Illini Power Rankings: Now We Find Out, for Forever

I have had the good fortune in my career to have the opportunity to interview political leaders, Hall of Fame athletes and coaches, movie stars, musicians, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and, most impressively, REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin about the REO Speedwagon video game. When you interview that many people, and your job is ostensibly to be objective and willing to ask them difficult, potentially uncomfortable questions, you can't put your celebrity subjects on any sort of pedestal: They're just human beings, and the only way to do your job is to treat them as such. You can't be in awe of anyone. They're just idiots walking around blindly in the dark like the rest of us.

But three years ago, while attending the Illinois-Michigan game at State Farm Center, I got to meet Kenny Battle, and, reader, friend, let me tell you, I almost fainted. Those Flying Illini were not human beings like the rest of us, not to me, not to anyone who grew up with that team. They were mythic legends; they were cartoon characters; they were gods among us.

Part of that, of course, was the age I was when that team made its Final Four run. I was 13 years old, the exact right time to have my favorite team, just 45 minutes away from where I lived in Mattoon, be that transcendent: They tattooed themselves on my brain, and my heart, forever. I once talked to Steve Bardo–who has retired from broadcasting and is very much missed--on an old podcast and it basically went just like this:

(YouTube link is here in case that embed didn't work.)

I once spoke to Derek Jeter for 25 consecutive days and didn't think a thing of it. But you put me in a room with Kendall Gill, and I'll be kissing his feet and feeding him grapes within minutes. That how it works when you truly love a team like that: Nothing in the your world can ever get bigger than them.

But: Had they lost to Louisville in the Sweet 16, or Syracuse in the Elite Eight (and they were down seven at halftime), I'm not sure any of that would have happened. I think there would be nothing more depressing than thinking about that team; it would have been Sister Jean, except it would been Derrick Coleman--much worse. We can talk about roster turnover, and NIL, and the transfer portal, and how different college basketball is now, but sports are still sports: When you win, people are happy and worship you forever, and when you lose, they are sad and move on to somebody else. It can happen in one game, one play ... or one weekend.

This weekend, we will find out how, exactly, we will talk about this team, a team that we have obsessed over all season, for the rest of our lives. This team has the talent to be a Flying Illini team, the sort that makes your kids slobber all over a 45-year-old Jake Davis when they run into him in 25 years. This team also has the inconsistency--and the occasional struggles with embracing prosperity and opportunity--to be one that breaks our hearts. I'm pretty sure that, at its best, this is the most truly talented Illini team since the Dee-Deron-Luther team. (It's more talented, top-to-bottom, than the Ayo-Kofi team. I'm not sure it's that close?) But that doesn't mean we'll forever talk about them that way.

They have three days, two games, to be legends here forever. It really is just about these three little days. By Sunday, we will know. And so will they.

This is the fifth installment of my sporadic Illini Power Rankings this year: Here is the first and here is the second and here is the third and here is the fourth. As always, these rankings are ridiculous, uninformed and written primarily as a nervous tic--think of them almost like me lancing a boil. There may be nothing I think about more than the Illinois men's basketball team. My name is Will Leitch, a contributing editor at New York magazine, a columnist at The Washington Post and for The Athletic, national correspondent for MLB.com and author of seven books, including the novels How Lucky, The Time Has Come and Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride.

I also write a free weekly newsletter about parenthood and living through these tumultuous times that you might enjoy: You can find it here. I am (somehow, still) perhaps best known as being the founder of the late sports website Deadspin, though I’d prefer you think of me as “former Daily Illini sports editor” and "forever Mattoon Green Wave."

If Illinois wins on Thursday and Saturday, I will be writing another of these next week. If not ... I will see you, and whoever is left on this team, in November.

12, 11. Blake Fagbemi and AJ Redd (previously: 11, 12).

Let's enjoy the AJ Redd Senior Night moment one more time.

Much has been made of how Redd already has a job set up with Larry Gies after he graduates. AJ Redd, by all accounts, is a super smart, super ambitious dude who is about to go work for a dude worth $1.5 billion who happens to love Illinois athletics so much he will give $100 million to a sports team. (As an Illini fan I am grateful, of course, and fortunately, there are no other problems in the world we need to solve.) It is very possible we are underrating the possibility that AJ Redd someday turns into Illinois' Mat Ishbia, the former Michigan State walk-on who is now one of the richest people in the world and the owner of the Phoenix Suns. I am perfectly OK with this potential outcome.

10. Mihailo Petrovic (previously: 10).

Obviously, the Petrovic experience hasn't turned out the way anyone--not least of which Petrovic himself--planned for it to, but I have to say, it doesn't seem to have soured Mihailo's mood very much. Not only do you not ever see him sulking much, he seems to legitimately enjoy his teammates and is always one of the first guys off the bench cheering as they come in during a time out. And do not overlook how cool it was that it was in fact Mihailo who orchestrated AJ Redd's big moment, with a casual, here-ya-go between the legs pass allowing him to drain that 3-pointer. For all the talk about how supposedly all these players are mercenaries and only care about getting paid and then moving on--something that isn't true but cranks like to pound the table and insist is true--it sure looks like they're having a blast playing together. A 23-year-old Serbian "sophomore" and an academic All-American from Chicago St. Ignatius, looking out for each other: It makes you feel like maybe the world is going to turn out OK. (Even though it probably won't.)

9. Brandon Lee (previously: 9)
He had four points in the NCAA Tournament! That's 13 percent of his season total. I am curious if Lee comes back next year, but if he does, I suspect he's going to have some real opportunities: With Wagler, Boswell and (presumably) Mihailo moving on, the backcourt will be pretty thin. Lee won't just walk into a starting spot of course--he's 0-for-1 on threes this year--but he sure seems like he could be a good defensive handcuff for whatever slashing point guard I expect them to bring in from the portal. (I'm eyeing that Providence dude. He's Estonian!)

8. Jake Davis (previously: 7)
It's probably time to take Jake out of the starting lineup, but I understand why Underwood hasn't done it: His starting slot is more about what the change of pace of Stojakovic gives you than Jake being anything close to one of the top five players on the team. We will need shooting against Houston--it's why I think it's just not a Stojakovic game--but this also looks like a game in which Jake might be a bit overmatched physically. That said: There is no one on the team, with the exception of Keaton, whom I trust more with a wide open 3-pointer. I'm just not sure there are going to be a lot of wide open 3-pointers to be had against Houston.

7. Andrej Stojakovic (previously: 6).
In the first half against VCU, you saw what he's capable of, and, frankly, what he did as the best player for Cal last year. But the thing about Cal last year was that they were 14-19. I'm not always sure Stojakovic appreciates that he is not actually the best player on this team--not until he starts (all together now, in broadcaster voice) shooting like his dad--and that can be frustrating at times: When he doesn't meet resistance (like against VCU), he looks unstoppable, but when he does, he looks like the most reckless ballhog on your rec league team. There are matchups in which Stojakovic is an incredible weapon to have in your arsenal. But there are matchups in which he just keeps misfiring over and over. (Like the Michigan game.) We will need Stojakovic more on defense against Houston than we will on offense. I hope he understands that.

6. Zvonimir Ivisic (previously: 8).
I was in Greenville with my father and my son, and this is where our seats were:

That's to say, we had the absolute perfect angle to watch Z's dunk. Goodness gracious. Can we watch it one more time? Is that OK with you? I suspect it is OK with you.

(YouTube link here in case the embed didn't work.)

That dunk--which was even better in person, as you watched the whole thing develop--had me hugging everyone within arm's reach, including a pretty-cool-about-it-actually VCU fan. That dunk was sent here by a higher deity in order to let us know that they still believed in us: That dunk is the promise of America that still remains. That dunk made me believe in angels.

There were also Z's only two points of the night. I am ready for him to start hitting threes again, and I'm also concerned about how much trouble has grabbing and securing loose balls, particularly against a team as relentless as Houston.

But I will never, ever forget that dunk. Goodness gracious.

5. Ben Humrichous (previously: 4).
He's not the most important Illini in this game--you're going to need your superstars to play like superstars--but if Illinois is able to beat Houston, when it's over, I bet we'll be talking about how great of a game Humrichous had. He is, without question, our best defender on the break, which is especially key against a team like Houston, who wants to force turnovers and then just go sprinting like crazy. Hitting shots will be important, but Humrichous has evolved to the point that he is probably the defender I trust the most? He's not the best defender--that's still Boswell--but he's the one who I always believe will be in the right place, will contest without fouling and will never, ever give up on a play. Down the stretch, I bet the lineup is Wagler/Boswell/Tomi/Mirkovic/Humrichous. After two years of him often having fans tearing their hair out, here, at the biggest moments, he is 100 percent one of the guys I most want out there. What a journey.

And always and forever:

4. Tomislav Ivisic (previously: 3)
We're finally getting the Tomi we were promised, and even if it took him a whole season to get back to us, I'm delighted he picked the best possible time. The shot still doesn't look right--he's consistently short, like he never quite shook the mono--but his post game has been aces of late. I bet the Illini go back to that a lot against Houston, a team that loves to double team, which, theoretically, should work right into the Illini's (and Tomi's) hands. Remember, this team ran its offense almost entirely through him last year: He's a fantastic passer. Much has been made of Tomi's difficult season, though I wonder if the reason why is sort of simple: It turns out Mirkovic is just better at doing all the things Tomi did last year than Tomi is. But that doesn't mean Tomi is bad, far from it. In fact, we need those very things the most, right now, against Houston. If he makes the right decision over and over, I don't know how a switch-heavy team like Houston guards us other than by slapping the ball out of our hands. (Which is a problem with Tomi sometimes. The Ivisiiiiiiii family must just have slippery fingers.) Tomi is a massive weapon for us in this game. Which is why it's so, so wonderful to have him back.

3. Kylan Boswell (previously: 5).
We have reached the point that I find myself cheering for that first, inevitable early-in-the-shot-clock-heavily-guarded-step-back-3-pointer that Boswell loves to shoot for some reason to miss: When it does, he stops shooting them and gets back to being the defensive pest he has been throughout this tournament so far. (When he makes it, he tends to think he's smoking hot and keeps shooting them.) People keep talking about this being a "legacy game" for Boswell, which I think is a nice way of saying that Boswell, the ultimate local guy coming home to where he should have never left in the first place, hasn't become the beloved Illini All-Big Ten guy that many believed he might be when he transferred here in the first place. The offense just has never quite been there--how in the world did this guy shoot 38 percent from three at Arizona?--and the defense has been smothering at times but at other times ... well, let's just be nice and say inconsistent. Boswell has said he considers himself a shutdown defender, the Deion Sanders of the backcourt, the sort of guy you put on the other team's best offensive option and trust that that player is now taken out of the equation. That has not really happened, at least not before the NCAA Tournament: Ask Nick Boyd how much he felt taken out of the equation. But Boswell has the ultimate opportunity to be the thing he most wants to be on Thursday against a player in Kingston Flemings who we will all be watching in the NBA for a long time. If he does it, Illinois will go to the Elite Eight and, potentially, be a team we adore for the rest of our lives. If he doesn't, Illinois loses and Boswell is always a guy who, for all his merits, was just never quite what we were hoping for. I guess that's why they're calling it a legacy game.

2. David Mirkovic (previously: 2).
My father doesn't watch the NBA much, but he saw a picture of Nikola Jokic and said, "wait ... that guy is the best player in the NBA?" I can understand the confusion: He's slow, he can't jump (like, I'm not even sure he can jump?), he's not in very good shape and he always seems to be thinking about something else than the game he's playing. But now, with Mirk, I feel like I can explain it: He kinda plays like that. Mirkovic, I have to say, is exactly the type of player everybody's dads love: He plays hard, he's tough, he's smart, he's passionate, he hits free throws and he is the guy you trust the most to get any rebound. But your kids love him too because he's very quirky--I will never get over how funny it is to watch him run--and plays like an oversized kid. (Which of course he is.) His game against Penn was the most truly dominant NCAA Tournament game I can remember an Illini player having. But it was only against Penn. He is the toughest dude we have, and he's going to have to be against Houston. My biggest fear about Houston is that they're going to out-tough us. But they're not going to out-tough Mirkovic. If he come back next year--and they better make sure he does--I think he's winning Big Ten Player of the Year next year.

1. Keaton Wagler (previously: 1).
The Illini currently have four players in the NBA. Here are their stats from each of their final games in an Illinois uniform:

Kasparas Jakucionis, 2025 NCAA loss to Kentucky: 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting, two assists, six turnovers.
Will Riley, 2025 NCAA loss to Kentucky: 5 points on 1-for-7 shooting, three turnovers.
Terrence Shannon Jr., 2024 NCAA loss to Connecticut: 8 points on 2-for-12 shooting, two rebounds.
Ayo Dosunmu, 2021 NCAA loss to Loyola (Chi.): 9 points on 4-of-10 shooting, two assists, six turnovers.

Those are four of my favorite players to watch over the last two decades of Illini basketball, they are ongoing ambassadors for this program, they love coming back here and we love having them back here ... and they were all completely miserable in their final games with the Illini. Ayo and Shannon were particularly bad; that is unquestionably the worst game Ayo ever played.

In three months, Keaton Wagler is going to be chosen in the NBA Draft, almost certainly among the top 10 picks. (I keep dreaming the Spurs get him and he gets to play a decade with Wemby.) He will have that "6-foot-6 guard from Illinois!" roared before his name for many, many years to come; Keaton Wagler will be representing the Illini when Brad Underwood is in his 70s, when Tommy DeVito turns 40, when the kindergarten children in your house leave and go off to college. His name is going to be in the rafters of the State Farm Center. We will talk of him for the rest of our lives.

So I would love it if, before he leaves, he sends us off with something truly glorious. It's all setting up for him. The rest after the Big Ten Tournament seems to have invigorated him: The shoulder is healed, he's making the right passes in space, he's handling the physicality everyone's throwing at him, that incredible, signature stepback 3-pointer has returned to its inherent perfection. I want him to have his Deron Williams moment, his Nick Anderson moment, heck, his Kemba Walker moment. He is a truly special player. All we can dream of is him giving us, before he goes, a truly special moment. So he will become a legend--the sort of legend that, years from now, makes us all want to faint.

I'm ready. Are you?

Will Leitch is a columnist for The Athletic, contributing editor at New York Magazine, columnist for The Washington Post, national columnist for MLB, and the founder of the late sports website Deadspin. Subscribe to his free weekly newsletter and buy his novels “How Lucky,” and "The Time Has Come” and Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride from Harper Books.