Illinois basketball notches spot in top 10 for 4-star 2025 guard

It was a pretty good weekend, as the Illinois basketball team moved one step closer to landing a player from the class of 2025.

The start of the 2025 class has been pretty weird. The Illini once had the top class in the country with a four-star and five-star in tow. That class underwent some adjustments, and once the dust settled, Illinois was left with no commitments for 2025.

Since then, Brad Underwood and the Illini coaching staff have been fighting for talent. Numerous names have emerged as potential options, and a name Illinois fans should start getting to know is Amari Evans.

Evans is a 6-foot-5, 180-pound shooting guard from Overtime Elite in Georgia. He is rated as a four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 96 player in the class of 2025. He is also the No. 19 shooting guard in the country and the No. 11 player coming out of Georgia.

On Saturday, Joe Tipton of On3.com broke the news that Evans has cut his list down to just 10 programs. The 10 teams to make the cut include Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Xavier, TCU, Pittsburgh, Georgetown, Tennessee, Villanova, Mississippi State, and Illinois.

Evans has also taken an official visit to Pittsburgh, and he has scheduled four other official visits so far. He is visiting Tennessee on August 30, Ole Miss on September 6, TCU on September 14, and Xavier on September 20.

Illinois basketball target Amari Evans is looking to have a big senior season after a tough AAU campaign

Evans is clearly a good player. Every recruiting site has the kid as a top 100 recruit, and there are a ton of big-time programs that want his services.

In 14 regular season games for his New Heights Lightning AAU team in the Nike EYBL, Evans averaged 10.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.1 steals per game. He also shot a solid 37.1% from three-point range and 92.6% from the free throw line.

New Heights Lightning then got into the Peach Jam, and Evans’ scoring numbers dropped a bit. He averaged 8.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. He only hit 6-of-25 from three-point range as well, which is 24.0%.

Evans’ AAU numbers mirror that of his Overtime Elite numbers from this past season. Evans averaged 10.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 2.2 steals per game. He also shot 50.0% from the floor and 29.0% from three-point range.

I am curious how Evans will develop this upcoming campaign. He has good size at 6-foot-5, but let’s see if his shooting numbers can improve some. At the bare minimum, I think this kid could be a great defensive option who can run the court well. That is a style Underwood loves.