Brad Underwood Pinpoints the Reason Illinois Recruited David Mirkovic

In the past week, there may not have been another player in college basketball who received more attention than Illinois freshman Keaton Wagler. Because of that, the Illini’s other stud freshman – forward David Mirkovic – probably hasn’t been receiving his due share of praise.

Mirkovic, a 6-foot-9 big man from Montenegro, had 12 points and eight rebounds at Purdue, and then followed that with 19 points and six rebounds against Washington. His stat line on the season: an admirable 12.5 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists. It's also worth noting that he’s shooting an exceptional 37.5 percent from three-point range on 1.4 makes per game.

Illinois freshman David Mirkovic against Washington:

31 MIN
19 PTS
6 REB
1 AST
7-15 FG
3-8 3PT
2-3 FT

Is Mirkovic one of the more underrated freshmen in this amazing class?? 🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/N8szVSBNri
— MBB Performances (@mbbperformances) January 30, 2026

Heading into the season, Illinois was expected to rely heavily on the experienced trio of Kylan Boswell, Tomislav Ivisic and Cal transfer Andrej Stojakovic. That has been the case – at least from time to time.

But few anticipated Wagler and Mirkovic being such integral pieces for the Illini. Coach Brad Underwood, however, is one of the few who hasn't been surprised – at least not in the case of Mirkovic.

Illinois' Brad Underwood knew David Mirkovic was college-ready

“I saw a lot of film on him,” Underwood said of Mirkovic. “I was pretty, pretty bought into him pretty early. The competition level he played against, his skill set, his competitive spirit was really high. His physicality was really high. So, I felt, just from a physical standpoint, he was going to be able to play and contribute right away. Tyler [Underwood] and our coaches have done a nice job with him in terms of just developing his skill set [and] put him in situations that we use to be successful.”

Seemingly, Underwood knew exactly what he was getting in Mirkovic. His versatility and dynamic skill set had a lot of appeal to the Illini because he fit the bill of the perfect complement to the established Ivisic.

“That’s the whole reason – yeah, it’s the whole reason we recruited him,” Underwood said of Mirkovic’s versatility. “We needed the counter to Tomi – and he was that. Big, strong, physical, very, very skilled, [and] still had the one quality we wanted: shooting. But his playmaking and passing was a huge piece of that. And then his rebounding. He’s always been an elite rebounder. So that was a huge piece of it.”

To say the Ivisic-Mirkovic frontcourt has worked like a charm would be an understatement. The pair, each of whom is a gifted passer, play quite well off one another. Both can get busy in the post or knock down shots from deep.

Then, with another Ivisic – Tomislav’s twin brother Zvonimir – coming off the bench and creating additional floor-spacing gravity while also serving as a constant lob threat around the rim, the Illini frontcourt has gone from really good to a multi-faceted, pick-your-poison nightmare for opposing defenses.

With Sunday;s road matchup at No. 5 Nebraska – which knocked off Illinois in Champaign back in December – the Illini will need another marquee performance out of Mirkovic, along with his frontcourt running mates.