Illinois Basketball: Andre Curbelo keeps Illini in top 5

The Illinois basketball team just made the top five for one of their biggest targets left on the board.

On Monday afternoon, Andre Curbelo announced on Twitter that he has cut his list down to just five teams. The five programs he included are Indiana, Miami (FL), Oregon, St. John’s and Illinois. This is a big-time list for the Illini, but it will also be a tough test to see if we can beat out some good teams for this talented player.

Curbelo is a 6-foot, 155-pound point guard from Long Island Lutheran High School. He is originally from Puerto Rico, though. Curbelo is rated as a four-star recruit who is the No. 55 player in the class of 2020 and the No. 9 point guard in the nation. He is also the No. 1 player coming out of Puerto Rico.

Illinois had big man Coleman Hawkins commit on Saturday for the class of 2020. After his commitment, I put together a rough outline of what the Illinois lineup would look like when the class of 2020 are freshmen. What I produced made me a little worried. We are going to be extremely thin at the guard position.

I had Trent Frazier shifting over to the No. 1 guard role because both Ayo Dosunmu and Andres Feliz are likely gone after this upcoming season. That leaves a massive hole in the Illinois lineup which needs to be filled. Andre Curbelo is the perfect replacement for those departing guards.

You can’t discount the fact the Illinois coaching staff has done a great job recruiting kids who are traditionally from outside the contiguous 48 states. Kofi Cockburn and Giorgi Bezhanishvili are two big men who are starting for the Illini. Andres Feliz has done great things as the primary backup for Ayo this season too. I think Orlando Antigua is doing a great job bringing these kids in and helping them improve their game.

I would love if the Illini landed Curbelo. He is a great guard who could help this team as a freshman. He is instantly one of the top targets for the Orange and Blue.