While Keaton Wagler was getting all the praise and attention in the preseason (and he had a strong showing himself in his Orange and Blue debut), we’re a couple games into the 2025-26 season, and David
Mirkovic has the Illini fanbase, as well as the national media, absolutely buzzing.
Against the Jackson State Tigers and their coach who forgot it was game day, Dah-vid went for 19 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists and one ridiculous, full court cornhole toss.
The Illinois State coach compared him to Nikola Jokic in the exhibition. Is he already the Illini’s best player? Is he a one-and-done? Does he make the Illini a serious national title contender? Morez who?
These kinds of questions are being asked right now. In order to help answer these questions, I wanted to look at the context of what players have had similar burst-onto-the-scene moments on opening night throughout the Underwood era, and how that translated to the rest of their season. I am looking at players who were either new to the program (freshman or transfers), or who had never had a regular rotation role before their opening night explosion
2017 Mark Alstork vs. Southern, 17 points 10 rebounds and four assists
Going back to the dark times of the early Underwood years, some people may not remember much of Mark Alstork. For a rebuilding Illinois team, he was supposed to be a veteran scorer who could provide some stability, after averaging 19 points per game as a redshirt junior at Wright State.
He looked the part in the opener, using his strong build to get to the basket and earn fouls, going 9-of-10 from the free throw line. Unfortunately, the strong performance was fool’s gold, and Alstork turned out to be a Horizon League caliber player. His 17 points were the second-most he scored all year in a game, his 10 rebounds tied a season-high, and he only managed double-digit scoring efforts five more times the rest of the year. He shot an abysmal 33.5% from the field and 24% from three, despite starting every single game for a woeful Illini team.
2018 Ayo Dosunmu vs. Evansville, 18 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals
Upon arrival Ayo was anointed a program savior, and he did not disappoint. While his freshman year did not lead to many wins, he was a conference All-Freshman team selection and followed this performance up with many other memorable games against better competition.
Honorable mention to Andres Feliz, who was a bit of a wild card coming from the Juco ranks. He opened his NCAA career with 16 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in just 21 minutes. It was a harbinger of things to come, as he was a spark plug off the bench for Underwood throughout the season, and a bright spot to build upon going into the next season with expectations for team success.
2019 Nobody
Kofi Cockburn would be the name you would think might have dominated a low major opponent in Nicholls State, but he had a relatively quiet 10-point, 11-rebound double-double. In fact, the team as a whole started off with an alarm-tripping performance, requiring overtime to squeak past the Colonels 78-70. The players who stood out were the same ones from the previous year, with Ayo and Andres starring to avoid embarrassment. The hot seat for Underwood was already warming up, until the team turned the season around after New Year’s.
2020 Adam Miller vs. North Carolina A&T, 28 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 6-of-8 3-pointers
The preseason hype around Adam Miller was that he was ready to be a star as a freshman and would be Ayo’s understudy before making it his team the following year. While he was a solid contributor for a Big Ten champ (Muck Fichigan and Juwan Howard forever) and NCAA 1-seed, the prophecy never manifested.
He left after just one year to be a solid but unspectacular player everywhere he has gone. Since his 28-point college debut, Adam Miller has played 117 more NCAA games and counting. That night is still his career-high in points.
2021 Coleman Hawkins vs. Jackson State, 13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals, 1 block
Coleman Hawkins was a sophomore in 2021 but had been used sparingly as a freshman on a loaded team. With Kofi Cockburn suspended for selling merch one month before it was legal to do so, Coleman got a chance to flash his tantalizing all-around game.
While similar statlines became commonplace by Coleman’s senior year, his sophomore year was still one of growing pains. The talent was there, but the confidence was lacking at times, often choosing to pump fake and pass when he should shoot. He started at power forward until mid-December, but poor performances against all the high major competition we played sent him to the bench in favor of Jacob Grandison and saw his minutes drastically cut.
When Grandison went down with an injury right before the end of the year, Hawkins seized his opportunity and played good basketball the last three games before bowing out quietly to Houston.
2022 Terrence Shannon Jr. vs. Eastern Illinois, 24 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block
While Terrence was more of a proven commodity as a high-major transfer, he had never been the star at Texas Tech in his first three seasons. Right away his impact as a downhill attacker was evident, as he went to the free throw line fifteen times in the opener. Terrence had a very good season overall, capped with a First-Team All-Big Ten recognition, but he lacked consistency as the go-to guy on an inconsistent team, before becoming an unstoppable force and all-time Illini great in his second season.
Honorable mention to the birth of the Dainja Zone, who opened his Illini career with 17 points and 10 rebounds in just 16 minutes. He moved his way into the starting lineup as the season went on and was a solid role player, but was not able to consistently provide the production against bigger, more talented opponents.
2023 Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn vs. Eastern Illinois, 18 points 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block
The 2023 preseason had become silly season for DGL hype, as the team was desperate for someone to step up as the point guard. Dra’s season opening performance just amplified the expectations that were always too big for him to live up to. Reality set in pretty quickly, as the hyper-athletic guard was mostly relegated to spot minutes and never broke double digits again in his freshman campaign.
Gibbs-Lawhorn has now developed a three-year pattern for starting hot, as the three highest scoring games of his career are all season openers (on top of this performance, 21 points as a sophomore and 18 points to start the year for UNLV).
2024 Will Riley vs. Eastern Illinois, 31 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists in 25 minutes
Kasparas Jakucionas was getting the majority of the preseason buzz last year, and had a fine 11-point, 7-assist, 5-rebound performance himself, but it was Will Riley who stole the show on opening night. Riley had an interesting season that can be pretty neatly divided into three sections:
Scorching start (mostly against low majors, but also played well against Alabama) first five games: 18 ppg, 6 rpg, 54 FG%, 64 3PT%
Brutal slump next 15 games: 7.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 30 FG%, 19 3PT%
First round pick finish over the last 15 games: 15.9 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 48 FG%, 34 3PT%
While 31 points in the opener did end up being his season high, his strong finishing stretch in February and March validated the hype he generated with his electric opening night performance.
Where will Mirkovic Fall on the Spectrum?
Over the past eight years, Alstork and Gibbs-Lawhorn were flukes and never proved to be solid high major rotation players. Adam Miller was solid but never became the star we expected after that game. Coleman Hawkins did become a star, but a couple years later. Will Riley struggled for a period but became a star freshman and NBA Draft pick down the stretch. Ayo was great for a freshman but had gradual steps up each year from All-Freshmen Team to All-Conference Team to All-American. Terrence was very good his first year but was legendary his second.
As great as some of these players became, this exercise should serve to keep emotions in check about just how awesome Mirkovic will be right away.
He is going to have ups and downs and his shooting consistency from three is a question mark at this point. However, his motor, vision, and rebounding skills will provide value even when he has stretches of missed shots and turnovers.
I expect him to be more similar to Will Riley or Ayo as a freshman than DGL or Adam Miller, but even that guy should not be the best player on a contending team. Luckily for Illinois, Kylan Boswell and Tomislav Ivisic can shoulder the load and allow Mirkovic to be himself without too much pressure. Dudes from the past like Ayo, Kasparas and Will did not have that luxury.
