'The good thing is he's back'
- Story byThe News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
- 'The good thing is he's back'
Sep. 8—CHAMPAIGN — Tomislav Ivisic entered the largest ballroom at the I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center through a side door Tuesday night ahead of the 102nd annual C-U Kiwanis Tip-Off Event.
The capacity crowd in attendance immediately burst into cheers and applause. Jake Davis raised his arms in celebration, further pumping up the 420 fans who chose to spend their Tuesday night learning about the 2026-27 Illini.
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Ivisic, of course, wasn't going to sneak in under the radar.
Not standing 7 feet, 1 inch tall.
Not when his absence the past two weeks had been a major topic of conversation among the fan base as he dealt with a visa issue to get out of Croatia and back to Champaign.
"Just one of those visa things that took a few days — took longer than we hoped — but the good thing is he's back and was in workouts (Tuesday)," Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. "He's got to catch up a little bit with conditioning especially, but he'll do that fairly quickly."
Ivisic flew back to the U.S. last Friday after resolving his visa snafu in Croatia. Illinois was stuck in a holding pattern with nothing it could do on its end to fast track the process.
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"It was a little unusual because usually, student visas, you assume are four years," Underwood said. "He just didn't check and tried to come back and couldn't. It was just another appointment and them processing it. That took a little time. Just an oversight that happened to catch him."
While Ivisic was back on the court Tuesday at Ubben Basketball Complex and the entire team together again, not everyone was available to practice. Zvonimir Ivisic has his right hand heavily bandaged after suffering an injury back home in Croatia last month. He has an appointment to have it re-evaluated later this week.
David Mirkovic also remains sidelined, but has been able to shed the protective boot that was required on his left foot after a late July injury as summer workouts concluded and an early August surgery.
Mirkovic was limping some Tuesday night, favoring his still healing left foot, but he was able to work with athletic trainer Justin Games on the sidelines during Tuesday's team workout.
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"Justin Games has done an unbelievable job with him and his recovery," Underwood said, while repeating for the third time in just more than a month that no set timetable exists for the 6-9 sophomore forward's full return.
"Of course, Mirk's going to be Mirk," the Illinois coach continued. "He's going to do everything possible to make himself right as quickly as he can. We'll progress slowly with that, but it's nice to see him out of the boot and start strengthening all of that."
Both Ivisic twins and Mirkovic along with their 12 other teammates spoke briefly while introducing (or re-introducing) themselves to the Illinois fans that showed up for Tuesday's tip-off event.
Tomislav Ivisic got another round of cheers from the fans before his brother made sure everyone remembered he was both the taller and older twin. Davis drew arguably the biggest pop as fans shouted his name, and Andrej Stojakovic played to the crowd by starting an "I-L-L, I-N-I" cheer. Five-star freshman guard Quentin Coleman also drew notable vocal support.
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Stefan Vaaks shared an honest moment with a new group of fans. The Providence transfer drew plenty of applause when he told a story about the new Friars' staff telling him he'd regret transferring and that his time in Champaign had produced exactly zero regrets.
The message from the players was variations on several themes. Thanks for the support of the fan base. Excitement for the new season. Hope to see those same fans in Detroit next April for the Final Four with the goal to win two more games and raise a national championship banner at State Farm Center.
"I'm very excited about this group," Underwood said. "I'm not going to lie. I like our potential. I like what this group can be. We've got to form our own identity. We've got to do some of the little things a little bit better. We've got to win the margins.
"We've got one of the toughest schedules in the country. The Big Ten will be absolutely loaded. There's been a lot of talk about us and Michigan and Michigan State. ... The league's going to be very, very good top to bottom as it always is and should prepare us for what we hope is a deep (NCAA tournament) run."
