Illinois’ exhibition loss to Baylor came with the kind of chaos that makes preseason basketball feel a little too real. The Illini nearly erased the damage late in Champaign, but the comeback fell short in a 95-91 defeat, and the second half carried enough bite to make the whole thing feel more like a warning flare than a tune-up.
If you want to overreact, there’s plenty to grab onto. Illinois gave up 63 points in the first half alone, and Brad Underwood didn’t sugarcoat what he saw afterward.
“We’ve had games where we made zero scouting report mistakes,” Brad Underwood said in his postgame press conference. “We’re making 20 a half.” He also said the defensive communication was non-existent.
That wasn’t just a scouting issue, either. The on-ball defense was loose, with freshman Lincoln Williams standing out as the one exception in that area.
Baylor’s guards were a problem from the start, and the Bears backed it up with relentless work on the glass. They pulled down 12 offensive rebounds in the first half while Illinois managed 15 total rebounds during that stretch.
By the end of the night, Illinois had fewer defensive rebounds than Baylor had offensive boards, and that meant the Bears were grabbing their own misses 56.4 percent of the time.
That number looks even rougher when you stack it against Illinois’ reputation on the boards. The Illini were No. 3 in offensive rebounding rate in 2025-26 and collected 39.2 percent of their misses last season, but Friday night was a completely different story.
Part of that is Baylor, which deserves credit. The Bears had just beaten preseason No.
1 Florida a few days earlier and look like a preseason top-25 team. They were physical, sharp, and tough on every possession.
Part of it is Illinois’ situation, too. David Mirkovic was out, Andrej Stojakovic left the game, and both Ivisic twins also exited.
By the second half, Illinois was down to fumes, but that didn’t change the fact that the first 20 minutes were ugly. The Illini didn’t just miss assignments; at times, they played with no urgency at all.
The second half looked different. Illinois tightened up, and Baylor scored just 32 points without making a three, after hitting 11 in the first half.
The defensive edge showed up. Williams brought it.
Coleman never backed down from fifth gear. Jason Jakstys threw himself into the fight.
For stretches, the intensity was exactly what Illinois should want out of a team trying to build real habits.
Williams was especially impressive. One sequence summed him up: he picked up full court, jarred the ball loose, and dove on it.
That kind of effort changed the feel of the game. By then, it didn’t look like an exhibition anymore.
Stojakovic, though, was a different story before his injury, and Underwood had no update on that afterward. He finished with 15 points on 4-for-13 shooting, plus six rebounds and four turnovers in 21 minutes.
On paper that can pass for a decent night. In reality, it was rough.
Illinois wants to play fast, and Stojakovic is clearly a major piece of that. His ability to get downhill is a weapon, and he showed against Cincinnati how dangerous he can be when he’s operating with force.
But Friday night also showed the other side of that aggression. Too often, he seemed determined to fire off difficult shots early in the clock without moving the ball, even when the defense collapsed around him.
That’s the adjustment. He should keep attacking, because that part of his game matters.
But once multiple defenders show up, the pass has to come with it. Illinois has too much talent around him for those possessions to end in hurried attempts.
So yes, it was an exhibition. And yes, those games are usually worth very little.
But the way Illinois defended early, then fought back late, made this one feel like more than a box score. It looked like a team that needs to learn fast - and also like one that knows how to answer when things get ugly.
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