Illinois Basketball: The Illini are reloading, not rebuilding

Illinois basketball is going to look unfamiliar to what we have seen on the court in recent years.

The top five leading scorers for the Illini are gone. Seven out of the top eight rebounders are gone. And six out of our top seven players in assists per game are gone. That is turnover on a roster that I have never seen before.

On top of all of that, Illinois is losing 5490 minutes out of the 6650 minutes played from last season. That is 82.6% of the minutes played during the 2021-22 campaign are gone.

Normally, that spells doom and gloom for the upcoming season. A team would need to rebuild and one would expect a down year or two as the program gets back up to speed.

Not with this Illini bunch.

Illinois basketball has been reloading via the transfer portal and the class of 2022.

If the version of the Illini we will see during the 2022-23 campaign was being built by the previous coaching regime, I would be worried. But I have full trust in what Brad Underwood and his coaching staff are doing.

Underwood continues to put pieces in place to make this Illinois team not only competitive but good enough to advance deep into the NCAA tournament.

Illinois’ current roster is laced with current or former four-star recruits. Out of the 10 players on the roster, seven of them were four-star players coming out of high school, according to 247Sports. Four of those seven players were top 100 recruits as well.

The Illini have postseason experience whether that is actually playing in the game or getting a feel for the environment. Returning to the program, there are four players who have played or experienced at least two NCAA tournament games. Illinois has added two players who have both either experienced or played in multiple NCAA tournament games.

And the Illini might not be done adding to the roster for next season. There are still a couple of options on the table, one has NBA blood and the other has a national title under his belt and is looking to finish off his final year on top.

So, if you have any worries about the upcoming season, I believe everything should be okay. A lot of talent is gone. We will probably start the season off a little slow. But everything will come around. Underwood has constructed this team to compete and be one of the best programs in the country.