Illinois All-Big Ten center Tomislav Ivisic’s future status is unknown as No. 17 Illini hosts No. 10 Texas Tech on Tuesday night.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — During the opening six and a half minute stretch where Florida Gulf Coast failed to find a field goal and a second straight blowout victory was imminent, it became more and more obvious the most crucial element of Illinois’ 2025-26 season was in sweatpants on the bench nursing a knee injury.

Tomislav Ivisic, the honorable mention selection All-Big Ten Conference selection from last season, was inactive Friday night as No. 17 Illinois cruised to a 113-70 victory over a clearly overmatched Florida Gulf Coast squad.

“We’ll go through all the scans and MRI stuff that we do,” Illini coach Brad Underwood said after the win. “Thankful that it’s not season-ending. I would expect him to miss a little bit.”

Ivisic, the second-year center, was sporting a Kylan Boswell sweatshirt and grey sweatpants as he walked out to the State Farm Center floor just over an hour after the mandatory Big Ten injury report was released. The injury to the 7-foot Croatia native, who led the team in rebounding (7.7 per game) and blocked shots (1.2 per game) while ranking second in scoring (13 per game) last season, will likely be the talking point for the next several days until the Illini hit their first circled matchup of the 2025-26 season by hosting No. 10 Texas Tech on Tuesday night (7:30 p.m. CST, FS1).

Ivisic’s latest injury simply adds to the injuries that Illinois (2-0) have suffered before the second week of November. The Illini are still waiting for the season debuts of Serbian guard Mihailo Petrovic after the 22-year-old re-injured a hamstring injury early in the silent scrimmage against Florida nearly two weeks ago. Ty Rodgers will be inactive for a long period of time following his serious knee injury in the summer. However, Illinois saw the debut of transfer guard Andrej Stojakovic on Friday night after he’s been inactive with a minor knee injury. The son of the former 13-year NBA veteran Peja Stojakovic had nine points, five rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes off the bench.

While doing his pre-game radio interview on WDWS less than 30 minutes before the opening tip, Underwood told Illini Sports Network play-by-play broadcaster Brian Barnhart that Ivisic suffered “a lower body deal” during the team’s practice session/shoot-a-round on Thursday. Underwood said that despite the injury having happened less than 24 hours ago, Ivisic had already received multiple medical opinions to better evaluate his immediate and long-term future.

“I just hate it for him,” Underwood said on WDWS Radio. “Especially after he missed 16 practices due to the tonsils thing.”

With Tomislav on the inactive list, Underwood elected to go to the same family gene pool for his replacement on Friday night in the form of his twin brother Zvonimir Ivisic. The 22-year-old two-time transfer from Kentucky and Arkansas showed every bit of his 7-foot-2 and 250-pound frame on the defensive end in his first start since joining his brother in Champaign-Urbana. Zvonimir Ivisic finished the first half with 10 points, six rebounds and five blocked shots.

“Anytime any of us got blown by on defense, the stats really speak for themselves,” Boswell, who finished with 31 points in 28 minutes, said. “When you have somebody like that in the paint, it also allows you to have much more confidence really pressure the ball.”

Zvonimir Ivisic, who goes by ‘Big Z’, ranked second in the Southeastern Conference last season in 35 games, with 19 starts, for Arkansas last season and his presence in the paint was a big reason FGCU (1-1) missed its first 12 shots of the evening and missed 24 of its first 30 shot attempts.

“In previous seasons, I really struggled defending players out on the perimeter and I’ve been told constantly all offseason by (Illinois assistant coach Orlando Antigua) to guard like a guard,” Zvonimir Ivisic said.

Zvonimir Ivisic’s seven blocks on Friday night were the second most single-game performance by an Illini player and the most since Mike Tisdale had seven in a 54-53 win over Penn State on Jan. 12, 2010. On the offensive end, Zvonimir Ivisic also added 16 points and he also accounted for nine rebounds in a 29-minute effort.

“I think we’ve got really good players there (at center),” Underwood said. “We haven’t had that type of player defensively in nine years here like Z. Kofi (Cockburn) wasn’t that and couldn’t block shots and I love him to death. (Zvonimir Ivisic) is just something different. It’s nice to have.”

Boswell said in his post-game media conference that the players are expecting Tomislav Ivisic “to be out for awhile”.

In his radio interview Underwood nervously chuckled before acknowledging the unfortunate element of Tomislav Ivisic’s time with the Illini is this isn’t his first injury stint in his college basketball career. Throughout the 2024-25 season, Tomislav Ivisic was plagued by health issues, including an ankle injury that bothered him for several weeks and then missing several practices and multiple games due to obtaining mononucleosis and an influenza bug.

“We’ve certainly have played without Tomi before,” Underwood said.

The problem with Underwood’s ominous admission of the obvious is the Illini would love to have the veteran frontcourt player’s services when they next play Texas Tech led by 6-foot-9 forward JT Toppin’s low-post scoring acumen.

In his 2025-26 season debut Friday night in Lubbock, Texas, Toppin had 31 points, 14 rebounds (including eight on the offensive end) and four assists in a 98-77 blowout win over Sam Houston State. Toppin, The reigning Big 12 Conference Player of the Year, missed a season-opening win against Lindenwood because of a lower-body injury and Texas Tech (2-0) also saw Washington State transfer LeJaun Watts, the preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, make his Red Raiders off the bench against the Bearkats on Friday night after suffering what the university classified as a lower-body injury.