Illinois Basketball: Top 5 underrated Illini recruits of the past decade

The past decade hasn’t been great for the Illinois basketball team when you look at the win-loss column.

Brad Underwood has set out to turn around this great program and redevelop its recruiting base for years to come. This isn’t an easy task, though. The previous coaching regime really messed things up. For starters, we haven’t seen the NCAA tournament in about eight years now. That is rough for recruiting.

Despite the difficulties obtaining victories, Illinois has had some special recruits walk through the door. On the current roster, the Illini have talented guard, Ayo Dosunmu. Ayo is someone who could win the Big Ten Player of the Year award this upcoming season.

Illinois has a history of talented players over the past decade. I love what Meyers Leonard brought to the team. He was a solid big man. Brandon Paul was a player who could lite the world on fire too. But let’s not forget about the little guys.

The Illini have added players who aren’t ranked the highest in their class but they outperform their ranking. These underrated players come into the Illinois program and perform much better than what the national experts projected them at coming out of high school. There are five big-time underrated players that come to mind.

Here are the top five underrated Illini recruits from the past decade.