INDIANAPOLIS—This Illinois team had just immortalized itself forever by securing a Final Four berth with its Elite Eight win over Iowa, but it had a problem by the time it got to the locker room.
Its tradition of turning its dressing area into a water-gun battlefield had to be continued, but David Mirkovic’s role in it was in jeopardy. The Illinois forward–who is an essential piece of any celebration this team partakes in–couldn’t climb to the top of the tall, wooden lockers in Houston’s Toyota Center by himself.
But, he wasn’t going to be stopped.
As a result, Mirkovic turned to Illinois center Zvonimir Ivisic to ask for a hand. Illinois guard Tony Bilic recalls that Ivisic lifted Mirkovic up to the top of the lockers, where Mirkovic put on a cowboy hat and held his water gun while waiting on Illinois coach Brad Underwood and his staff to start the party. For nearly anyone else that would’ve been nearly entirely out of character. That’s just Mirkovic, though.
In a way, the time Mirkovic and Ivisic spent waiting was more of a courtesy than anything. Those two along with Illinois big man Tomislav Ivisic–who is Zvonimir’s brother–are the life of the party. They’re the most chaotic, unapologetic, unpredictable trio in college basketball in all the best ways, and they wear that as a badge of honor.
“We are just being ourselves,” Mirkovic said. “We are just being real. It’s just unintentionally funny and people like it, I guess.”
Mirkovic is right about that.
The three Illinois forwards have enough gravity that a Serbian reporter was sitting in the padded chairs, motioning for the mic to ask Underwood at his Friday press conference before Illinois’ Saturday Final Four matchup with UConn. Underwood embraced international recruiting as much as anyone last offseason, and he’s been repaid for it with a box-office star and one of college basketball’s best late-season storylines.
Mirkovic and the Ivisic twins have been catalysts in this Illinois program’s first Final Four run since 2005, but that alone wouldn’t account for their lockers being swarmed at any opportunity as they go through Final Four. Their compelling, unique personalities have propelled them to the point of NCAA Tournament celebrity status.
If this run Illinois is in the midst of has demonstrated anything, it’s to expect the unexpected from each of its three Balkan big men. This Illinois team has embraced the unexpected all the way to Indianapolis.
“They are the craziest, most genuine, loving people I know,” Illinois wing Ty Rodgers told Basket Under Review. “They’ll get on you, they’ll try to fight you, but they love you and it’s all love at the end of the day. They’re all just great people, honestly.”
It’s no fault of the Illinois public relations department, but the media training that Zvonimir Ivisic inevitably picked up while at Kentucky and Arkansas went out the window when he heard what Illinois guard AJ Redd said about his FIFA ability.
Redd declared earlier in Illinois’ open locker room session that nobody on Illinois’ roster could beat him in the soccer video game. When Ivisic heard that, he couldn’t stay professional anymore.
“He’s a**,” Zvonimir Ivisic said. “I don't know why he is saying that. What gave him the confidence? I really don't know."
At that point of Ivisic’s press conference, the buttoned up nature that his glasses and generally polite demeanor indicated were there was ditched in the name of passion. Say what you will about this group of Illinois forwards, but nobody is citing their lack of passion for anything.
In some ways, this group cares to a fault. When Mirkovic battled an injury in conference play, he shut down the narrative that there was any chance of him missing a game by threatening himself if he didn’t play. The Illinois forward said that he was screaming for seven-consecutive minutes and throwing chairs out of excitement after the Illini’s win over Purdue.
As for Illinois’ non-Mirkovic bigs, Zvonimir Ivisic declared that this group didn’t come to the NCAA Tournament to get “bit****” after Illinois’ Sweet 16 win over Houston. Tomislav Ivisic veered off prior to the Final Four by declaring that he was going to assist Illinois guard Jake Davis by finding him a Croatian wife and that Mirkovic looked fat and stupid the first time he saw him. A few weeks prior to that moment in the Lucas Oil Stadium locker room, the Illinois big man stated in Illinois’ press conference that he disagreed with the call that fouled him out of Illinois’ Elite Eight win before being vetoed by Underwood.
Rodgers describes the speaking style of his three teammates with the words “no filter” and a laugh. This group of three has traded a politically correct nature for hilarity and a general sense of unfilteredness, even though they know the consequences of it.
“We don't have media like this over there. We can say whatever we want, whatever we feel, nobody cares,” Tomislav Ivisic said. “But here, when you say something you shouldn't. It's a big problem, and we're getting used to that. I don't know, I just also feel like we're very–how do you say it–we don't have a lot of patience. If we get pissed off, we might say something we don't want to say.”
Zvonimir Ivisic says that the lifestyle adjustment from Croatia to America is a big adjustment, particularly because of the distance from family, but he says the blunt nature that he, Mirkovic and his brother possess isn’t necessarily cultural.
It is, though, a natural tie in between three of Illinois six Balkan stars. All three have let the general public get to know them on a level that is generally unheard of. What you see with this Illinois frontcourt is what you get. If you don’t like it, they don’t seem to care.
“We don’t care what other people are going to say,” Zvonimir Ivisic told Basket Under Review. “That’s definitely part of all of our personalities.”
A movie director has dreams about producing a film about someone like Mirkovic. At a point, the writing does itself, college basketball’s most interesting man makes sure of it.
By a pure stroke of genius, Illinois’ social media team opted to mic Mirkovic up throughout its Friday afternoon shoot around at Lucas Oil Stadium. Less than a minute into the video, Mirkovic was compelling enough to make sure that nobody would tune out. At that point in the video, the Illinois forward had already spoken in multiple languages, admitted that he cried to the movie Airbud and declared that he was a more handsome squidward.
Then, the kicker came.
“I get nervous around girls and cameras,” Mirkovic said in the video, “So if I do something bad, just be chill.”
As Mirkovic hopped on the back of a golf cart and departed Illinois’ open locker room to head to the tunnel before being mic’d up, the cart honked and the Illinois forward sat on the back of it laughing. The moment was a microcosm of Mirkovic’s personality in that no moment is too small for him to make an imprint on.
Everyone on this Illinois team has a Mirkovic story, and there’s enough of them that most of Mirkovic’s teammates don’t repeat the same story.
Rodgers remembers Mirkovic throwing up after dinner the first time the two met and playing it off after. Bilic can’t help but laugh at the story in which Mirkovic donned his 34 dollar cowboy hat in the Toyota Center locker room. Illinois guard Kylan Boswell likely can’t help but think about Mirkovic shaking the net rather than cutting it when the Illini clinched a Final Four berth–to that, Boswell said “what the f*** is wrong with you?”
“It became very obvious when David got here that he was a little bit different,” Illinois assistant Tyler Underwood told Basket Under Review. “Fiery. Insane, and a goofball.”
Mirkovic has a case to be considered college basketball’s biggest, most captivating personality. His two older teammates in the frontcourt have unintentionally made their own cases, though. Tyler Underwood describes Tomislav Ivisic as the more mature older brother to Zvonimir and says that the pair balances each other out–even though he says the younger Zvonimir is always laughing and sometimes has to be reminded to lock in.
Even the older Ivisic brother has his moments, though. As Illinois assistant Orlando Antigua addressed a reporter in the hallway outside of Illinois’ locker room, Tomislav Ivisic put his arm around him and became an unsolicited audience member. Perhaps Tomislav is the most mature of the three, but his mornings at Lucas Oil Stadium still include a showcase of his repertoire of jokes and cussing in multiple languages.
“Everyone talks about how different they can be, everyone talks about how Z is a bit louder and Tomislav is a bit more chill and low key,” Bilic told Basket Under Review. “To be honest, I think both of them are pretty similar. In my opinion, they kind of have the same humor, just like every one of the Balkan guys.”
Illinois’ coaching staff knew all along that the way to get the most out of this particular team–especially its three Balkan frontcourt members–wasn’t to box them in or force their personalities to fit in.
No figurative box is big enough to hold these three other-worldy personalities in it. Luckily for Mirkovic and the Ivisic brothers, they’ve found the right program in that regard. The idea of self expression has always been important to this Illinois staff, and it’s never been more prevalent than it is these days.
“I think the one thing we try to do is make sure it's fun,” Brad Underwood said. “We try to celebrate winning. We spend a good amount of time laughing and enjoying the process. I don't want it to ever be – I don't want our process to ever be just a grind-it, fight, no-fun environment. I want it to be enjoyable. I want the work to be fun.”
As a result of Illinois’ 28-8 record, Final Four berth and its three Balkan bigs experiencing the most winning of their careers, it sure is fun around that Illinois locker room these days. It’s the one that all the outsiders want to step into to get a taste of. It’s the one that nobody inside wants to leave.
Perhaps that’s why this party has a chance to continue beyond Illinois’ Saturday matchup with UConn. Whether this run ends in Illinois winning its first national championship in program history or not, it can say something with certainty.
Nobody had more fun on the way here. Nobody has embraced chaos quite like this group has.
“Absolute craziness,” Bilic says in regard to the three Balkan Bigs as if to drop the mic.
