Illinois Fighting Illini forward David Mirkovic is having one hell of a NCAA Tournament. In addition to averagin 16.7 ppg and 10.7 rpg this March Madness, the Niksic, Montenegro native provided one of the tourney’s best soundbites/most memorable moment.
Take a look below, and make your best guess as to what the “secret” is.
“Secret. I can’t tell you.” 😂
David Mirkovic & Tomislav Ivisic were sharing secrets as they caught up with @LaurenShehadi 🤫 @IlliniMBB pic.twitter.com/pbBSitX8fl
— TNT Sports U.S. (@TNTSportsUS) March 27, 2026
Regional Final/Elite 8 FYIs
#3 Illinois Fighting Illini vs. #9 Iowa Hawkeyes
Saturday, March 28 | 5:09 p.m. CT Houston, Texas | Toyota Center
TBS/TruTV (Kevin Harlan, Robbie Hummel, Stan Van Gundy, & Lauren Shehadi)
David Mirkovic Exclusive Part 1: go here
Brad Underwood on the need for “nastiness” Illini March Madness History for Xennials Illini Bracket Bad Blood
And like we said in the first part of our exclusive interview, Mirkovic is indeed the best soundbite on this Illini basketball team. But Jake Davis isn’t far behind.
David Mirkovic is just a freshman, but if he comes back to Illinois for another year, he can really work on his polishing his individual game and augment his NBA Draft stock. There was already some NBA Draft chatter about him, all season long, but of course, he is not yet the finished product.
This March has been great for him so far, on both an individual, and at a team level.
We asked Mirk what he’s been working on in order to raise his game.
“I would say probably this summer we should focus about my athletic abilities and finishing at the rim little better,” David Mirkovic said in an exclusive with The Sports Bank.
“Because I would say winning, if you win and if you are the best team in the country, you are one of the best players on one of the best teams in the country, you get more exposed.
“And I would say the winning, if the teams from professional basketball, from the NBA see that your team wins games and that you, what’s the word? I would say that you give a lot, and you offer a lot in that winning, would get you just that.”
Heart and/or effort, were the words that Mirkovic was looking for there, and he has both, in spades. He’s shown heart, effort, or grit, guts, cajones, chutzpah, whatever you want to call it, over and over again this postseason.
He’s absolutely right in that winning is indeed a rising tide that lifts all boats. And right now, Illinois is winning.
The Illini have now made two Elite Eights in the last three years and they are the Big Ten’s winningest team in conference play over the last seven seasons.
Additionally, Brad Underwood’s program is one of four schools nationally with seven straight 20-win regular seasons
David Mirkovic also went on to say that he looks up to two stars from the Adriatic, and models his game after them.
That would be Serbian superstar Nikola Jokic, a three time NBA MVP and 2023 NBA Finals MVP, as well as Slovenian scoring machine Luka Doncic, a five time All-NBA first team and 2024 scoring champion.
“Since I started playing basketball, I had my first coach that compared me to Jokic when he wasn’t in NBA,” Mirkovic said.
“He was playing in Mega (Vizura) in the same league (Mega Basket) I played. And since I started, he was my favorite basketball player, and I studied him a lot.
“Then there was Luca, I watched him even before he started playing in the NBA, when he was playing professionally, Euroleague (with Real Madrid).
And I would say probably those two players are the guys that I most looked up to, and I tried to study and model my game by them.”
David Mirkovic has set a very high bar in this regard, and that is reflective of his strong ambitions.
He then noted what it’s like to play at some of the more marquee programs in the Big Ten, one of the nation’s top conferences.
“When you play Michigan State, you see the jersey of Magic Johnson, and like a lot of NBA legends,” Mirkovic added.
“It’s just bigger I would say. More people just watching the games. There are more fans the I would say, and they care more about the wins and losses.”
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, RG.org and Ratings.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.