Illinois basketball projected as the leader for huge 5-star recruit

Illinois basketball is the projected leader right now for a five-star recruit.

Recruiting has been a wild ride for the past four seasons. With the transfer portal in full blast, things have been a bit crazy for the Illini.

Morez Johnson Jr. is coming into the program for the 2024-25 season. The freshman big man is a four-star recruit and a consensus top-35 player in the class of 2024.

Illinois also has Jeremiah Fears coming into the program for the 2025-26 season. Fears is a tremendous point guard who is rated by ESPN as a five-star recruit and the No. 15 player in the class of 2025.

So, Brad Underwood has the Illini doing some great work in the recruiting game. Over the past couple of weeks, more momentum has started to build for another five-star talent.

Just days ago, it was reported that five-star forward Will Riley was going to take an official visit to Champaign. He took that visit on Monday, and he will now travel to Kentucky and Alabama in the coming days for official visits as well.

That visit to Illinois on Monday seemed to sway some of the recruiting people over at On3.com. They updated their recruiting prediction machine, and Illinois is now the leader to land Riley. The Illini have 28.1% of the prediction. Kentucky is a close second at 24.6%.

Will Riley would be a great get for the Illinois basketball program, and there are rumblings of the five-star reclassifying

I imagine Underwood is drooling over the chance to coach a player like Riley. He is a long and athletic wing who isn’t just pigeonholed into playing one position. Riley is a skilled shooter at all levels. This kid is going to be a matchup nightmare for opposing teams.

If he does pick Illinois, there is a chance Riley will suit up for the Orange and Blue this fall. Over the past couple of weeks, Riley has done multiple interviews and has mentioned that he is still deciding on reclassifying. He is currently a member of the class of 2025 but could reclassify to the class of 2024 and join Johnson in Illinois’ frontcourt.

It would be amazing for Illinois to land another big-time recruit like Riley. Underwood and the Illinois coaching staff have this team recruiting both the high school talent and transfer portal talent at a high level.