Illinois Basketball: Illini returning nearly double the production as last season

There has been a ton of talk about the transfer portal when it comes to the Illinois basketball program.

It was painful to see a few players depart for the transfer portal to start the offseason. The Illini quickly rebounded by landing three transfer portal players to replace those who departed.

I am sure there is at least one more player who will join the Illinois program before the end of the summer. Brad Underwood and his coaching staff have been able to do some amazing work rebuilding the roster over the last couple of seasons.

While it may seem like Illinois has taken a hit with the transfer portal being so active and a couple of players heading to the NBA, this offseason has actually been better than last year.

Illinois basketball has nearly double the production returning next season compared to last season

When the 2021-22 season concluded, I had never seen a mass exodus like I saw with the Illini. It was incredible to see all of the players on the team depart for one reason or another.

Only one player out of the top seven in minutes on that Illinois team returned this past season. That was Coleman Hawkins, who ranked No. 6 in minutes on that team. The percentages of production returning were staggering.

For the 2021-22 Illinois basketball team, 17% of minutes, 15% of points, 20% of rebounds, 17% of assists, 21% of steals, and 27% of blocks returned for this past season. Those are insanely low numbers, and the fact Illinois was able to get back to the NCAA tournament is nothing short of a miracle.

The big question now remains; will Illinois have that again for the upcoming season? The answer is, no.

We have four players confirmed coming back from the 2022-23 campaign. Dain Dainja, Sencire Harris, Luke Goode, and the recent announcement of Ty Rodgers’ return are the core of this team.

With these four players returning, Illinois is getting nearly double the percentage of production back as we did last season. 28% of minutes, 24% of points, 33% of rebounds, 21% of assists, 36% of steals, and 34% of blocks will be back for the Illini, guaranteed.

These numbers are the floor for Illinois basketball right now. There is always potential for them to increase as well.

Hawkins entered his name into the NBA Draft, but he retained his eligibility. I believe he probably stays in the draft because he wows some scouts at the combine, but if he does come back, the percentages will shoot up dramatically. With Hawkins in the fold, Illinois would get back 44% of minutes, 38% of points, 50% of rebounds, 46% of assists, 53% of steals, and 55% of blocks.

It is nice to know that, at worst, Illinois is getting back more cohesion and team chemistry from day one than we did last season. That is comforting. If we bring Hawkins back into the mix, there is even more chemistry added. When you fold in the talented transfer portal additions, this team could sneak up on some people and do damage.