Illinois is team to beat in Big Ten ahead of Spartans and defending national champion Wolverines

The Big Ten had two of the last four teams standing in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, and Michigan came out with the national championship and Illinois with a loss in the semifinals.

Michigan enters this season with a new coach in Mike Boynton and nine newcomers from a high school recruiting class ranked in the top five and a transfer class in the top 10. Another deep run is possible once the Wolverines, No. 16 in The Associated Press preseason poll, establish their rhythm.

Illinois has been tabbed the team to beat in the preseason media poll despite losing No. 5 overall NBA draft pick Keaton Wagler. The Illini are No. 3 in the preseason Top 25 after making their first Final Four appearance since 2005. They return four starters and a total of five players from last season's eight-man rotation, and they brought in top-15 high school recruiting and transfer classes.

“We’ve got a nice group of veterans back that we’re building this thing around,” Illini coach Brad Underwood said, “yet still have an anticipation and a hunger that at the end of the day, as nice as last year was, we didn’t get accomplished what we wanted to. That’s been my hunger all summer — the distaste of the last game and there’s more out there.”

Illinois tied for second in the Big Ten, four games behind the Wolverines, and lost in the conference tournament quarterfinals before winning four NCAA Tournament games by double digits to reach the Final Four. The season ended when the Illini went cold from 3-point range and lost 71-62 to Connecticut.

“I’m really excited for this team to move forward and set its own path and see if we’re tough enough, see if we’re gritty enough, nasty enough to handle some of the expectations that you all and everybody else is going to put on us,” Underwood told reporters. “We know they’re there. We’re not going to run from them.”

Tom Izzo is back for his 32nd season at Michigan State, which is No. 6 in the preseason poll and picked second behind Illinois and ahead of Michigan in the Big Ten.

Jeremy Fears, Michigan State. The Big Ten preseason player of the year is the Spartans' glue guy. He led team with 15.2 points per game and led the country with 9.4 assists per game.

Pryce Sandfort, Nebraska. He averaged 18.1 points per game and shot 42% from 3-point range. He averaged 21 points per game in the NCAA Tournament while leading Huskers to the Sweet 16.

Pharrel Payne, Maryland. He was averaging a career-best 17.5 points and 7.2 rebounds per game before he missed the final 21 games because of injury.

John Mobley Jr., Ohio State. Buckeyes' top returning scorer was good for 15.7 points per game and shot 41% from beyond the arc.

David Mirkovic, Illinois. The 6-foot-9, 250-pounder from Montenegro is one of the premier big men in the conference after averaging 13.5 points and 4.5 rebounds.

Aiden Sherrell, Indiana. The 7-footer was a top-30 national recruit coming out of high school and spent two years at Alabama. He averaged 11.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.2 blocks last season.

Moustapha Thiam, Michigan. The 7-foot-2 center from Senegal is at his third school in three years. He averaged 12.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks for Cincinnati last season.

Stefan Vaaks, Illinois. The guard from Estonia scored scored 15.8 points per game for Providence last season and was named to the Big East all-freshman team.

J.P. Estrella, Michigan. He was a member of three straight Elite Eight teams at Tennessee. Last season he averaged 10 points and 5.4 rebounds mostly off the bench.

KJ Lewis, Southern California. He started all but one of his 28 games for Georgetown before sustaining a season-ending injury. His 14.9 points per game led the Hoyas.

Michigan removed the interim tag from Boynton in July, less than a month after Dusty May left for the Dallas Mavericks. Athletic director Warde Manuel signed Boynton to a two-year contract to keep continuity on the coaching staff for the defending national champions . Boynton is entering his third season on the staff. He was 119-109 over seven seasons at Oklahoma State.

Oregon made Tony Stubblefield the interim coach for 2026-27 after Dana Altman’s surprise retirement announcement Oct. 7. Stubblefield was on Altman's staff 11 seasons, was head coach at DePaul from 2021-24 and returned to the Ducks. He takes over for the winningest coach in Oregon history.

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