Illinois Basketball: Courtney Ramey back on the Illini radar

With the Illinois basketball team still looking for some commitments for the class of 2018, they have reached back out to now available Courtney Ramey.

Ramey just decommitted from the Louisville Cardinals after the FBI came down on the program for paying a player. Their assistant coach is in some serious trouble for, allegedly, committing some illegal acts and Rick Pitino was fired because this is essentially his third strike and there is the possibility he is in the FBI reports.

So, with all that put on the Cardinals program, their class of 2018 has scattered and one of those players was Ramey. He has now opened his recruitment back up and, last night, Illinois said the scholarship is still valid if he wants to come to Champaign.

At one time, Ramey was looking at Illinois heavily. He loved the visits he took up to Champaign and I thought the Illini had a chance to snag this talented point guard. But since then, Ramey has committed and decommitted from Louisville and Illinois has gone through a coaching change.

The second time around will hopefully turn out better for Illinois. They could use a kid like Ramey. He is a 6-foot-3, 170-pound point guard from Webster Groves High School in Saint Louis, Missouri. He is rated as a five-star recruit who is the No. 26 player in the class of 2018 and the No. 7 point guard in the nation.

I have to assume Missouri would be all over this kid considering he is an in-state product. But the Tigers, as of right now, don’t have a scholarship to offer Ramey. They already hit their max but in all likelihood, Michael Porter Jr. will take off for the NBA after this season which would leave another scholarship open. But as of right now Missouri doesn’t have one to offer Ramey which means they are out of the picture.

A dark horse in the re-recruitment of Ramey could be Saint Louis. They were able to snag Jordan Goodwin from the state of Illinois in the class of 2017 and he was a top 100 recruit. They also have a scholarship open for 2018 as well. Don’t be surprised if they are a contender in the Ramey sweepstakes.

Ramey has also mentioned in the past he likes a program that is closer to home. So of the programs who “reiterated” their offers, I would throw out Texas, Ohio State, Clemson, Wake Forest, Cincinnati and Texas A&M. That would leave Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Marquette and Purdue.

Next: Talen Horton-Tucker keeps Illini in top 7

I am not saying Illinois will snag Ramey but they were in the running the first time and I believe they were left on the doorstep. They got beat by a team that has been known for shady dealings. Maybe, just maybe, this is Brad Underwood’s time to shine.