CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Kylan Boswell’s imprint on Illinois’s 81–77 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night began seven months ago in mid-April, when California star wing Andrej Stojaković entered his name in the transfer portal. It was no secret Illinois was interested, but Boswell, a Champaign, Ill., native and one of a few returners for the Illini, wanted to ensure the message was received.
“I was harassing this dude,” Boswell joked Tuesday night.
Thankfully for Illinois, Stojaković took the nonstop texts trying to convince him to join the program well and committed after less than two weeks. That recruiting win for Boswell was just the beginning of the Illini senior establishing himself as the glue that holds this potential title contender together.
On and off the floor, the former Arizona guard bucks every narrative that transfers can’t be true “program guys.” Perhaps Boswell’s local roots help, but on and off the court, he has made it clear he’s willing to do anything and everything to deliver wins in his final season of college basketball. And his impact was all over Tuesday’s statement win over the Red Raiders.
“He’s our leader, we follow him,” Underwood said. “He’s our guy.”
On the court, it may have been Boswell’s finest performance in an Illinois uniform. He opened the Illini scoring with a pair of threes on back-to-back possessions after Illinois started down 7–0, then capped a 9–0 run by dishing to forward David Mirkovic for another. He went to the free throw line 12 times, a mark that would have matched a career high had he not taken 13 free throws in Friday’s win over Florida Gulf Coast. He delivered a dagger bucket to go up two scores in the final minute, then helped maintain that lead with free throws late. And that was just the offensive end, perhaps the weaker side of Boswell’s game. Defensively is where Boswell has often made his mark, and Tuesday’s game was the perfect illustration of just how much of an impact he can have.
He opened the game guarding Christian Anderson, a shifty point guard rapidly emerging as one of the top young guards in the country. Anderson, who the week before had 34 points and 11 assists in Texas Tech’s season opener, was largely neutralized by Boswell, whose physicality at the point of attack seemed to bother him. But with usual center Tomislav Ivišić out with a knee injury and star Texas Tech big man JT Toppin helping the Red Raiders make their first 11 field goals of the second half, Underwood switched Boswell from guarding Tech’s point guard to trailing its center. Boswell was just as effective at handling one of the most physical post presences in the country as he was chasing around a diminutive and dynamic point guard. Illinois matched up Boswell with Cooper Flagg and Danny Wolf in key moments last February, but this took things to a different level. Naturally, Boswell was ready for the challenge. He didn’t totally shut down Toppin, but he did make Tech work more for buckets after previously carving through the Illini defense like a knife through butter.
“What it did is it stalled us, you know?” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “We had a harder time getting in an action, and we improved over the course of it to get to something different, but it did mess with the flow for a few stretches and give them credit for making an adjustment.”
Generously listed at 6' 2", Boswell certainly doesn’t have the height to match up one-on-one with top frontcourt players like Flagg and Toppin. But what makes him so effective is how he uses his physicality, which drives players off their spots and makes life difficult, even if he doesn’t have the length to impact the shot.
“I think an advantage I have defensively is how strong I am,” Boswell said. “A lot of these bigs, they’re used to just catching it comfortably and I thought I did the best I could do with Toppin to make his catches hard. I’m used to, if the big guy’s going off, I have to switch and try to cut his water off the best I can.”
Guarding one of the best point guards and best bigs in the country in the span of one game, and doing both at an elite level, is something only Boswell could do. Underwood says he has tried with little avail to get Boswell the respect he deserves as one of the best defenders in the country; perhaps Tuesday helps him get there.
“I’ve been saying it for two years,” Underwood said. “I just keep saying he’s a really good two-way player. He’s elite defensively.”
Off the court, Boswell has emerged as the clear leader and loudest voice in a locker room featuring diverse backgrounds. There’s the much-discussed Eastern European contingent, two who played in college before (Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivišić), two who didn’t (Mirkovic, Mihailo Petrovic) and of course Stojaković, the prized transfer with plenty of European ties through his father, three-time NBA All-Star Peja Stojaković. Boswell did his part in building the team, and perhaps more than his fair share in helping make sure it was ready for the season. If the constant stream of recruiting messages didn’t bring Boswell and Stojaković close enough, Boswell flew to Stojaković’s native Greece to train and relax. The move made an impression on Boswell’s future backcourt mate.
“He met all my people,” Stojaković said, the gesture clearly still meaning a lot. “We got very close.”
That’s why there should have been no surprise that when video surfaced of the Illini celebrating the win in their locker room, the only target for the postgame water bottle bath was Boswell. While he may not always score 20 points or make the type of loud plays that earn you highlight tapes and all-conference honors, there’s little doubt that Kylan Boswell is one of the most important players in all of college basketball.
If you're going to wear this uniform, you're going to play with grit. pic.twitter.com/22WHzLXa3B
— Illinois Men's Basketball (@IlliniMBB) November 12, 2025
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Kylan Boswell Became the Glue and Emotional Leader Driving Illinois’s Rise.
