The Illinois basketball team needs to get some help for Ayo Dosunmu in the class of 2018.
This class only consists of Dosunmu right now despite Brad Underwood and the Illini’s efforts to land multiple players. The task of getting a few more players for 2018 isn’t over, though. Illinois still has two scholarships remaining for next season and landing a big man is one of their priorities.
The latest name to emerge for the Illini on the recruiting front is Schnider Herard. Herard is a 6-foot-10, 260-pound center who announced he was transferring from Mississippi State back on December 31, 2017.
Herard’s transfer didn’t come as a surprise, though. He averaged 5.1 points and 5 rebounds while playing 18.6 minutes per game his freshman season. But, only through 11 games this season, Herard was averaging 8 MPG and only putting up 1 PPG and 2.1 RPG. The lack of time on the floor likely led to the transfer.
There is a pretty big transfer market for Herard. According to Derek Piper of 247Sports, Herard is going to visit Baylor and possibly Arizona State. He will then make an official visit to Illinois as well. He also mentions in the article that Herard can enroll as a mid-year transfer making him eligible to play for the Illini starting the second semester next season. This would be similar to the situation with Kipper Nichols a few years back.
I am in favor of this move by the Illini. They need big man help and if they can get Herard for a year and a half, then I want to see him in Orange and Blue. This kid was also a highly rated recruit coming out of high school as well. He was rated as a four-star center who was the No. 47 player in the class of 2016 and the No. 7 player in the state of Texas. The two teams he was deciding between were Mississippi State and Kansas.
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What the addition of Herard would do for the Illini is give them more skill in the frontcourt. Next season, I would imagine Greg Eboigbodin will start at the No. 5 to begin the year with Michael Finke as the backup to him. When the second semester starts, Herard would then likely take the starting role from Eboigbodin and they would split time pretty evenly. That is how I see this situation working out.