Illinois pounces with offer, as 2026 point guard has huge AAU showing

Brad Underwood has Illinois basketball recruiting at a high level, and now we are focused on landing an up-and-coming point guard.

While the high school game is fun to watch, AAU basketball is where kids can really stand out. Players go head-to-head with other elite athletes to show off their skills. Over the years, the Illini have landed some great AAU players.

On Sunday, Illinois started to pursue another big-time AAU player. Lucas Morillo took to social media to announce that he had received a scholarship offer from Illinois.

Morillo is a 6-foot-6, 175-pound point guard from The Newman School in Massachusetts. He is originally from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 165 player in the class of 2026. He is also the No. 27 point guard in the country and the No. 6 player coming out of Massachusetts.

A big AAU outing has numerous teams after Lucas Morillo, including Illinois

While it may make some people nervous that Morillo is just a three-star recruit, the kid has more talent than that. His recruiting ranking hasn’t been updated, but once it is, he should be a four-star recruit.

Morillo has been tearing it up in the Nike EYBL as well. He suits up for the City Rocks program, and in seven games of the EYBL circuit, he averaged 15.9 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game.

Throughout the EYBL sessions, Morillo performed so well that Jamie Shaw of On.3com had him No. 9 on the list of the top overall performers in the entire EYBL. That is some high praise considering there are five-star players on that list.

Illinois is now trying to get in the mix for Morillo. He is a rising star, and Underwood wants to be in the running for his commitment. Let’s see how things play out in the coming months. Hopefully, a visit is on the horizon.