Illinois basketball dealt a crushing blow, as fan favorite enters transfer portal

One of the toughest transfer portal hits in Illinois basketball history took place on Friday night.

What should have been a happy time, the week is coming to an end and the weekend was about to kickoff, turned into one of the darkest moments the Illini have had in quite some time.

Sure, everyone knows the transfer portal can be a monster at times. However, it can also be a way to build a program and fill the holes needed to become one of the best teams in the country. It is a chance to build around a few stalwart players who clearly have a bright future and could be great in the near future.

Illinois lost one of those stalwarts. On Friday night, numerous outlets reported that Illinois basketball big man Morez Johnson Jr. has decided to bolt the program and head for greener pastures.

Johnson had a fantastic freshman season that saw him only improve with time. He finished the year playing 30 games and started eight contests while averaging 7.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game.

Now that Johnson is entering the transfer portal, surely he is going to be one of the top talents and someone is about to back up the Brinks truck.

Losing Morez Johnson Jr. to the transfer portal is a huge hit to the Illinois basketball roster

Illinois could take a few transfer portal departures this offseason, but losing Johnson is arguably the biggest hit to the program.

Heading into the 2025-26 season, Johnson was going to be the starter at the No. 5 spot. He was in line to be a dominant Big Ten big man, and at this point, my hope is that he isn’t anymore. That would mean he would transfer to a Big Ten team, and I don’t want to see him in the same conference as Illinois.

I think this is a massive hit to the Illinois fanbase, too. From the people I have talked to and the social media backlash, this was a big loss for the Illini and Brad Underwood. Something needs to be up Underwood’s sleeve to combat this huge transfer portal departure.