Illinois Basketball: Illini guard Andre Curbelo enters transfer portal

Some negative news regarding the Illinois basketball program has just come down the pipeline.

Now that most teams are in the offseason, the transfer portal is heating up. While the Illini are in the running for quite a few transfers, that doesn’t mean we are immune from losing a player or two as well.

On Monday afternoon, Illinois guard Andre Curbelo announced that he was entering the transfer portal. This news hurts but it is not too surprising given his role this season with the program.

Coming into the Illinois basketball program, Curbelo was a four-star recruit and ranked inside the top 50 in the class of 2020. He had a great freshman campaign that saw him win the Big Ten 6th Man of the Year award. This season was supposed to be his coming-out party, but a concussion and COVID derailed things a bit.

After Curbelo came back from those two bumps in the road, he was delegated to the bench. While he did receive a decent number of minutes, it never felt that he was fully bought into the bench role.

Illinois basketball is in need of another point guard after Andre Curbelo’s departure.

With Curbelo leaving the Illini, this is a big hit to the roster. He was projected as the starter for the upcoming season at the No. 1 guard spot. Barring a change of mind and return to Champaign, the Orange and Blue will need to land someone this offseason to lead the team.

There are two options as of right now. Jayden Epps is the first option with him already signing with the Illini. He is the best player coming out of North Carolina and has the ability to be the No. 1 guard on the team.

The second option for Illinois is a commitment from Skyy Clark. He is a five-star recruit who was committed to Kentucky but has since backed away from that pledge. Curbelo transferring opens the door for Clark to make a commitment and get the starting point guard role. This would be the most logical move in my eyes.

I know that it hurts to see Curbelo depart the program, but this feels more like an era change and less like an end of the world move for the Illini. I am getting vibes that there is a replacement for Curbelo who will be joining the program fairly soon.