Illinois Basketball: AJ Casey continues to be top priority for Illini

While Illinois basketball is eyeing various recruits for 2022, there is one player who has stood out from the rest of the pack.

Keeping in-state players home is a huge priority for Brad Underwood and his Illini teams. He has done a solid job getting top talent from the state of Illinois to come to Champaign, but can he continue that streak for 2022?

The biggest target I am wanting from the 2022 class is AJ Casey. He is a 6-foot-8, 180-pound power forward from Whitney Young High School and resides in Chicago, Illinois. He is rated as a five-star recruit and ranked as the No. 20 player in the class of 2022. He is also the No. 5 power forward in the nation and the best player coming out of the state of Illinois.

Illinois has been recruiting Casey since the beginning of time. They came in with an offer to the forward back in March 2019, and the Illini have been recruiting him ever since. But with so many assistant coaches departing the program, I was worried Illinois might let Casey slip through the cracks. That doesn’t appear to be happening, though.

Last Tuesday, Tipton Edits tweeted out a list of six programs that are recruiting Casey the hardest. The six teams included Michigan, Ohio State, Memphis, Marquette, UConn and Illinois. So, that means the Illini are making him truly a top priority for 2022. That is great news to hear.

Illinois basketball has been landing top in-state players for years now.

I haven’t seen an Illini recruiting run like the one Underwood is on in nearly two decades. He landed the top state of Illinois player in Ayo Dosunmu from the class of 2018, which was his first true recruiting class.

Underwood followed that great score with Adam Miller in 2020, who was technically the second-best player in Illinois according to 247Sports, but Miler won the coveted Illinois Mr. Basketball in 2020. That means he is the best player in the state.

Now the Illini are looking to add another state of Illinois player to the mix for 2022. An in-state recruiting presence is something we have been missing for years. It was sensational under Bill Self. Bruce Weber let it die out a little. John Groce wasn’t able to land top in-state recruits. And now Underwood is bringing us back to prominence.

Landing Casey would be huge for the program and for our standing in the college basketball world. We could continue being a top team in the country with a player of Casey’s caliber.