Illinois basketball to exemplify positionless basketball in 2026-2027 season

Illinois basketball season is just about three months away. The Illini return over 60 percent of scoring from a team that made the Final Four. On top of that, they bring in an extremely talented group of guards to help fill the void left by Keaton Wagler and Kylan Boswell.

Keaton Wagler certainly stirred the drink that was Illinois basketball for a majority of the season. A topic of discussion has been who will replace the stellar backcourt of Wagler and Boswell, who averaged a combined 30.2 points and 7.2 assists per game?

Illini plan to replace Wagler and Boswell by Committee.

Illini Inquirer’s Joey Wagner posed the question to Brad Underwood regarding the fact that the Illini may not have a traditional point guard on the roster. This has been a hot topic recently, particularly since the Field of 68’s Rob Dauster stated recently that he felt that Illinois basketball may have a hole at point guard. With Keaton Wagler and  Kylan Boswell now off the roster, many question who will initiate the offense. Underwood did not seem worried at all, stating that he has a lot of initiators on this roster.

“Mirk. Ethan [Brown]. Lincoln [Williams]. Andrej [Stojakovic]. I think we’re still working through some of that. Keaton was elite in ball screens. I think we [Keaton Wagler] were number one in the country in points off ball screens. I like to use the term positionless basketball. We’re going to be that for sure and not get pigeon-holed into playing a certain way. I think we want to play faster than we did last year and we’ve spent a lot of time on that as well.”

As one of the top teams in the country, the Illini have plenty of options that can create rim pressure and opportunities for their teammates. As of now, the Illini are likely to run offense through star forwards David Mirkovic and Andrej Stojakovic, while also relying on Stefan Vaaks and Quentin Coleman.

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