game (more on that in a moment), then this may be a true test of how the projected defensive stoppers – Quentin Coleman, Andrej Stojakovic and maybe even Ethan Brown – will fare this season.
Will Illinois scout for the Baylor exhibition game?
“We’ll pay a little more attention to it and see if we can get dialed in,” Underwood said of scouting. “And there’s some tape out there on them, so we can get a little better look of what the tendencies are, and then we’ll see if we can adjust and make those strategic-type decisions during the game once we see it.”
After more or less rolling out the ball and letting his squad hoop at Cincinnati, Underwood seems to be tightening his team's approach against Baylor. That means any defensive shortcomings exposed Friday may actually be a worrisome sign.
Illinois’ need for defensive growth
“I’ve always said that the hardest thing to do is build defensive chemistry,” Underwood said. “It’s a side of the floor where you have to have elite communication. Communication’s two-part. You got to speak it, and then you have got to hear it and listen to it.
“When you’re in ball-screen coverages, when you’re in rotations at different times – everybody’s got to be on point speaking it and then hearing it. So we’ll get better at all those things. That’s one of the things that are real challenges with young guys, is understanding that part of it.”
Baylor is going to be an intriguing test for this Illinois defense. The Bears have the personnel to stress the Illini on that end. And this time around Underwood and his staff are prepping their players.
As Underwood explained above, perfection on defense (or otherwise) is an impossible expectation, particularly in October. The season (which hasn’t even begun) is far too young, as is the team. Communication, chemistry, consistency – they all take time.
But if Baylor hits 10-plus threes, hovers around 50 percent from the field and hangs 80-plus on Illinois as a result of a handful of communication and schematic breakdowns, then the Illini, similar to last year, may have a long road ahead before realizing their defensive potential.
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