Illinois Basketball: Jose Perez would fit seamlessly with Illini roster

Building out the roster for the future is extremely important for the Illinois basketball team considering the talent that is leaving.

Ayo Dosunmu declared for the NBA and, in my opinion, is not likely to come back. Andres Feliz graduated, so he won’t return. Trent Frazier and Da’Monte Williams will both depart due to graduation after the upcoming season as well. That means we need to add guard talent. Snagging someone like Jose Perez would be huge for the program.

Perez is one of the most wanted transfers on the market right now. The highly-underrated recruit coming out of high school spent two years at Gardner-Webb before deciding to take his talents to a higher program.

While with the Runnin’ Bulldogs, Perez put up some great numbers. He finished his two-year career averaging 15.1 points, 6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. He is also a career 40.1-percent shooter from the field and 32.5-percent shooter from three-point range.

Back on April 25, Perez decided to cut his list down to his top 10. That list has now been cut again to just five teams. The five programs vying for his commitment include Memphis, Iowa State, Marquette, Georgia Tech and Illinois.

The Illini moving one step closer to landing Perez is big. We need someone like him. He would come in and have to sit this season. But Perez would still have two years of eligibility remaining.

Illinois has a lot of attrition at the guard roles on the team. I mentioned some of the guards who will depart the program earlier in this article. We do have Adam Miller and Andre Curbelo both coming in, though. I could see Perez fitting in nicely at the No. 3 spot for the Illini. This would make the most sense.

The Illini would have a stacked team if Perez decides to come to Champaign. Honestly, I think we would be the most ready to win now.