Illinois Basketball: Future top 100 recruit visits Illini

While the Illinois basketball coaching staff is focusing on the micro, they also have the ability to focus on the macro.

The Illini class of 2023 and 2024 have a chance to pull in some special talent. 2023 is already bringing Illinois a great forward in Amani Hansberry. He will be a huge asset to the program for years to come.

2024 is building a great class as well. ZZ Clark is coming in and is joined by top 50 recruit, Morez Johnson Jr. This one-two punch of point guard and forward will win a ton of games in Champaign.

I would classify the class of 2023 and 2024 as the micro view of Illinois basketball. They are the classes that will help Illinois in the immediate future. I would classify the class of 2025 as the macro. These recruits will help the Illini down the road. Recruiting this class is thinking about the big picture of the program.

On Friday, the Illinois coaching staff was thinking about the big picture as they had a future top 100 recruit for the class of 2025 on campus in Antonio Munoz.

Munoz posted a picture of himself on his Twitter account and typed, “Illini Nation”. That was followed by the two eyes emoji and two hearts, one orange and one blue. The hashtags UNOFFICIAL and not committed finished out the tweet.

Illinois basketball building a relationship with Antonio Munoz is extremely smart.

I know, it might be difficult to think about the class of 2025 right with so much at stake with the 2023 and 2024 classes. But the fact the Illinois coaching staff is already having players like Munoz in for unofficial visits is a great thing for the future of this program.

2025 is so far down the road that 247Sports doesn’t even have a single player ranked. But, if you look at what Munoz can do on the court, this kid will land in the top 100.

Munoz just started his sophomore season at Whitney Young up in Chicago. The 6-foot-5 wing already has great size, and his abilities on the court show you that he is a player who is only going to improve with time. Illinois getting in this early on his recruitment will only improve the chances he stays in-state.

I also wanted to note, building a pipeline to the Chicago area again would be nice. I loved that we could land players like Ayo Dosunmu and Adam Miller. We are also bringing in Johnson from the 2024 class, who is from St. Rita. I think there is a chance Illinois builds into a national title winning program with the help of Chicago talent. Munoz could be one of those players to lead us to the promised land.