Illinois Basketball: Illini pursuing Ohio State transfer DJ Carton

Well Illinois basketball fans, we might be in the running for a big-time in-conference transfer.

On Thursday afternoon, Ohio State guard DJ Carton announced on Twitter that he would be transferring away from the program. This is a big loss for the Buckeyes considering how talented Carton is and how highly rated he was coming out of high school.

Carton was a 6-foot-1, 190-pound point guard from Bettendorf High School and resided in Bettendorf, Iowa. He was rated as a four-star recruit who was the No. 34 player in the class of 2019 and the No. 4 point guard in the nation. He was also the best player in the state of Iowa.

There were a ton of teams after Carton during his recruitment. Illinois was one of the programs pursuing the talented guard, but he only took three official visits. He had visited Ohio State, Indiana and Michigan. The news about Carton on Thursday wasn’t done with just the transfer post, though.

Jake Weingarten of Stockrisers.com posted on Twitter that Illinois was one of the programs to reach out to Carton after his transfer was announced. In addition to the Illini, Louisville, Nebraska, Ole Miss, Seton Hall, Alabama, Oregon, Creighton and Minnesota have also reached out.

Who is going to land Carton? That is a tough question to answer. Only he knows that and, at this point, he might not even know where he wants to go.

The fact Iowa hasn’t contacted Carton surprises me. I figured they would be first to jump on the kid. Indiana and Michigan received official visits the first time around, but they weren’t mentioned in the contacts either. It wouldn’t shock me to see these three programs emerge somewhere down the line.

I do think there is a chance the Illini can bring in Carton, though. He wouldn’t be eligible next season, so he would have to sit out a year. That is good for Illinois considering we don’t have scholarships available for the upcoming season. But, in 2021-22, there will be plenty of room on the roster.

No matter what, I want Carton to go where he is comfortable. He has had some issues with mental health in his life, and getting that under control is the most important thing. I want to see this kid prosper wherever he goes.