Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic Are Set to Run It Back at Illinois – What It Means

The key attributes that made the 2025-26 Illinois men’s basketball team historically special – its size, its sweet-shooting bigs and its Balkan flavor – will be back on the menu in Champaign next season.

At Wednesday’s annual Kickin’ Cancer fundraiser hosted by Illini coach Brad Underwood, among others, the club received some of the biggest news possible when 7-foot twin brothers Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic announced they would return to the program in 2026-27. They will join Jake Davis, who also announced at the event, and David Mirkovic, who announced separately earlier Wednesday.

The flurry of declarations ends two weeks of speculation about the future of the program following its outstanding 2026 Final Four run. With only Andrej Stojakovic left to make a decision among the Illini’s remaining core with available eligibility (Keaton Wagler will enter the NBA Draft), Underwood appears poised to make the wait for his second career Final Four a very short one.

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The impact of the Ivisic twins’ return for Illinois

Tomislav Ivisic was the first to arrive at Illinois, in 2024, turning in a fantastic debut college season (he was declared a sophomore by the NCAA) and setting lofty expectations for his 2025-26 follow-up.

He never quite delivered, often seemingly struggling to find a consistent niche in a loaded lineup that would go long stretches without taking advantage of his exceptional combination of scoring and playmaking on the block. Ivisic had his moments this past season (most notably in a win over Northwestern, a narrow regular-season loss to Wisconsin and an NCAA Tournament win over VCU), but his scoring (10.4), assists (1.6) and three-point shooting (31.7 percent) declined sharply. Worse, his rebounding (5.6) did as well.

But any keen basketball observer who has watched Tomislav play over the past two seasons would have agreed that he was a vital part of any Illinois retention efforts. His ability, at 7-foot-1, to do most things well on the floor – particularly…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/tomislav-zvonimir-ivisic-set-run-060933065.html

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Publish date : 2026-04-16 06:09:00

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