The transfer portal has taken quite a few Illinois basketball players over the years.
Throughout the Brad Underwood era, the Illini have lost players like Jacob Grandison, RJ Melendez, and Adam Miller, to name a few, to the transfer portal. It has taken a lot from the Orange and Blue, but now Illinois is fighting back.
On Wednesday night, the Illini got word of a big player coming back to the program. Kylan Boswell took to social media to announce his return for one more season in Champaign.
Run it back. 💙🧡 pic.twitter.com/adl7OE9P6N
— Kylan Boswell (@BamBam_Boz) April 2, 2025
Boswell, a Champaign native, spent his first two seasons in college at Arizona. He played well, but after the 2023-24 campaign, he decided to enter the transfer portal. Illinois came calling, and it has been a pretty solid marriage.
This past season, Boswell averaged 12.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.1 steals per game. He also shot 79% from the free throw line, which he took a career-high 4.1 attempts per game.
Kylan Boswell will hopefully have a similar progression that Terrence Shannon Jr. had with the Illinois basketball team
Boswell’s numbers from his junior year at Illinois are solid, but there is one glaring number. He attempted 4.1 three-pointers per game and only hit them at a clip of 24.5%. That is a career low. In his two seasons at Arizona, Boswell shot 39.0% and 37.9% from three-point range.
Shannon had the same struggles. The year before he came to Illinois, Shannon shot 38.4% from three-point range. In his first season in Champaign, he shot 32.1%. In year two, Shannon shot 36.2% from beyond the three-point arc.
I could see Boswell taking this type of jump from year one to year two. He has proven to be a better shooter than what we saw this past season. This will be Boswell’s backcourt, and that is intriguing. Now that he is back in the fold, let’s see what Underwood can build around him.