Illinois Basketball: Illini in to see Adam Miller and Marcus Watson

Recruiting never stops and that means Illinois basketball head coach Brad Underwood was on the road this week.

Illinois has pretty much wrapped up their class of 2019 and has officially transitioned into focusing fully on the class of 2020. There are a few handfuls of recruits the Illini have been targeting for quite some time. Some of these recruits are local kids who could help this team immediately. Coach Underwood was watching a few of these players suit up for a tournament this weekend.

The Border Wars High School Jamboree is being held this weekend with some big-time programs competing including Morgan Park High School. Morgan Park was 2-1 on Saturday and still has two games remaining to finish out the tournament on Sunday. They continue to produce top talent in the country as well. There are a few players Illinois wants to land from this team which includes Marcus Watson and Adam Miller.

Among the different stops Underwood made on Saturday, he stopped in to watch both Watson and Miller suit up for Morgan Park. Brandon Simberg, who is a contributor for Busting Brackets, tweeted out that Underwood was in the building watching the two talented recruits.

Needless to say, both Miller and Watson would be huge additions to this Illini program. Miller is a 6-foot-3, 170-pound combo guard who is rated as a four-star recruit and is the No. 28 player in the class of 2020 and the best player in the state of Illinois.

Watson is an underrated up-and-coming recruit. His recruiting status has started to improve greatly over the past few months. This young point guard is now listed as a three-star recruit who is the No. 339 player in the class of 2020 and the No. 8 player in the state of Illinois.

Underwood sees the need for both of these players and him showing up to their tournament on Saturday shows that he wants both to be wearing Orange and Blue in 2020. If you look at the roster, you could see that both are needed next year too.

Ayo Dosunmu is going to depart the team for the NBA Draft after this upcoming, which leaves the No. 1 position open on the team. His backup, Andres Feliz, will also be departing due to graduation. So, there are two spots that need to be filled. Trent Frazier, Illinois’ starting No. 2 guard, is a junior and only has this year and next year and then he will be gone. Within the next two years, the Illinois guard situation is going to look completely different. That is why we need more talent at these two positions.

Miller could come in and start from day one. I think Illinois could slot him in the No. 1 guard spot similar to how Ayo was coming into the program. He is a ball handler who can also do the other things on the court. Watson would then come in and be a solid backup to start his career. He would then transition into a starting role within a year or two of being at Illinois.

Illinois needs more guard help and soon. Adding two players like Miller and Watson would solve a lot of problems we are about to run into. Underwood realizes this fact. That is why he is putting in the time, sweat and money to get these kids to come to Champaign. They are the future.