
No. 5 Taylor Bruninga
Recruiting is extremely important right now and Underwood is really laying all his cards out on the table to see what he could possibly land. There are currently many options for him and one interesting one is little known Taylor Bruninga.
Bruninga is a 6-foot-9 forward who has flown under the radar his entire recruitment. He has grown tremendously over the last year and is now a talented, well built, player who has handles like a guard.
I like a lot of what Bruninga brings to the game, but the reason he is only the No. 5 priority now is because Illinois only has four scholarships remaining and there are other players that would play early on in their careers.
With that being said, though, I do believe Bruninga will turn into a great player despite only having scholarship offers from low mid-major programs. I think he sits a year and really continues to develop physically, then he will turn into a dominant force.
If Illinois snags Bruninga I would love it. According to his AAU coach, Gavin Sullivan, he is trying to work in an unofficial visit to Champaign next week.
Bruninga is a talented kid that has a chance to become a player like Alec Peters or Frank Kaminsky. It would be nice if Underwood could get him to play for the Illini.