Illinois basketball looking to notch first 2025 commitment in coming months

Illinois basketball is ready to start making a splash again in the class of 2025.

It has been a while since anything has come down the recruiting pipeline for the Illini. We once had the top class in the country for 2025, but with reclassifications and a player backing out of his commitment, Illinois now sits with zero commitments.

That could all change in the coming month, though. Illinois has a great recruiting coaching staff, and we are pursuing quite a few talented players. One of the newer names to keep an eye on is Brandon Lee.

Lee is a 6-foot-2, 180-pound shooting guard from The Patrick School in New Jersey. He is rated as a four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 112 player in the class of 2025. He is also the No. 24 shooting guard in the country and the best player coming out of New Jersey.

Back in late June, Illinois came in with a scholarship offer to Lee. Since then, the relationship has strengthened, as he is now looking to take an official visit.

According to numerous reports, Lee plans to take an official visit to Illinois on the weekend of September 21.

Brandon Lee would give the Illinois basketball team a scorer who isn’t afraid to shoot the ball

Lee is an interesting recruit who has started to gain recruiting attention since his summer season in the Nike EYBL AAU basketball league.

In 15 games for the NY Rens, Lee averaged 22.8 points per game, which ranked No. 3 in the entire EYBL. He also averaged 3.3 rebounds per game.

The main focus for Lee is clearly shooting, though. He took 8.4 three-point attempts per game but only hit them at a clip of 29.1%. That isn’t very efficient, but there are multiple factors that go into efficiency. He is clearly a decent shooter, as Lee was able to convert 83.5% of his free throws this summer as well.

I also wanted to point out that Lee isn’t sloppy with the ball. While his three-point shooting could use a little adjustment, Lee only averaged 1.9 turnovers in 23.2 minutes of action in each game. He isn’t coughing the ball up a lot, which is greatly appreciated on the court.

I love that Illinois is getting an official visit from Lee. There is a framework for a very talented player, and the Illini coaching staff could help mold him into an All-Big Ten caliber player.