Illinois basketball has just landed one of the best players in the transfer portal.
It has been an interesting start for the Illini this offseason. Most teams are dealing with massive departures, but Illinois has been able to maintain most of the holdovers while landing some big transfer portal players.
The first domino to fall was Dain Dainja when he transferred out of the program and committed to Memphis. Since then, Illinois has added Jake Davis to help with wing scoring. We are bringing in Tre White who will be more of a slasher for the Illini around the bucket. And now we have a point guard.
On Sunday, Illinois picked up a huge transfer portal commitment from point guard, Kylan Boswell. This is an addition that will help the Illini not only get back to the Elite 8 but there is a strong possibility we can make another run at the national title.
NEWS: Arizona transfer guard Kylan Boswell has committed to Illinois, @On3sports has learned.
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) April 14, 2024
The former top-35 recruit and Champaign native averaged 9.6 points and 3.6 assists per game this season.
https://t.co/3gkjDZO8KW pic.twitter.com/RjhmLRVTey
Illinois basketball has added a player from the transfer portal in Kylan Boswell who is only scratching the surface of his potential
Coming out of Compass Prep in Arizona, Boswell was a five-star recruit who was ranked as the No. 25 player in the class of 2022. He was also the No. 4 point guard in the country and the No. 2 player coming out of Arizona.
It seemed that it was Arizona and Illinois vying for Boswell the first time around, and he ultimately picked the Wildcats as his landing spot.
Bowell played 27 minutes per game this past season and averaged 9.6 points, 3.6 assists, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.4 steals. I believe these numbers are just the beginning of what could be a special season ahead for the talented guard.
The biggest number I look at is Boswell’s shooting. As a freshman, he only attempted 2.2 three-point attempts per game but made them at a clip of 39.0%. 2.2 attempts is a small sample size, so you can’t tell if his shooting is good or not. Last season, he over doubled his three-point attempts to 4.8 attempts per game. When this happens, I fully expect a big drop in three-point percentage. That didn’t happen, as Boswell shot 37.9% from three-point range.
In Brad Underwood’s offense, Boswell will get more free throw attempts too. He only averaged 1.1 free throws per game as a sophomore. That number is going to jump and so will Boswell’s scoring numbers.
With Boswell now in the fold, I fully expect him to average over 14 points per game in 2024-25. This kid is a superstar, and I believe we are only scratching the surface of his potential.