8. Brandon Rush
One of the most disappointing things to happen in the 2000s is that Illinois basketball couldn’t keep the great momentum that Bill Self had built up. We let that slip away.
Landing a player like Brandon Rush would have been huge to keep the great play going. Rush was a 6-foot-6, 202-pound forward who was rated as a five-star recruit.
Rush took an official visit to Illinois, but Kansas was his ultimate landing spot. Self left Illinois a couple of years prior, and he took all of the big-time recruiting ability with him. Rush ended up picking the Jayhawks over the Illini.
There would have been no slowing the Illini down with Rush in the mix. He would have joined Dee Brown and James Augustine for that 2005-06 season, where we lost in the second round. That team could have easily gone to the Sweet 16 or further.
After that 2005-06 season, Illinois hit a rough patch. Rush wouldn’t have had that happen, as he averaged 13.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game for his career at Kansas. This recruitment would have been a game-changer in the 2000s.