Illinois bet big on recruiting Europe. It just paid off with a Final Four

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HOUSTON — As Illinois cut down the nets Saturday night after making the Final Four, twins Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic and their teammate David Mirkovic scooted around the Illini bench to hug a tall man wearing a white collared shirt who had watched from one of the first rows in the team’s section.

The man was Drazen Zlovaric, their Serbian-born agent, who told The Athletic last spring that in the next year or two, a college basketball team was going to win a national championship with a European star or two leading the way.

Turns out, it might be a team with four.

The Illini, half of whose rotation is of Southeastern European descent, overwhelmed Iowa with size and skill in a 71-59 win Saturday at the Toyota Center that has coach Brad Underwood headed to his first Final Four and the program’s first since 2005. Illinois, the No. 3 seed in the South, ended the surprising run of Big Ten counterpart and ninth-seeded Iowa (24-13), taking control of the game in the second half after trailing by four at the break. It was Illinois’ (28-8) fourth consecutive win by double digits in this NCAA Tournament, putting the team just two wins from delivering the program’s first national championship.

“It’s been 21 years for the Illini, but finally, the road will take them to Indianapolis. Illinois is going to the Final Four!” pic.twitter.com/FZb8Xj2NQJ

— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 29, 2026

The origins of this Final Four run started in July 2023, when former Illini assistant Chin Coleman was sent a YouTube video of what looked like a basketball unicorn. In the clips, Zvonimir Ivisic, at the time a 19-year-old Croatian prospect, was bringing the ball up the floor, shooting fadeaway 3-pointers and throwing down some nasty dunks. And he was doing all this at 7-foot-2.

Orlando Antigua, Coleman’s colleague, who had left Illinois with him for Kentucky two years earlier, had ties throughout Europe from his seven years as a Harlem Globetrotter. Antigua got in contact with Zlovaric and made a pitch to bring the kid they called “Big Z” to Lexington.

At the time, college basketball was not an option for players from that region, known as the Balkans. Big Z changed the game. By next season, Zlovaric and his boss, Miško Ražnatović, will likely represent 100-plus college basketball players amid an international boom in the sport that coincides with college athletes’ ability to make money.

In 2024, when John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas, Underwood had an opening on his Illinois staff. Antigua decided to return, and one of the first things Underwood told him was, “we’re doing things a little different than when you were here the first time.”

Mainly, Underwood had decided to lean into positional size and skill. He’d loved coaching the 2023-24 Illini team that made the Elite Eight and featured 6-foot-10 Coleman Hawkins, who made 43 3s that year, at center. But when Illinois was eliminated that year, getting blitzed 77-52 by eventual national champion UConn, it was dominated in the paint and on the boards.

“We want a five-man who can shoot,” Underwood told Antigua. But not a Hawkins replica. Preferably one with some girth.

“I got him,” Antigua said.

After getting wowed by the Big Z clips, Antigua started watching full games and developed an appreciation for Big Z’s brother, Tomislav, making a mental note in his head that he thought the other Ivisic would be perfect in the Big Ten as a center who could shoot, own the paint, defend and rebound.

Tomislav wanted to follow his brother to America, and he had a successful first season last year, helping Illinois reach the second round.

Then, the floodgates opened.

Illinois went after Mirkovic, a 6-foot-9 Montenegrin and former teammate of the twins, and Serbian point guard Mihailo Petrovic. Andrej Stojakovic, the son of former Sacramento Kings All-Star Peja Stojakovic, became an Illini target in the transfer portal because Underwood wanted a big wing with some downhill force.

The final piece came from closer to home. Petrovic was the original plan at point guard, but that changed last summer when 6-foot-6 Keaton Wagler arrived on campus from Shawnee, Kan.

“I was like, ‘Wow,’” Zvonimir Ivisic said. “Why is nobody talking about this kid? Nobody was talking about him until he came here. We could tell he was special.”

Victor Williams, a former point guard at Oklahoma State who got to know Underwood when he coached the Cowboys, told the Illini coach and his son Tyler about Wagler, and Tyler Underwood fell in love with him on tape. Wagler was mostly unknown at the time. He played for Williams’ grassroots program in Kansas City, which was not affiliated with a shoe brand, and he’d only received interest from mid-major schools.

Wagler became the first American-born player Brad Underwood had ever offered without watching live in his 20 years as a head coach. Wagler could soon become the Illini’s first top-10 pick since Deron Williams led their last Final Four team in 2005. Underwood told the story on Saturday of the first time he went to watch Wagler play last January in a tournament in Quincy, Ill. The night before, Wagler scored 32, but, with Underwood in attendance, he scored only two.

“I walked out and I couldn’t wait to get my son on the phone,” Underwood said. “And I said, ‘We just got an incredible talent.’ They blitzed him, they got it out of his hands and he made every right play. He was not selfish. He was not a pig. He wasn’t trying to force things. He just let the game come to him.”

On Saturday, Underwood watched with pride as his vision for how he wanted to play and trust in his staff’s evaluation instincts played out perfectly.

Two years after getting punked in the Elite Eight by UConn, the Illini overwhelmed with their size and strength, outscoring the Hawkeyes 40-12 in the paint and out-rebounding them 38-21.

Illinois shot only 17 3s — its second-fewest attempts all season — and that was a result of Iowa’s respect for the shooting Underwood can put on the floor. The Hawkeyes stayed home on shooters, and eventually Illinois figured out the solutions were to throw the ball into the post to Tomislav Ivisic and Mirkovic or to get Wagler and Stojakovic driving.

“We just wanted to pound them at the rim, pound them at the rim,” said Tyler Underwood, who coordinates Illinois’ offense. “Try to win it with our physicality and size.”

Wagler had some incredible finishes at the basket, including an and-1 long lefty scoop off the glass, and a dribble move that had his defender nearly lose his balance while Wagler backed up and nailed a 3. He finished with a game-high 25 points and Most Outstanding Player honors of the South Regional.

brb gonna watch this Keaton Wagler stepback for a while pic.twitter.com/vptIQOJ1kj

— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 28, 2026

Not bad for a player who arrived in Champaign last summer just hoping he’d make the rotation.

“Never in my wildest dreams,” his dad, Logan, said afterward.

The Illini took off this season in December when, following a loss to UConn, Underwood moved Wagler from shooting guard to point guard. Wagler has embraced more of a scoring role since, but still allows the game to come to him and plays unselfish, which permeates through the entire roster.

Stojakovic is another example of that. He went from starter to sixth man when he returned from a high ankle sprain in mid-February, and he saved the Illini on Saturday when they got behind 12-2. He scored two quick buckets during a 9-0 run and finished with an efficient 17 points on only nine shots.

The Illini looked to Mirkovic, who went 1-of-6 in the first half, early in the second when he had shorter players matched up on him. Mirkovic scored 7 of his 9 points after halftime and made his biggest impact on the glass with 12 rebounds.

Then the Ivisic brothers helped the Illini pull away, with Tomislav scoring the first two baskets of a late 9-1 run that was capped by a vicious alley-oop dunk from Big Z. Up until then, the game included 13 lead changes and seven ties, but eventually the Hawkeyes just couldn’t deal with all of that size.

“Everyone doubted us, everyone said that we are soft, slow, unathletic,” Mirkovic said, while wearing a cowboy hat he bought recently off Amazon. “We just believed and we knew that this moment is going to come.”

Underwood couldn’t quit smiling as he worked his way throughout the arena afterward. The 62-year-old coached for 26 years before he got his shot as a Division I coach, and no one else in college basketball has bet on recruiting overseas as strongly as the Illini have.

Andrej Stojakovic, son of former NBA All-Star Peja, scored 17 points off the bench Saturday. (Kenneth Richmond / Getty Images)

One of Underwood’s greatest strengths has been his ability to adapt. He used to run a pinch-post offense built around motion, and these days the Illini play a more matchup-hunting, pro-style attack. He has won with true low-post bigs and now stretch 5s. He used to play super aggressive, denial defenses, and now, the Illini do not force many turnovers and barely ever foul.

What’s always remained with Underwood’s teams is a grit and toughness that his international guys exude.

“They’re not afraid of the fight,” Underwood said. “They’re not afraid of the work. The makeup of what they’ve been through is different than American kids. I don’t mean that in a bad way. They’re empowered differently. They’re not entitled as much.

“There’s been total buy-in. Winning’s more important to them, and the name on the front than the name on the back, and they know if we win, all that stuff will eventually take care of itself.”

Proof of that is Big Z, who was never originally part of the plans. Underwood and Antigua figured he’d be in the NBA by now, but last spring he went into the transfer portal, and once they got Tomislav’s permission, they went after his twin to be their backup center. Anywhere else he landed, he likely would have been a starter.

“Man, I really don’t care about that s—,” he said. “(Stojakovic) didn’t start either, and he was the best player on the court today.”

He said he had no idea who sent his video to Coleman three years ago.

“But whoever did it, thank you,” he said. “This is special, man. We still haven’t grasped what we just did.”

The one man who predicted it will travel to Indianapolis next week to meet with coaches about the next players he plans to bring over.

“Me as an agent and my boss Miško (Ražnatović), this was a dream to put together a group of guys on one team and just let them do their thing,” Zlovaric said. “Fortunately, Coach Underwood has recognized that and really went in with full faith.”

And the rest of the Illini have followed.

A few minutes after the Ivisics and Mirkovic left Zlovaric, Jake Davis made his way over to the agent. Davis, a forward from McCordsville, Ind., is roommates with Tomislav, who asked Zlovaric recently if he could represent Davis, too. Davis is his first American-born client.

“Let’s go,” Davis shouted to his agent as he gave him a hug.

Only he didn’t say it in English; he said it in Serbian.