Apr. 16—GIFFORD — David Mirkovic started his Twitch stream a couple minutes after 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Nearly 2,000 people were already tuned in by the time the Illinois men's basketball forward popped up on the screen. More continued to log on as Mirkovic got closer to his self-imposed 2:25 p.m. deadline to "lock in" and discuss something serious.
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Mirkovic was a couple minutes late on that front, too, distracted by the stream chat firing an unending thread of questions his way.
Then, he got down to business.
First was a thank you from Mirkovic to the Illinois fans — one he said he hoped would have come in person during a national championship parade.
Then came similar words of appreciation for the Illini coaching staff, his teammates and the team managers after a 28-win season included a run to the Final Four.
All that led to what the stream audience was impatiently waiting to hear.
"After long thoughts and a lot of thinking about my future with my agent and all of the staff, I decided to ...," Mirkovic said before the video cut out, sending the chat into a frenzy.
A few moments later, a memo appeared on screen.
A throwback to Michael Jordan's announcement that he was returning to the Chicago Bulls in 1995 after a year-plus away from the NBA to play baseball.
Mirkovic addressed his college basketball future with the same two-word announcement: "I'm back."
Then, the video feed on the Twitch stream restarted with Mirkovic wearing his No. 0 Illinois jersey and the cowboy hat that gained fame after the Illini's Elite Eight victory against Iowa on March 28 in Houston. A half-dozen Illinois team managers filled the room behind him.
"Ya'll thought I was leaving?" Mirkovic said after appearing back on screen. "Ya'll got scared? Ya'll actually don't know me like that?"
Brad Underwood wasn't watching Mirkovic's Wednesday afternoon stream. The 62-year-old Illinois coach hadn't even heard of Twitch before he found out that was how his standout freshman forward was going to announce his return for the 2026-27 season.
That Mirkovic would choose a unique method to publicize that decision, though, didn't surprise his coach.
"We all know he was going to be himself," Underwood said a few hours later on Wednesday evening, ahead of his annual Kickin' Cancer event at Gordyville USA in Gifford. "That's the beauty of Mirk. There's tremendous personality. There's tremendous talent. You're looking at a guy that's got an opportunity to live the old cliché that the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores. I'm excited to see what that develops into."
Mirkovic's standout freshman season at Illinois was overshadowed in some ways by classmate Keaton Wagler turning into the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, a consensus Second Team All-American and the Jerry West Award winner. But the 6-foot-9, 250-pound Mirkovic did average 13.3 points on 48/37/76 shooting to go with a team-high eight rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.
Mirkovic was named to the All-Big Ten Freshman Team alongside Wagler, claimed honorable mention All-Big Ten honors and wound up on the NCAA All-South Region team. The last of those honors came after the Niksic, Montenegro native put up 14.8 points, 11 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game in the first four rounds of the NCAA tournament in helping Illinois reach the Final Four.
"He was one of the best players on our team last year and one of the best players in the country," said Wagler, who was watching Wednesday afternoon's Twitch stream. "I think that he'll be able to carry that momentum into next year. He's going to be a lot more comfortable, a lot more confident. I think he'll be a lot more comfortable with the way we play and how the coaches coach. He's got a chance to be an All-American."
Mirkovic's choice to return for his sophomore season wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision. It's something he said he started contemplating last fall when he understood what being at Illinois meant for him on and off the court.
The only way Mirkovic would leave Champaign was for the NBA.
"Since the season started, if I would stay at a college, I would stay at Illinois and I wouldn't change," Mirkovic said. "That was for sure. I knew I was going to come back. There was no other option. After the last game, I told my agent immediately I was going to be back. There was no question about it."
Mirkovic said he viewed Illinois as the "best place" for him personally and for him to grow professionally. That he was encouraged to be himself — on and off the court — resonated strongly. Being with the Illini allowed him to show his full potential, and Mirkovic said he felt like he'd never improved as much in a single year as he did the past eight months.
Pushing that growth on the court with the Illinois coaches and in the weight room with strength and conditioning coach Adam Fletcher is his summer plan.
"I know everything I've got to work on," Mirkovic said. "I would say there were a lot of things. If I start counting them now, I would take too long, but I know my growing areas and have the whole summer to work on them."
Dunking tops Mirkovic's list of summer improvements after he had zero this past season. He mentioned his face-up game — ball-handling and pick-and-roll decisions — as a close second.
"Another year in the weight room will help him athletically," Underwood said. "He'll continue to grow his shooting, his ball-handling and his playmaking. I think he's gained confidence from the experiences he's had in helping him grow defensively. I just see a much more well-rounded player who can do things a little bit better because he's bigger, stronger and has some experience."