CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Illinois is retooling an offense that already ranked among the most efficient in college basketball history, and the next version looks built to move faster, share more and keep chasing the kind of shots the staff calls “gold medal” looks.
Brad Underwood put it plainly: “I think we’re trying to play faster.”
That shift matters because last season’s attack was driven by two elite decision-makers in Kylan Boswell and Keaton Wagler, with Illinois spending much of the year near the top of KenPom thanks in part to a slow, deliberate pace. When possessions tightened, the Illini leaned on late-clock creation and isolation scoring from Wagler and Andrej Stojakovic. Now, with Wagler gone, the coaching staff is trying to cut down on the kind of variance that showed up in several overtime losses.
Tyler Underwood framed the tempo change as a numbers play.
“If there’s a game where you’re favorite to win the game, if you can get more possessions, the odds are in your favor,” Tyler Underwood said. “Versus if you play slower, there’s more risk.”
The tradeoff is obvious: playing quicker can create more chances, but it also demands sharper ball security and quicker reads. Brad Underwood stressed the need to keep that pace without turning it into chaos.
“We need to be able to do that without losing our minds,” Brad Underwood said.
Jake Davis said the payoff should show up on the other end too. If Illinois handles the ball well while pushing the tempo, opponents will have a harder time keeping up.
Rather than replacing Wagler with a single primary handler, Illinois is building around what Brad Underwood called “a lot of quarterbacks.”
Davis said that means the offense won’t revolve around one main organizer the way it did a year ago.
“It’s gonna be kind of a team effort to take the load off of everybody,” Davis said. “It’s gonna be super free flowing, everybody is gonna do what they need to do.”
Andrej Stojakovic has taken on more on-ball responsibility while David Mirkovic works back from a foot injury, but he also emphasized that his value isn’t limited to creating with the ball. He knows he has to stretch defenses and stay dangerous away from it too.
Tyler Underwood pointed to Stojakovic’s growth as a driver as one reason the offense can function differently this season.
“He’s gotten better at driving the basketball and making reads underneath the free-throw line, which is going to take his game to the next level,” Tyler Underwood said.
That kind of downhill pressure only works if the rest of the roster stays connected, moving on and off the ball to keep the defense guessing. Freshman Quentin Coleman said he’s ready to do whatever fits best.
“Whatever Brad, the coaching staff feels like I’m best at and what’s gonna impact winning, that’s what I’m gonna do,” Coleman said.
Illinois is also doubling down on the shot-selection rules that helped drive last season’s efficiency. The staff sorts attempts into gold, silver and bronze categories: gold-medal shots are open layups and open 3s, silver-medal shots are long 2s and semi-contested 3s, and bronze-medal shots are isolation mid-range jumpers, late-clock 3s and tough 2s.
The veterans have lived with that structure in practice, but newcomers like Stefan Vaaks are still learning where the line is between confidence and forcing it.
“I know that I can shoot the ball and I will take some tough ones, and honestly, they sometimes give me the green light which means a lot to me,” Vaaks said. “Even if sometimes I can take a bad shot, they will tell me we can get a better one.”
Tyler Underwood said the shot-chart logic is not meant to be rigid. The freedom a player gets depends on who he is and what kind of shooter he’s proven to be.
“I think the question we’re asking is, you know, who am I? Who are my teammates?”
Tyler Underwood said. “Understanding situations, basketball is a complex game.”
If Illinois can pair that shared playmaking with better pace, cleaner decisions and a steady diet of the best shots available, the offense has a chance to become even more dangerous than it was a season ago.
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