The Illinois basketball team is in the running for a lot of different players for the class of 2019.
One of the biggest recruits the Illini have been after for a while is forward, EJ Liddell. He is a big-time player from Belleville West High School in Belleville, Illinois. He is rated as a four-star recruit who is the No. 40 player in the class of 2019 and the No. 8 power forward in the nation.
Liddell ended up cutting his list down on August 13 to just five programs and included Kansas State, Missouri, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Illinois as his five finalists. Now, it looks like those five teams have been narrowed down to just three possible suitors.
First reported by Joe Henricksen of the City/Suburban Hoops Report, Liddell has decided to let both Wisconsin and Kansas State know that they are not in the running for his commitment anymore. This leaves only Ohio State, Missouri and Illinois as the final three landing spots for this young, talented, player.
With both Kansas State and Wisconsin staffs informed yesterday that the list was down to three, the state’s top prospect, EJ Liddell of Belleville West, now officially down to #Buckeyes, #Mizzou and #Illini.
— Joe Henricksen (@joehoopsreport) September 12, 2018
Liddell has already visited Ohio State back on August 31 and was at Missouri this past weekend. His remaining visit schedule was supposed to go Kansas State on September 28, Wisconsin on October 5 and Illinois to end it on October 12. Since the Wildcats are eliminated and so are the Badgers, Liddell has now moved up the Illini visit to September 21. This weekend has become a huge one for the Fighting Illini.
The weekend of September 21 will not just include Liddell. He will be joining the likes of top 25 center, Oscar Tshiebwe, and top 90 wing player, Terrence Shannon, on this visit. Illinois will have all three of these big-time players in on the same weekend. This is either going to be one of the best weekends for Illinois basketball in a very long time, or it could be extremely depressing.
On the Liddell recruitment, I think the top three the entire time was Missouri, Ohio State and Illinois. These three teams seemed to have been in the running consistently. If I had to handicap his recruitment, I would probably say Missouri has a slight lead with Illinois as the second place team and Ohio State in third right now. But, that could all change two weekends from now.
6 important official visits for the Illini. dark. Next
September 21 has turned into a huge weekend for this Illinois basketball program and Brad Underwood. If he can land a few of these guys who are visiting, it would be colossal. It would change the program completely. This team would be a contender for at least a Sweet 16 berth in 2019. That is what this weekend would mean.