The last decade has been rich with guard talent on the Illinois basketball roster.
Brad Underwood started the dominoes with Ayo Dosunmu, and those dominoes continued to drop. Terrence Shannon Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, Keaton Wagler, and Quentin Coleman soon followed.
On Wednesday night, Illinois moved one step closer to landing their next legendary guard, as Dushawn London of 247Sports reported that NaVorro Bowman Jr has locked in a handful of official visits.
Bowman will be taking official visits to UConn, Texas, Arizona, and Illinois. The dates haven’t been set, but those are the teams he is eyeing at this point. For any of these programs, and really any team in the country, this would be a massive get.
Visit News: NaVorro Bowman Jr., the No. 10 overall prospect in the class of 2027, has locked in official visits to UConn, Illinois, Texas and Arizona, source tells @247Sports https://t.co/P1tW43sIm3 pic.twitter.com/pRSOAjWV7A
— Dushawn London (@DushawnLondon1) July 22, 2026
Bowman is a 6-foot-3, 180-pound point guard from Notre Dame High School in California. He is rated as a five-star recruit and ranked as the No. 10 player in the class of 2027. He is also the No. 5 point guard in the country and the best player coming out of California.
Right now, 247Sports has UCLA and USC as his top two options, but that seems to be misguided. Bowman clearly has his options open, and Illinois has been doing some great work making inroads in his recruitment.
NaVorro Bowman Jr. has a case to be the best player in the country after a massive summer
There is a good chance Illinois is going to need another starting point guard after the 2026-27 campaign.
Jakucionis spent one season in Champaign and left for the NBA. Wagler spent one season at Illinois and left for the NBA. There is a decent chance Stefan Vaaks and Coleman are one-and-done with the Illini, too.
That leaves the door wide open for Bowman to come in and start from day one. He will get his chance to shine, and if he can play at Illinois like he did this summer, the sky is the limit.
Bowman suited up for Team Why Not in the Nike EYBL the past couple of years. While his team only finished 10-10 on the season, Bowman put up some big numbers.
For the 15-game regular season, he averaged 20.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game. He maintained the great numbers in the Peach Jam by averaging 19.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game.
Overall, Bowman’s shooting numbers were okay in the 20 games he played. He hit 33.1% of his three-pointers, and he took 127 shots from deep, or 6.3 three-pointers per game.
Bowman has the game that Underwood loves. He is someone who works well in space. He moves without the ball and helps create scoring opportunities. The fact that Illinois has an official visit with Bowman is huge. If we can seal the deal, the 2027-28 campaign could be pretty special.
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