Illinois Basketball: No decision date yet for Illini target Bryce Hopkins
Illinois basketball fans had a wave of emotions when it came to the news about Bryce Hopkins on Tuesday afternoon.
Hopkins, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound beast of a power forward, is currently one of the most wanted recruits in the nation. With just about every team after the four-star, top 40 ranked, recruit, any bit of news is to be earth-shattering.
This is what happened when Jack Pilgrim of Kentucky Sports Radio reported that Hopkins’ was set to announce his commitment on October 20. A Kentucky news outlet announcing his commitment date is not a good sign, in my opinion.
Shortly after that news, Adam Zagoria of Forbes Sports tweeted out that Hopkins said he will not be committing on October 20 because he still has to finish his commitment video.
To further back up the notion that October 20 will not be the commitment date, Jake Weingarten of Stockrisers tweeted out that Hopkins will not be committing on that date. In fact, he isn’t even done sifting through the possible options.
In addition, Hopkins has upcoming zoom calls with the staff’s of Indiana and Illinois, he told @Stockrisers. Decision might not be made just yet. https://t.co/HngGoUSh4X
— Jake (@jakeweingarten) October 13, 2020
Weingarten goes on to tweet that Hopkins will be having a Zoom call with both Indiana and Illinois. There isn’t a decision date in mind as of right now.
Wow, this is a lot of news when it comes to the talented forward.
Opinion
I believe the Kentucky Wildcats are the leader in the clubhouse right now. With 10 “experts” at 247Sports predicting Hopkins lands with the Wildcats, it is hard to say they aren’t in the lead.
But that doesn’t mean the other teams who are still on the course can’t catch Kentucky.
When Hopkins didn’t narrow his list from nine teams and said, “Change of plans…too many great schools” that signaled to me that there could be a dark horse in play. Illinois was already in the mix for Hopkins, so it looks like the dark horse might be Indiana based on his upcoming Zoom meeting.
Illinois is squarely in the mix for Hopkins, though. Brad Underwood is getting another Zoom meeting and needs to nail it. The pitch Coach Underwood needs to make is immediate playing time, a championship-level team around Hopkins and location. Those are the main things Illinois has going for them right now.
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As it stands, I would say Kentucky 45%, Illinois 30% and Indiana 25%. Those are the three front-runners to land Hopkins.