Illinois Basketball: Illini pick up another prediction for Skyy Clark

Could the Illinois basketball team be getting closer to landing one of the best players in the class of 2022?

The departure of point guard Andre Curbelo hurt my Illini soul a little bit. He was a fun kid to watch, and he clearly had a ton of talent. But with Curbelo gone, that opens up another scholarship for someone who wants to be in Champaign. That someone could end up being Skyy Clark.

Clark is a 6-foot-3, 200-pound point guard from Montverde Academy and resides in Montverde, Florida. He is rated as a five-star recruit and ranked as the No. 26 player in the class of 2022. Clark is also the No. 5 point guard in the nation and the No. 7 player coming out of Florida.

Less than a week ago, I wrote about the imminent visit Clark is going to take to Illinois. It was being reported by Joe Tipton of On3.com that Clark does plan on visiting Louisville, USC, Maryland, and the Illini. He also mentions a decision is coming in April, which is this month.

There seems to be a ton of momentum in Illinois’ favor to land Clark as well. While 247Sports hasn’t put out a Crystal Ball Prediction yet, Rivals feels a little more confident about what is going to happen with the talented point guard.

Illinois basketball needs a commitment from Skyy Clark.

Much like 247Sports, Rivals has a thing called FutureCast which predicts where a player is going to play. There have only been two updates to Clark’s FutureCast since October 2020, though.

There was a prediction on March 16 and the most recent prediction came just a day ago on April 4. Where did the two Rivals analysts or publishers say Clark was going to land?

Illinois.

The most recent FutureCast prediction was by Travis Graf. He is Rivals’ National Basketball Recruiting Analyst, so that holds a lot of water when it comes to the credibility of a prediction. He probably wouldn’t put his name on the prediction if it wasn’t something he really believed in.

I feel like we are getting pretty close to a decision from Clark. I would assume it happens within the next couple of weeks. If he comes to Illinois, the decision would instantly improve the roster.

Point guard is one of the two biggest issues right now. I have incoming freshman Jayden Epps starting at the No. 1 guard spot for the Illini this upcoming season. He is more of a combo-guard, though, so having Clark come in would free up Epps to play in other spots on the court.

I think Illinois becomes a contender to win the Big Ten again this upcoming season. Winning back-to-back Big Ten regular season championships would be a great feat. Clark would take the Illini from a solid NCAA tournament team to a legit national title contender. Maybe he would even get Kofi Cockburn to stay one more year. Who knows?