Illinois Basketball: Illini showing interest in 2022’s Will Lovings-Watts

The Illinois basketball program continues to build for the future, as they have taken priority interest in three-star shooting guard, Will Lovings-Watts.

Lovings-Watts is a 6-foot-4, 170-pound shooting guard from Jefferson, Indiana, and attends Jefferson High School. As a member of the 2022 class, Lovings-Watts already holds offers from Indiana, Louisville, and Purdue. However, according to a recent tweet from Jake Lieberman of SB Nation’s Mac Nation, Lovings-Watts has an interest in a few schools, including Illinois.

A three-star recruit, Loving-Watts’ squad is coming off an impressive 21-5 season that saw the Bronchos finish 9-1 in conference play. Notable wins included an opening day thrashing of Indianapolis Metropolitan 98-56, along with key conference victories against Logansport and Anderson, as they handled both squads by double-digits.

Eventually, the team would ride their momentum all the way to the postseason before losing in the regional semifinal to Harrison by three, 51-48. The team improved by four games in 2019, and as they enter a possible 2020-2021 season, the future looks promising for a relatively young Bronchos squad.

What would Will Lovings-Watts bring to Champaign?

With two years to go, Lovings-Watts still has an ample amount of time to get better. In an interview with Inside the Hall, Watts gave Big Ten fans a glimpse of what to expect at the college level. He is currently ranked as the No. 4 best player in the state of Indiana for his class.

“I would say I’m more of a drive-first guy that can get my teammates open for shots, but I can still shoot. I need to,” Lovings-Watts said when describing his game.

Lovings-Watts would come to Champaign as one of the key building blocks for the future, as the team hopes to contend for a national title in the years to come, having nearly won a Big Ten title in March.