How Illinois Has Thrived Despite Transfer Losses

The transfer portal has dramatically altered college sports over the past few years. In basketball, after March Madness winds down, the true madness begins. Rosters can be decimated in mere days by transfer-portal departures, and even relatively stable teams wind up experiencing more turnover than a fast-food restaurant.

How Illinois continues to thrive despite losses in the transfer portal

Feb 15, 2026; Champaign, Illinois, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood reacts during the second half against the Indiana Hoosiers at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Johnson-Imagn Images | Ron Johnson-Imagn Images

Over the past couple seasons, few college hoops programs have seen as many departures through the portal as Illinois. Yet here the Illini are: It’s late February, and they are a top-10 team with legitimate national-title aspirations. So how does Brad Underwood and his staff navigate the choppy transfer waters? It’s fairly simple: go find a new guy.

“I’m not a guy to brag,” Underwood said on Thursday, one day before Illinois meets its former big man Morez Johnson Jr., who now dons the maize and blue for Michigan.

“That’s not what I’m trying to do here. But we’ve had seven pretty good years where, no matter who we’ve lost, there’s been an ability to go out and find another fit. And it may look different. It may be a different age. And I think that seven years of 20 straight regular-season wins has shown some consistency.”

Like clockwork, Illinois loses impact players in the offseason. Back in 2022, it was dazzling lead guard Andre Curbelo. How did Underwood respond? By hitting the recruiting trail and landing Terrence Shannon Jr. (It’s fair to say that one worked out pretty well.) A year later, out went Jayden Epps, RJ Melendez and Skyy Clark, who all bolted for supposedly greener pastures.

But Underwood and his staff reloaded with Marcus Domask and Quincy Guerrier, not to mention Justin Harmon. Those players (along with Shannon) put together an Elite Eight run in their lone season together in Champaign.

The list goes on and on. By the 2024 campaign, the Illini weren’t just making up for lost production – which included Coleman Hawkins, along with four other rotational players – with their own portal additions. They were also trolling international waters.

This past offseason, Illinois turned to a combination of overseas additions, high school prospects and the transfer portal to regroup after watching Johnson, Tre White (Kansas), Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn (UNLV) and Carey Booth (Colorado State) dart.

“I hate losing people that I really like, yet I understand in this world that everyone’s got decisions to make and choices to make,” said Underwood. “And my job is to move to the next, and not dwell on that. Go find that guy who best fits our program and system. I think our consistency over time has shown that I’ve got a great staff.

“We’ve got a lot of really positive things going for us here. And if we do lose one, we need to go find a replacement that can hopefully be as good, or maybe different but [who can] go do some of the same things.”

You can't argue with the results. Take Johnson's exit. His rebounding and defensive prowess are second to none, and he represents the pinnacle of efficiency on offense, but he doesn’t have the playmaking knack or floor-stretching ability of David Mirkovic.

Although both are power forwards, they are such dissimilar players who impact the game in drastically different ways. It may be impossible to pinpoint who is “better” – especially in Illinois’ system. But does it matter? As Underwood said, it may look different, but who cares? Wins and losses are the true measure – and the Illini have been doing a lot more of the former than the latter.

There may be reason to question certain Underwood attributes, but it’s very possible he and his assistants make up the best combination of talent evaluation and recruiting ability among any staff in the country. That said, it wouldn’t hurt if they had less of a need to find so many new bodies every offseason – a malady that could be remedied by a step in the right direction in the retention sector.