No. 3 Illinois Hosts International Night Friday vs. Sam Houston

Friday, November 13

Champaign, Ill.

6 pm CT

University of Illinois

Sam Houston

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November 12, 2026 | Men's Basketball

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#3/3 ILLINOIS (2-1) vs. Sam Houston (2-1)
Date \| Time	Friday, Nov. 13, 2026 \| 6 p.m. CT
Location	Champaign, Ill. \| State Farm Center
Buy Tickets	FightingIllini.com
Stream	B1G+ (Josh Melvin, Jonathan Mathew & Ella Peterson)
Radio	Busey Bank Illini Sports Network \| Varsity Network App \| Sirius XM 183 or 231 \| SXM App
Live Stats	StatBroadcast
Printable Notes	Illinois \| Sam Houston
Pregame Press Conference	Coach Underwood (Nov. 12)
Season Stats	Illinois \| Sam Houston
Record Book	Illinois \| NCAA
Shop	Online Store \| Auctions
Social Media	@IlliniMBB \| #Illini \| @IlliniMBB \| Facebook \| YouTube

PROJECTED STARTERS (Based on previous game)
Pos.	No.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	Elig.	PPG	RPG	APG	Note
G	1	Lincoln Williams	6-5	180	Fr.	10.0	5.5	0.5	Back-to-back starts vs. Penn/at Texas Tech
G	2	Andrej Stojakovic	6-7	205	Sr.	21.0	5.0	3.7	6th in Big Ten in scoring through 3 games
G	11	Quentin Coleman	6-4	180	Fr.	17.0	6.0	4.0	Jerry West Award Preseason Watch List
C	13	Tomislav Ivisic	7-1	270	5th	8.7	4.3	3.7	Season highs of 14 pts, 6 rebs at Texas Tech
G	34	Ethan Brown	6-4	185	Fr.	10.0	7.7	5.0	Double-double (13 p, 10 r) w/ 5 ast vs. Penn
OFF THE BENCH
Pos.	No.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	Elig.	PPG	RPG	APG	Note
F	0	David Mirkovic	6-9	250	So.	--	--	--	Preseason All-American
G	5	Quentin McCoy	6-1	170	Jr.	1.0	0.0	0.0	Played last two seasons at Arizona State
G	7	Stefan Vaaks	6-7	215	So.	13.7	4.0	2.0	20 pts in Illini debut vs. FDU
G	8	Blake Fagbemi	6-0	180	So.	4.0	2.0	0.5	Career-high 8 pts (2 3FGs) & 3 rebs vs. FDU
F	15	Jake Davis	6-6	210	Sr.	2.0	3.0	1.0	Out with shoulder injury suffered vs. FDU
F	22	Zavier Zens	6-7	215	Fr.	10.7	3.3	0.7	18 points (4-8 3FGs) vs. Penn
G	23	Lucas Morillo	6-7	210	Fr.	4.3	4.0	0.7	9 pts, 8 rebs in 19 mins in debut vs. FDU
F	27	Landon Davis	6-9	220	Fr.	3.0	2.0	0.5	6 pts (2 3FGS), 4 rebs in debut vs. FDU
C	31	Jason Jakstys	6-10	220	Jr.	1.3	2.3	0.7	Career-high two assists vs. FDU
F/C	44	Zvonimir Ivisic	7-2	250	5th	4.0	5.0	0.3	75 blocked shots as an Illini

Head Coach Brad Underwood

Career Record: 304-138 (.688), 14th year
At Illinois: 195-111 (.637), 10th year
Big Ten: 107-71 (.601)

Series History vs. Sam Houston

All-Time Record: First meeting
Record in Champaign: First meeting
Underwood vs. Sam Houston All-Time: 8-0

Opening Tips

Third-ranked Illinois (2-1) returns from its first road games of the season to host the Sam Houston Bearkats (2-1) on Friday evening at State Farm Center (6 p.m. CT / B1G+).
Friday's matchup is Illinois' second of three games in an eight-day stretch, surrounded by a pair of ranked road matchups. The Orange and Blue fell at #16 Texas Tech on Tuesday night in Lubbock, and are slated to face #2 Duke next Tuesday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Illinois and Sam Houston will meet for the first time on the hardwood, though Illini head coach Brad Underwood, during his time at the helm of the Stephen F. Austin program, went 8-0 vs. the Bearkats in the heated Battle of the Piney Woods basketball rivalry.
Illinois is looking for its fourth straight win at State Farm Center, overall. The program enters Friday's tilt on a 10-game winning streak in home nonconference matchups.
The Illini have outscored this season's first two visiting teams by 58.5 points per game, following a 120-45 win over FDU – with program records for margin of victory (75) and 3-pointers made (19) – and a 112-70 win over Penn in a rematch from the 2026 NCAA Tournament opening round.
The Fighting Illini are coming off the program's first Final Four appearance in 21 years, a 28-9 record to mark the fourth-most wins in school history, and a Big Ten runner-up finish (15-5).
Expectations for the 2026-27 season are high once again, as head coach Brad Underwood welcomes back five rotation players from the Final Four run in David Mirkovic, Andrej Stojakovic, Tomislav Ivisic, Zvonimir Ivisic, and Jake Davis while adding an impact transfer in Stefan Vaaks from Providence and a top-15 recruiting class consisting of six freshmen highlighted by High School All-American Quentin Coleman.
Illinois is No. 3 in both the AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll, and No. 6 by kenpom.
No. 3 is the second-highest preseason rank ever for Illinois, matching the No. 3 spot 25 years ago entering 2001-02. Brad Underwood has now led the Illini to preseason AP Top 25 rankings in six of the last seven seasons:
- No. 8 entering 2020-21
- No. 11 entering 2021-22
- No. 23 entering 2022-23
- No. 25 entering 2023-24
- No. 17 entering 2025-26
- No. 3 entering 2026-27
The Illini have finished 35th or better in kenpom rating in each of the last seven seasons, with a high of No. 4 in 2020-21. Illinois has had three consecutive top-20 final kenpom rankings:
- No. 10 in 2023-24
- No. 17 in 2024-25
- No. 5 in 2025-26
Illinois is the winningest team in Big Ten play this decade and is one of four programs nationally with seven straight 20-win regular seasons. Since the start of the 2019-20 season the Illini have posted 96 B1G victories. During that stretch, the Illini also own the most road wins in league play with 42.

Illinois vs. Sam Houston

Friday's contest is the first meeting in the all-time series between the Fighting Illini and the Bearkats.
Brad Underwood is 8-0 all-time vs. Sam Houston, having led his Stephen F. Austin squads an undefeated mark against the Bearkats in the Battle of the Piney Woods basketball rivalry series during his time in Nacogdoches from 2013-14 to 2015-16. Notably, Underwood's Lumberjacks clinched the outright 2015 Southland Conference regular-season championship with a 64-55 home win over Sam Houston, which entered the contest looking to claim a share of the title. A week later, Underwood led the 'Jacks past the Kats, 83-70, in the Southland Conference Tournament Championship at the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas. The victory secured the second of three consecutive NCAA Tournament berths for Underwood's SFA squads.

Complete Illinois Game Notes (PDF)