Illinois basketball receives high praise from Trilly Donovan’s podcast

Basket Under Review is an independent college hoops outlet recently launched by well-known X personality Trilly Donovan (@trillydonovan2), alongside a strong team of basketball minds.

Eamonn Brennan, who covers college basketball for The Athletic, released a podcast episode on Monday featuring guest Will Warren, the creator of the “Stats by Will” newsletter. The newsletter is an excellent resource focused on college basketball statistics. The two spent over an hour discussing expectations for various teams heading into the 2025–26 season, including the Illini.

Warren had high praise for Illinois basketball. He said, “Well, they are going to be awesome. I think they are going to be a lot of fun.”

Why so high on Illinois basketball?

Later in the episode, Warren added, “I like the way they did this because they found their niche. I think that’s key for any program.”

Illinois appears to have found its niche this offseason by bringing in four Balkan-born transfers, in addition to returning 45% of its minutes from last year. Next season, the Illini are poised to be one of the best teams in the Big Ten. They have very high ambitions for another deep NCAA Tournament run.

Kylan Boswell, Tomislav Ivisic, and Andrej Stojakovic all have the potential to earn All-Big Ten honors, forming a formidable “big three” for Illinois basketball.

Warren concluded his thoughts on the Illini with even more praise: “I really like their build. I won’t be shocked at all if Illinois is a 1 or 2 seed this year.”

That’s extremely high praise. Illinois should be in the mix for a protected seed come Selection Sunday because it has efficiently built its roster.

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