The Illinois basketball coaching staff has done some work this week on the recruiting trail.
There are Illini coaches all over the country, and one of the stops made by assistant coach Orlando Antigua was to Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville, New York. New York has been a state the Illini have recruited well the past few seasons, and it seems that the coaching staff is still trying to make it a stable pipeline.
Illinois is targeting a few Long Island Lutheran players for the next couple of classes. Coach Antigua stopped by their open gym that was being held on Tuesday to check out the targets they want for the program.
One of the targets was Andre Curbelo. He is a 6-foot, 155-pound point guard who is from Puerto Rico but currently attends Long Island Lutheran. He is rated as a four-star recruit who is the No. 76 player in the class of 2020 and the No. 10 point guard in the nation. He is also the No. 3 player coming out of Puerto Rico as well.
Curbelo has over 10 scholarship offers and most of them are from big-time programs. Besides for the Illini offer, he has offers from teams like St. John’s, West Virginia and Florida, among others. The other player that Illinois has offered who Coach Antigua was there to see was Zed Key.
Key is a 6-foot-7, 215-pound small forward from Glen Head, New York. He is rated as a three-star recruit who is the No. 237 player in the class of 2020 and the No. 46 small forward in the nation. He is also the No. 6 player in the state of New York as well.
The scholarship offers have started to pile up for Key as well. Illinois is one of his offers to go along with some of the other big-time programs like Florida, Cincinnati and Penn State, among others. He is a wanted player who can help a team. I am curious to see where he lands.
The Writing Illini was also able to confirm that Coach Antigua was watching Drissa Traore as well. While Traore doesn’t have an Illinois offer yet, Coach Antigua really liked him on the court. He isn’t rated by recruiting sites yet, but I like his size. Traore is a 6-foot-7, 200-pound small forward from Harlem, New York. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to get in on this kid now before his recruitment takes off.
Next. Where does Cockburn rank among top 5 Illini center commits. dark
Illinois isn’t letting up on the New York pipeline. There is a ton of talent that comes out of there, and this program is doing a great job in snagging some of the top guys. Coach Antigua is trying to continue that trend.