In the last quarter-century, you can count the special Illinois basketball big men on one hand.
I believe Tomislav Ivisic is a special player. He is in that group for the Illini. Kofi Cockburn belongs in that group, too. Before Kofi, it was Meyers Leonard. Brad Underwood has always wanted a great big man in the middle, and that is what we could have with someone like Luigi Suigo.
Suigo is a 7-foot-3, 240-pound center from Italy. He isn’t rated or ranked just yet, but he is starting to pick up a lot of recruiting attention. Illinois has already offered him a scholarship, and he visited Champaign back in February.
The Illini now have a serious competitor for Suigo. The team that is now in contention is the Purdue Boilermakers, obviously.
On Monday, Dushawn London of 247Sports reported that Suigo is now slated to take an official visit to Purdue on June 16.
International Recruiting News: 7’3 Italian big man Luigi Suigo has locked in an official visit to Purdue, sources tell @247Sports
— Dushawn London (@DushawnLondon1) June 9, 2025
Suigo also visited Illinois earlier this year.https://t.co/z3PyeQIsyj pic.twitter.com/xWxyE4RDRx
The Boilermakers are always a terrifying team when it comes to recruiting big men. They have a history of snagging players who are 7-foot-1 and over. We are on the heels of the Zach Edey era of Purdue basketball, and he helped lead them to the national championship. That is some serious recruiting power.
Illinois basketball’s ability to recruit overseas will hopefully help in the recruitment of Luigi Suigo
While Purdue is a serious threat to take Suigo from the Illini, the fact that we have been able to recruit players from overseas is a great recruiting chip.
For the upcoming season, Illinois is bringing in both David Mirkovic from Montenegro and Mihailo Petrovic from Serbia. In addition to those two, Illinois has Ivisic, who is from Croatia. His brother, Zvonimir, transferred in and is from Croatia. Andrej Stojakovic also transferred into the Illinois program.
Illinois is going to have a tough fight for Suigo. The Boilermakers are going to make a good pitch to him, but at the end of the day, Illinois is building toward a national championship, and we are doing it with a little international flavor. Let’s add Italy to the melting pot.