Basketball

Illinois basketball news: Forward Toni Bilic officially joins the team

Bilic will sit out the rest of the 2025-2026 season to focus on strength and conditioning.

Published

33 minutes ago

January 14, 2026

NEWS: Illinois basketball has officially shared that Croatian forward Toni Bilic has arrived in the United States and will be with the team. The official Illini basketball team social media pages posted a brief video of Toni announcing his arrival while at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Bilic is a long-term addition for the Illini. He plans to sit out the 2025-2026 season as he focuses on getting acclimated to the United States and overall strength.

When Toni Bilic officially signed with Illinois basketball, Brad Underwood shared the following statement:

“Toni is a multi-positional, skilled player who we are excited to have join us in practice,” Underwood said. “He comes from a basketball family; he has good feel for the game and a high IQ. He is a downhill, slasher-type player with a high motor. Toni will jump in right away with Coach Fletch in the weight room; he has a high ceiling and is ready to get to work.”

Bilic is a skilled wing who last played with KK Cedevita Junior Zagreb in Croatia. While playing there, he averaged 3.0 points and 1.5 rebounds while shooting 58% from the field in just more than eight minutes per contest

Our guy is here!

Welcome, Toni, to the program! pic.twitter.com/0t7BTzQbs3

— Illinois Men’s Basketball (@IlliniMBB) January 14, 2026

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Alex Kyi

Alex is the Owner of Armchairillini.com, your go-to source for in depth coverage of the Illinois Fighting Illini. Alex is also the head of content creation and editing on Armchair Illini. His expertise has landed articles featured in top media publications like Bleacher Report, YardBarker, Verbal Commits, CBS Sports and more.