Illinois basketball blows past Penn in NCAA Tournament opener, sets up clash with VCU

Illinois basketball blows past Penn in NCAA Tournament opener, sets up clash with VCU originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball team remains one of seven Big Ten teams to advance to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament, routing the Penn Quakers 105-70 Thursday night in Greenville, South Carolina.

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The Illini (25-8) nearly led the entire way through against a Quakers (18-12) team that was overhauled by coach Fran McCaffery following a successful 15-year stint with the Iowa Hawkeyes. But the opening round belonged to Illinois, led by forward David Mirković’s 29 points, 17 rebounds and three assists in one of the best games of his collegiate career, if not the best.

“David had a historic night by setting an Illinois rebounding record in the NCAA Tournament and became the second Illini to notch 20+ points and 15+ rebounds in an NCAA Tournament game,” the Illinois men’s basketball “X” account wrote.

Illinois led by as many as 40, 102-62, with a little over two minutes left after playing a suffocating blitz of high-octane offense and not letting the Quakers get comfortable from the perimeter after finding early success in the opening half.

Overall, coach Brad Underwood was pleased with his team, one which, in his words, lacked “nastiness” following a Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal 91-88 overtime loss to the Wisconsin Badgers this past Friday in Chicago.

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More specifically, Underwood said center Tomislav Ivišić, who finished the game with 12 points and was a huge physical presence on the offensive side of the ball.

MORE: March Madness 2026: How many NCAA tournament brackets remain perfect?

“Tomi can score down there,” Underwood told reporters. “It’s something we do, we don’t do it frequently, but we do it when we feel we’ve got matchup opportunities… What he brings to our team is more than just on a stat sheet.”

The focus will now quickly shift…

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Publish date : 2026-03-20 06:05:00

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