Illinois Basketball: Whitney Young star point guard receives Illini offer

Without a commitment on the board, the Illinois basketball team is looking to start the class of 2023 with an in-state recruit.

Brad Underwood and his coaching staff have done a great job recruiting since he took over the program. Players like Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn reestablished the Illini as a premier team, and the class of 2022 that is ranked as the No. 7 class in the country should help us get to the next level.

Illinois has even started well for the class of 2024. Two players are committed for 2024, one of which is a top 50 recruit in Morez Johnson. He just had a big weekend playing for the 16U Meanstreets AAU team. But, for some reason, the class of 2023 has yet to get going. The Illini are hoping to change that trend by landing a player like Dalen Davis.

Davis is a 5-foot-11, 165-pound point guard from Whitney Young High School and resides in Chicago, Illinois. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 175 player in the class of 2023. Davis is also ranked as the No. 29 point guard in the nation and the No. 6 player coming out of Illinois.

The Illini came in with an offer to Davis on Tuesday morning. He now has roughly seven scholarship offers on the board with more surely to come in the next few months.

It would be nice for the Illinois basketball team to have point guard depth like Dalen Davis.

One of my biggest worries this upcoming season is the lack of point guard depth on the team. I love that we secured a commitment from Skyy Clark, but there isn’t a true point guard behind him. I believe we will rely on Jaden Epps to be the backup No. 1 guard this upcoming season.

Having a player like Davis join the team would give Illinois a solid backup option to Clark if he is still around. Davis is clearly a talented player as well. I wouldn’t look too much into his ranking and more into which teams have offered him a scholarship.

Illinois joined some bigger programs like Kansas and South Carolina in wanting Davis to come play for their program. That means he has a ton of talent. Let’s get this kid into the program.

Hopefully, Illinois can make up some ground. Chicago is a big-time recruiting area for big-time talent. I would like to see Davis be a part of a strong pipeline from Chicago to Champaign.