INDIANAPOLIS—Ty Rodgers sat there with a towel pulled over his face as the finality and the magnitude of Illinois’ Elite Eight loss to UConn set in. The posture came in response to UConn’s infamous 30-0 run, but it appears to be more foreshadowing than anything these days.
It’s been almost 800 days and two full seasons since Rodgers walked off the floor that day in Boston, and yet he doesn’t have any new college basketball memories that include him playing a game on a college basketball court.
The last one includes him playing alongside and against now-NBA players Terrance Shannon, Donovan Clingan, Stephon Castle and Cam Spencer as well as a number of college graduates. All nine other players that started that game have since moved on from playing college basketball, but Rodgers has two seasons of eligibility remaining. Only six other players who appeared in that game–which was enough of a blowout to empty UConn’s bench by the end of it–still have their collegiate eligibility.
Rodgers, though, is still pushing and working to make more of his college basketball career than he did as a role player on that Illinois team in 2023-24. He’s still got his eyes set on a return to the floor.
“I would definitely say it's been different, just not being on the court,” Rodgers told Basket Under Review in the locker room at the Final Four. “It's not been planned at all. It's definitely been different, but I've been able to take a look at my game and just slow it down and work on my leadership skills. So, it's been beneficial for me.”
Since Rodgers last appeared on a college basketball court, he’s been along for the ride during Illinois’ 2025-26 Final Four run as well as its Round of 32 run in 2024-25. Rodgers has a soft spot for Illinois’ community because of the way it’s embraced him in the midst of everything that’s complicated his college basketball career.
It’s time for something new for him, though. Rodgers spent four seasons at Illinois and embodied everything about the Every Day Guy messaging that Illinois coach Brad Underwood has built this era of Illinois basketball on, but a new era of Rodgers’ career awaits him. He's heading to Boise State, and is a projected starter as he aims to get back on the floor for good.
He never would’ve picked this path and the pain it thrust upon him, but Rodgers is embracing it. He feels as if he’s become a better person because of it.
“Man, the journey,” Rodgers said while seemingly lost for words in regard to what he’s been through, “The journey…”
Sideways across Rodgers’ head sat a hat that read Final Four as he stepped onto the ladder with a pair of scissors and took a piece of the half-cut net to the tune of a significant ovation from Illinois’ fanbase. Rodgers didn’t contribute to Illinois’ Final Four berth on the floor, but he was perhaps the program’s best representative. As a result, he was entitled to his moment in the sun.
Rogers was Illinois’ longest-tenured player, but at that point he’d also been away from the floor for longer than all but one current Illinois player had been on the roster. In some ways, it was easy for him to wonder what could have been.
After Rodgers started all 38 games and averaged 6.2 points per game for Illinois as a sophomore, he was set to take on a significant role again. Something wasn’t right, though. Rodgers wanted more out of his final two seasons than what appeared to be ahead of him, so he opted to become the nearly unheard of junior-year redshirt.
At the time, Underwood called the decision one that could allow Rodgers to elevate his offensive game after a season in which he didn’t attempt a shot from 3-point range and was used primarily as a swiss-army knife rather than a go-to scorer. Underwood called it a loss, but said that Illinois’ staff respected his decision to take a year to focus on development.
Rodgers felt as if he was doing the right thing, and it appeared as if his decision paid off.
“It allowed him to take a step back and to learn and to observe,” Illinois assistant Orlando Antigua told Basket Under Review, “And to grow mentally, physically and socially. It was really helpful.”
Rodgers says that his confidence was at an all-time high coming out of the redshirt year. He admits that the unconventional transition from starting every game to redshirting was difficult on him, but he believed it was worth it. He’d dedicated it entirely to working on refining and expanding his skillset, and he was finally on the verge of being able to platform his development.
Then, it happened.
Rodgers was playing pickup in an open gym when he backcut and went up for a dunk without thinking anything of it. His knee wasn’t bothering him prior to the play and he didn’t have any inclination that something career-altering was about to happen.
When he came down, though, he quickly realized that he wouldn’t soon forget the moment that he’d just endured.
Rodgers had torn his patellar tendon. He says it was a freak non-contact injury. Life changed quickly as soon as he felt that pop come from his knee.
“I was messed up for a little while,” Rodgers said. “Just the thought of having to sit out a whole season was terrible for me, especially coming off the redshirt year. It wasn't great.”
Rodgers’ situation still isn’t great in that he’s still working to find a way, any way back onto the floor after having the opportunity ripped from him. He keeps chasing it, though.
The journey has been cruel to Rodgers. It’s put him on the mat. But, he’s working to pop back up from it, to form a spirited comeback. It appears as if Boise State is going to be the beneficiary of the trials that have formed Rodgers. The buzz surrounding Rodgers has largely dissipated, but he still appears to be a major factor for Leon Rice's Broncos.
“I just realized immediately that he's a great player,” Illinois big man Tomislav Ivisic—who never actually got to play with Rodgers—said. “His injury didn't allow him to play this year, but we saw him on the scout team, couple times this year. I've seen him a lot in the last year in summer, and I just know he's a great player this year. We would have been even better with him on the roster.”
Dear Lord,
Today, remind me I’m not behind—I just had to survive things others were fortunate enough not to face. Don’t let people with no real identity rush what You’ve been shaping through me. Keep me focused, not comparing. What’s mine won’t miss me. What’s for me will find me. I got faith I’m still on track—even if it don’t look like it yet. Amen.
The aforementioned devotional is one of the many that Rodgers has recently amplified on social media and is perhaps the most fitting to his current situation.
Rodgers might’ve driven himself crazy by now had he not found something to put his hope in, but he never got to that point. Instead of losing himself, Rodgers came to the realization that there was some sort of purpose behind everything that he was going through. It may have felt cruel and painful, but there was a reason behind it.
“It’s just a part of my process and God has blessed me to go through this,” Rodgers said. “His process is my process and everything that he’s asked from me has already been said and done. And I know God has to take you through things before he can exhale you. So, that's just how I'm looking at it now.”
Antigua says that he believes that Rodgers has improved because of everything that he’s been through, although he says he was already impressive in that way before experiencing two seasons away from the floor.
He says Rodgers is an “incredible” human and was raised by a great family. Antigua also goes out of his way to bring up the role of faith in what he considers Rodgers’ resilience and toughness in the face of hardship. Antigua and the rest of Illinois’ staff has seen that privately over the last two years, but they’re set to watch from afar as Rodgers looks to show the country what they’ve seen.
“Ty’s voice is loud, but his actions are just as loud and the way that he conducts himself,” Underwood said prior to the 2024-25 season. “Ty is a rockstar as a human being and as a leader."
Rodgers didn’t know where, when or how the day will occur, but he often kept himself sane by letting himself think about the day that eventually awaits him. One day, Rodgers won’t be confined to the end of the bench or street clothes anymore.
One day, he’ll be able to play college basketball again.
After a two-year absence from the floor, nothing is guaranteed in regard to what this will all look like. Rodgers, though, knows one thing about that day for near certainty. He’s going to cry at some point that day. He knows too much about himself to act as if anything else is likely.
“I'm an emotional guy,” Rodgers said. “I don't know if I'll cry on the court, but definitely after that first game, I'll probably shed a few tears after seeing the progress and see how far I've come.”
The last two calendar years have tested Rodgers’ will, his physical condition, his faith and his certainty in regard to the idea that he’d ever be a real contributor for a Division-I basketball program again.
Rodgers is on the way back, though. He’s been through too much to guarantee anything about his future at this stage, but he’s got hope. Hope that this will all work out one day. Hope that at some point, everything he’s been through will have served a purpose in his life.
Hope that his first game back will be the start of something new, and a celebration of what he’s overcome.
“We’re all gonna get emotional, man,” Antigua said prior to Rodgers’ decision to enter the transfer portal in a statement that likely still holds up these days. “ We know the ups and downs that he's been through, the highs and the lows. And it's gonna be worth it.”