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Illinois Basketball: Brad Underwood offers scholarship to Tamell Pearson

By Rees Woodcock

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Head coach Brad Underwood of the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks reacts in the first half against the West Virginia Mountaineers during the first round of the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Barclays Center on March 18, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Head coach Brad Underwood of the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks reacts in the first half against the West Virginia Mountaineers during the first round of the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Barclays Center on March 18, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) /
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The Illinois basketball team made another move for the class of 2018 last night.

Brad Underwood and the Illini coaching staff decided to extend a scholarship offer to Tamell Pearson. He is a 6-foot-10, 200-pound big man from Morgan Park High School in Chicago, Illinois. He isn’t currently rated by Scout, but they also don’t have his measurables updated either. They still have him at 6-foot-8 and the current listed height on the AAU circuit is 6-foot-10.

Pearson holds a decent amount of scholarship offers as of right now as well. Most of the programs are lower level Division I teams, but Oklahoma State still has an offer extended to him as well as the Illini.

You can tell Pearson is still an extremely raw player on the basketball court. His strengths are few, right now, and he has a lot of flaws in his game. Some areas he excels at is athletic ability. He can run the court well for a big man and will get up and down during the fast-paced Underwood offense. Pearson is also good around the rim. He can score when he gets the ball in the paint.

An issue right now is Pearson’s shooting ability. Without him being down on the block or setting pick and rolls, he can’t be used. He isn’t good at shooting as of right now, but that will continue to improve under Underwood’s tutelage.

The strengths and weaknesses in Pearson’s game are evident when you watch him play and in the stat line. He played for the Mac Irvin Fire AAU program this season and put up some decent numbers. In the 13.9 minutes per game he received, Pearson managed to put up 6.5 points and pulled down 5.7 rebounds. Those aren’t terrible stats by any means. It shows to me he can be effective and an asset to the Illini.

Pearson shot 49.4-percent from the field, which is remarkable but most of the shots were right around the rim so that stat should be extremely high. He only shot 48-percent from the free throw line, though. This could be a liability moving forward. One thing I don’t like is his fouling. He averaged 1.9 fouls per game in just 13.9 minutes. That is a foul every 7 minutes. He needs to be more disciplined and that is something Underwood can also teach him.

Next: Update on Tim Finke’s Peach Jam performance

So, overall, Illinois offered Pearson who is a kid with a high upside but is extremely raw right now. He is by far more effective around the basketball hoop but when he steps outside the paint he becomes a liability. Pearson has a great upside, though. This was an interesting offer and I trust what Underwood is doing with the future of this program.

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