Stojakovic and Vaaks Score 20 Each as No. 3 Illinois Routs Fairleigh Dickinson 120-45 for Largest Win in Program History

Some season openers are a tune-up. This one was a statement printed in the record book. No. 3 Illinois buried Fairleigh Dickinson 120-45 on Monday night at State Farm Center, and the 75-point margin is now the largest in program history, according to Illinois Athletics. The old mark was 69.

Andrej Stojakovic and Stefan Vaaks scored 20 points apiece, six Illini reached double figures, and Brad Underwood's team made 19 three-pointers, a single-game school record, on 51 attempts, which the school says is also a Big Ten record for tries. Illinois outrebounded FDU 65-21. That is not a typo. The Illini grabbed 22 offensive rebounds, one more than FDU's total on both ends of the floor.

The night came with a caveat that matters more than the final score. David Mirkovic, the preseason AP All-American, did not play. The sophomore forward had an appendectomy on Saturday and is out indefinitely, on top of a recovery from foot surgery in early August. So the Illini opened a season with Final Four expectations without their best player, and still won by 75.

Eleven Before One

FDU never had a chance to settle in. Illinois scored the first 11 points and held the Knights scoreless for the opening 3:10. By the 14:06 mark of the first half it was 21-2, and the crowd in Champaign was already doing the math on how ugly this could get.

The answer arrived late in the half. Illinois ripped off a 24-0 run over roughly five minutes, stretching the lead to 62-17 and forcing FDU to burn its final timeout of the half in the middle of it. The Illini went to the locker room up 67-20.

The first-half shooting numbers tell the story of two teams living behind the arc with wildly different results. The teams combined for 48 three-point attempts before the break. Illinois made 12 of 31. FDU made 1 of 17. When one team is hitting nearly 39 percent from deep and owning the glass and the other is missing from everywhere, a 47-point halftime lead is just arithmetic.

There was no letup after the break. Illinois opened the second half on a 13-3 run, cracked 100 points with 9:13 to play, and kept emptying the bench without losing any juice. The Illini fell seven points shy of the school record for points in a game.

The Newcomers Showed Up

The most encouraging part of this blowout for Illinois was who did the damage. Vaaks, playing a first game in an Illinois uniform, was the night's sharpest shooter: 20 points on 7-of-9 from the field and 5-of-7 from three in 19 minutes, plus four assists. That is the kind of efficient perimeter punch that changes how defenses have to guard everyone else.

Then there were the true debuts. Quentin Coleman, making a first career start, posted a double-double in a college debut, finishing with 13 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and three steals. Ethan Brown, also starting in a collegiate debut, put up 12 points, nine rebounds and a game-high seven assists without a single turnover. Zavier Zens added 12 points off the bench in a first college game, Lucas Morillo chipped in nine points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes, and Landon Davis knocked down both three-point tries for six points.

Coleman's line deserves a second look. Coleman shot 5-of-15 and 2-of-10 from three, so it was not a smooth scoring night, but the newcomer still found a way to fill the box score with 10 defensive rebounds, six dimes and three steals. Any player who impacts the game when the shot is not falling is a player coaches trust in March.

Stojakovic, meanwhile, looked every bit the veteran, making 9 of 11 shots with seven rebounds and four assists in just 20 minutes. Tomislav Ivisic added 10 points, four rebounds and two blocks, and Blake Fagbemi hit two threes for eight points in 10 minutes.

Turning Point: Turning It Into a Rout

If there was one stretch where a lopsided game became a historic one, it was that 24-0 burst late in the first half. Up to that point Illinois was simply better. After it, FDU had nothing left to adjust with. The timeouts were gone, the deficit was north of 40, and the Illini were rotating fresh bodies into a game the Knights could not slow down.

Underwood's roster depth was the real weapon. Illinois' bench outscored FDU's 63-20, and 13 different Illini played. The Illini also dominated inside, winning points in the paint 54-22 and second-chance points 31-5. Every miss became another possession, and the offense shared the ball beautifully, with assists on 30 of 46 made baskets.

The ball security was just as impressive for a first game with so many new faces. Illinois committed only seven turnovers while forcing 12, and Brown and Coleman, two first-time starters handling plenty of the ball, combined for 13 assists and zero giveaways.

FDU's Rough Night

For Fairleigh Dickinson, the evening was a harsh opener on the road against one of the best teams in the country. The Knights shot 28 percent (17 of 61) and 5-of-33 from three, and the 21 total rebounds left them almost no extra chances. David Jevtic was the lone bright spot, scoring 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting with six rebounds. Nobody else on the FDU roster reached double figures.

This is the same program that pulled off one of the greatest upsets in NCAA Tournament history, taking down No. 1 seed Purdue as a No. 16 seed in 2023. But FDU has had three straight losing seasons since, including an 11-21 mark last year, and Monday was a reminder of the gulf between a rebuilding Northeast Conference team and a national title contender. Paycheck games like this one fund the athletic budget. They rarely fund confidence.

What It Means for the Illini

It is one game against an overmatched opponent, so nobody should be printing Final Four tickets off this. But the details matter, and the details were good.

The biggest question for Illinois entering the season was how long Mirkovic would be out and how the rotation would hold up in the meantime. Monday offered an early answer: the Illini have enough shooting, size and playmaking to survive while their All-American heals. Vaaks gives them a pure shooter, Coleman and Brown look like they can run the offense, and the frontcourt pieces cleaned the glass with absurd efficiency.

There was one worry. Jake Davis, who started, suffered a shoulder injury midway through the first half and did not return, logging just six minutes. With Mirkovic already out, the Illini cannot afford to lose more frontcourt bodies, so the Davis injury bears watching. The free throw line was also a rare blemish at 9-of-16, the kind of thing nobody notices in a 75-point win and everybody notices in a two-point game.

This is a team coming off the program's first Final Four trip since 2005, and the expectations are sky-high again. Illinois is now 108-14 all time in season openers and has won 10 straight since Underwood's first season in 2017. The Illini followed this one with a 112-70 win over Penn on Thursday, and next comes a road date at No. 19 Texas Tech on Nov. 10, the first real test of the season.

The Take

Blowouts like this tell you more about a team's habits than its ceiling. Illinois played hard for 40 minutes, shared the ball, crashed the offensive glass and never got sloppy, all without its best player. The newcomers looked comfortable, the transfer shooter looked like a weapon, and the depth looked real. Bigger tests are coming fast, but the Illini could not have drawn up a cleaner first night.

Check the full box score (opens in a new tab) and the Illinois Athletics recap (opens in a new tab) for every number from the record-setting night.

Sources: Illinois Athletics, ESPN, Associated Press, Chicago Sun-Times, ClutchPoints. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: Illinois Athletics.