Now that the 2024-25 season is over, the Illinois basketball team can put all the focus on the transfer portal.
The Illini team we just finished watching was constructed primarily from the transfer portal. While I don’t think it has to be that way again, Brad Underwood needs to fill some voids that will be left by departing players.
A recent name that popped up on the Illinois transfer portal radar is All Wright. He is a 6-foot-3, 180-pound freshman from Valparaiso.
On Monday, Joe Tipton of On3.com reported that a myriad of programs have contacted Wright about transferring. One of the names on that list was Illinois.
Valpo transfer guard All Wright has received interest from the following schools since entering the portal, per his agent @DanielPoneman:
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) March 24, 2025
South Carolina
Florida State
Butler
Richmond
Kansas State
Loyola-Chicago
Mississippi State
Illinois
St. Louis
Kansas
Boise State
DePaul… https://t.co/y9gCWV8Bgo
Wright is coming off a massive freshman campaign with the Beacons. He averaged 15.5 points, 2.4 assists, and 2.2 rebounds per game. He also shot 5.1 three-point attempts and hit them at a clip of 38.3%.
This past season, Wright played against Ohio State and performed well. He put up 22 points, four rebounds, and three assists while shooting 8-of-15 from the field and 1-of-4 from three-point range. That proves he can at least play against Big Ten level competition.
All Wright is exactly what Illinois basketball needs to add to put us over the top
The biggest issue for the Illinois basketball team this past season was perimeter scoring. We had some other issues, but when we needed a shot to go in from deep, there wasn’t a solid option.
Wright would provide that for the Illini. Just in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, Wright was 15-of-28, 53.6%, from three-point range. Illinois didn’t have anything close to that this season.
Once Wright started to get more and more comfortable with the college game, his shooting took off. The biggest thing that sticks out to me is that he doesn’t go through huge droughts. He had a couple of bad shooting games, but Wright followed those up with good outings.
If Wright picked Illinois, I would start him from day one. He would start alongside Kylan Boswell and Tre White in the Illini backcourt. Wright is the shooting that this program has been missing since Terrence Shannon Jr. left.
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