Illinois Basketball: Top 5 Illini recruiting targets left for 2022

2. Otega Oweh

Another important target for the Orange and Blue is Otega Oweh. This is a name many Illini fans have been getting familiar with the past few months, and the recruitment of the talented guard has heated up.

Oweh is a 6-foot-4, 180-pound shooting guard from Blair Academy and resides in Blairstown, New Jersey. He is rated as a four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 102 player in the class of 2022. He is also the No. 10 shooting guard in the nation and the No. 3 player coming out of New Jersey.

No top list has been posted for Oweh, but he is starting to take official visits, so that gives you a better idea of who is in contention. Oweh has three official visits either scheduled or already taken. He visited Penn State back on June 1. Illinois was next and that was on August 25. Oweh then took a visit to Oklahoma on September 1.

Much like Cam Whitmore, the rise of Illinois in the Oweh sweepstakes has been rapid. The Illini offered him a scholarship back on August 9, and just two weeks later, he took an official visit to Champaign.

247Sports has Penn State as the leader right now with a seven out of 10 confidence. Those predictions came just days ago as well. But Illinois is definitely not out of this recruitment. Just this past Friday, Illinois was one of a myriad of programs that visited with Oweh at Blair Academy. The Illini believe they have a solid chance at snagging the underrated guard.

Oweh seems like he is an underrated recruit just by looking at who is pursuing the kid. I also have a hard time believing his recruitment is close to being finished. There are still two more official visits left on the board and a ton of teams that think they can land him.

Illinois should continue putting resources into Oweh. He is a solid depth piece who could become a starter in a year or two. I picture him in a role like Richard McBride was for the national title Illinois team in 2004-05 in his first year with the program.