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Illinois Basketball: Illini would be getting a steal with Demarius Jacobs

By Rees Woodcock

CHAMPAIGN, IL - DECEMBER 06: An Illinois Fighting Illini fan is seen before the game against the IUPUI Jaguars at State Farm Center on December 6, 2016 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
CHAMPAIGN, IL - DECEMBER 06: An Illinois Fighting Illini fan is seen before the game against the IUPUI Jaguars at State Farm Center on December 6, 2016 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /
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The Illinois basketball team continued to push for class of 2018 recruits Friday evening.

Brad Underwood and the Illini coaching staff extended an offer to Demarius Jacobs. He is a 6-foot-3, 155-pound guard from Chicago, Illinois but is attending Hillcrest Prep down in Phoenix, Arizona. Right now, he is rated as a three-star recruit who is the No. 330 player in the class of 2018 and the No. 76 shooting guard in the nation.

This offer to Jacobs makes complete sense for the Illini. He is an athletic guard and that is what Underwood wants on the court. After this season, Illinois will be losing Mark Alstork who has currently been the starting No. 2. Someone will need to replace him depth wise.

Illinois offering Jacobs also makes sense because of his connections on the AAU circuit. He ran with the Mac Irvin Fire in the summer and this is the same team Ayo Dosunmu ran with. There is already a chemistry built with those two, and I would bet Dosunmu gave some type of recommendation.

Beyond making sense with regards to the lineup and connections, I also like this move because Jacobs is a pretty good player as well. He averaged 21.4 minutes per game with the Mac Irvin Fire last summer and in that time, he dropped 13.5 points per game and added in 4.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. This great play transferred over to the high school season as well.

Jacobs has averaged 12.9 points, 5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.3 blocks per game for Hillcrest Prep. He doesn’t just specialize in one area on the floor. I like that. He can do everything or whatever the team needs him to be. Underwood is going to love that.

Underwood will hopefully land Jacobs, but his recruitment has been up and down, to say the least. He originally committed to Southern Illinois back in October 2016 as a relatively unknown recruit. But, then he started blowing up a bit and teams took notice. Jacobs decided to back away from his commitment to the Salukis and take a look at some other options in March 2017. Since then he has received more offers from power five programs.

Arizona State is going hard after him and so is Utah. But, Illinois should have the lead here. Jacobs has a chance to stay home and play for his in-state program. He can play with one of his teammates from his AAU team as well. Illinois also has playing time available.

Next: 5 takeaways from the Illini loss to Wisconsin part two

There are so many reasons why Jacobs could choose Illinois. The Illini will hopefully land this kid. He is extremely underrated, and I am not sure how he isn’t higher than No. 330 in the class of 2018. But, if Illinois can land him, they would be getting a steal for next season.

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