It was a rough night for Illinois basketball fans as one of the top targets and someone who was supposed to be suiting up for the Illini decided to commit elsewhere.
Just within the last couple of months, there were Crystal Ball predictions placed on David Jones that were saying he was coming to the Illinois Fighting Illini. Derek Piper of the Illini Inquirer was the first to place his prediction, but the tides started to change in recent days.
On August 29, the first Crystal Ball for DePaul to land Jones was placed. This was a shocker to most people, but then more predictions were to follow. By August 31 at noon, there were seven out of seven Crystal Ball predictions placed for the Blue Demons to land the talented forward.
Jones made it official on Monday night when he announced that he would be committing to DePaul. This was gut-punch to Illinois fans because he was supposed to come to Champaign. He was supposed to join Luke Goode as the two commits for the class of 2021.
While Jones didn’t pan out, there are still some big fish left on the board. The class of 2021 could still be special if we could fill the final three scholarship spots with players who I am eyeing right now.
Here is the best-case Illini lineup after missing on David Jones.