Illinois basketball has yet to land a player for 2025, but one of the top recruits in the country has his eyes set on the Orange and Blue.
The class of 2024 is coming together nicely for the Illini. With Morez Johnson Jr. leading the way, Illinois is bound to finish with a top-20 recruiting class. Even though the 2024 class isn’t quite finished, Brad Underwood and the Illinois coaching staff continue to put resources into building out the class of 2025.
While Illinois doesn’t have a commitment yet for 2025, on Tuesday, Jeremiah Fears released his plans to visit Champaign again. Joe Tipton of On3 reported on social media that Fears will be taking an official visit to Illinois on September 16.
2025 Top-35 recruit Jeremiah Fears (@jeremiahfears2) tells me he will take an official visit to Illinois on September 16th. https://t.co/vy94uPJaA2 pic.twitter.com/oB3LzwDXGQ
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) August 22, 2023
Fears is a 6-foot-2, 165-pound point guard from Compass Prep out in Arizona. He is rated as a four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 35 player in the class of 2025. He is also the No. 6 point guard in the country and the No. 2 player coming out of Arizona.
Illinois wasn’t the first official visit that Fears scheduled. In the past few weeks, Fears also schedule an official visit to Tennessee for the weekend of September 23.
According to the On3.com prediction machine, Illinois has the lead in the Fears recruitment at 39.5%. The Volunteers are second at 26.1%.
Illinois basketball is trying to make up for missing out on Jeremiah Fears’ brother
Landing Fears would be a big accomplishment for the Illini. He is a top 50 recruit, which would give Illinois back-to-back recruiting classes with top 50 players.
I also believe this would be a big recruitment to win because Illinois swung and missed trying to land his brother, Jeremy Fears. He was also a top 40 recruit and headed to Michigan State instead of Illinois.
Now the Illini are trying to get the younger brother. The younger Fears, who recently transferred out to Compass Prep earlier this year, seems to be narrowing the scope of his recruitment. He also has a commitment date of January 13, 2024, in mind.
Illinois has done an impressive job landing big-time recruits in the Underwood era. Fears would be another one of those special players to come through Champaign.