Here’s a shocker: The 2026 offseason – for which Illinois has all but copyrighted the term "The Retention" – has seen an identical number of transfers exit the Illini program as left in the 2025 offseason.

A year ago, Illinois lost four contributors to the portal. This time around, Brad Underwood has lost four again. There is a caveat, though: None of the departing players in 2026 were key pieces in the rotation.

That said, Mihailo Petrovic , Brandon Lee and Ty Rodgers , the latter of whom started 38 games in Illinois’ 2023-24 Elite Eight run, were all more than capable of developing into key cogs for the Illini in 2026-27. As for Toni Bilic , he’ll leave Champaign the same way he entered: almost completely unknown.

Already in May, somewhat surprisingly, none of Illinois’ outgoing transfers have found a new home.…