3 Illinois Basketball Storylines to Watch vs. Cincinnati

At long last, Illinois basketball has returned, which, Illini Nation surely agrees, couldn’t come at a better time given the school's underwhelming output on the gridiron lately. Illinois' 2026-27 hoops season gets underway with an exhibition matchup at Cincinnati on Saturday (first regular-season game: Nov. 2).

The good news for fans: The Illini are back. The bad news: The game will not be televised. Illinois’ next two exhibition games – versus Baylor and UIC – will both be broadcast on Big Ten Plus, but this Cincinnati game won’t be available. But that won’t stop us from “watching” these three storylines:

3 things we'll learn about Illinois in exhibition vs. Cincinnati

Illinois' crowded freshman minutes battle

Coach Brad Underwood made it clear that Illinois is going deep into its bench on Saturday (as all teams tend to do in exhibition games). It would be a mild shock if every Illini player didn’t enter the game at some point.

So we’re going to get a glimpse – or perhaps a long look – at every freshman on the Illinois roster. But who is the first one off the bench? It’s an exhibition game, so the answer only carries so much weight, but it will offer a general idea. It could honestly be any of them, but we’ll go with Ethan Brown.

Are the Illini actually going to play faster?

Coaches and players alike have talked about Illinois turning up the tempo in 2026-27. Underwood-helmed teams have always played fast. But the Illini were slow-dancing all year long in 2025-26. Keaton Wagler is gone, though, and supposedly that slower-paced attack has vanished with him.

Quentin Coleman can go, Stefan Vaaks played on an up-tempo team last season at Providence, Andrej Stojakovic likes to push the ball in the open floor, Zvonimir Ivisic has the tools to be a superb rim runner. All the pieces of the puzzle are there.

But given the effectiveness of the Illini offense in the halfcourt, it seems like Underwood may be reluctant to simply turn his guys loose. We’ll get our first opportunity to see what it looks like on Saturday (as much as that's possible, given that the box score figures to be our best friend).

Stefan Vaaks

So many questions surround Vaaks. His strengths and weaknesses are fairly straightforward, but his fit is intriguing. He has more or less all the abilities – many of which are near the top end of the chart – of a typical Illini star, but how will he mesh with this unit?

Vaaks is a scorer, first and foremost. He likes to get buckets. In the same way that Stojakovic came to Illinois last year and was prone, at least at times, to forcing questionable shots, Vaaks may be on the same trajectory.

You can't just tell an elite scorer to “make the right decision" and expect instant results. In the past, on less talented teams, the best decision has often been for Vaaks to look off an open teammate for a contested shot of his own.

An off-the-bounce triple for Vaaks probably was a more efficient shot than hitting an open teammate in the corner. (He led the Big East in three-point percentage in 2025-26.) That won't be the case this season, though.

How quickly will those habits be worked out of his game? Will they be smoothed out at all? Also, can Vaaks defend and rebound – and, more aptly, is he willing to? None of those questions will have a conclusive answer after Saturday, but the Cincinnati game will give us an inkling of what’s to come.

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