Illinois Basketball: Nimari Burnett cuts list and schedules first official visit

Illinois basketball and 11 other programs found out they made the top list for Nimari Burnett on Monday afternoon.

Tipton Edits earned the honor of putting together the graphic and releasing it for Burnett. The top 12 list competing for his commitment include Louisville, Oregon, UCLA, Stanford, Alabama, Marquette, Arkansas, Auburn, Arizona, Wake Forest, Michigan and Illinois. This is a deep list of teams who could all end up landing this talented guard.

Burnett is a 6-foot-3, 185-pound combo guard from Prolific Prep High School out in Napa, California. He is rated as a five-star recruit who is the No. 23 player in the class of 2020 and the No. 5 combo guard in the nation.

The recruitment of Burnett has been fairly quiet. He hasn’t released much in the way of what teams are leading, but things seem to now be shaking out. Just a few weeks ago, the Writing Illini was able to catch up with Burnett to see how things were going with this recruitment.

Illinois is still a player in the Burnett decision. He mentioned to the Writing Illini that the coaching staff still has good communication with the talented guard and that they are making him a priority. But he also mentions there is a good mix making him a priority.

Burnett is now going to be taking official visits. The first on the list of official visits will be to Alabama on September 27. He was able to confirm this date with the Writing Illini. That is his only scheduled official visit as of right now.

The top 12 are a good bunch of teams, but who will emerge the winner for such a talented recruit? Obviously, Alabama is in the mix. My guess is Illinois, Michigan, Louisville and Arizona will be the other four programs who get one of the final four official visits.

Illinois has a legit shot at landing Burnett. They can’t let off the gas pedal, though. He is a wanted recruit by some of the powers in the nation. This would be a great get by the Illini coaching staff.