6. Drew Timme
All of the players on this list are a bunch of “what-ifs,” but with someone like Drew Timme, I think to myself, “how crazy.”
Timme was a big-time recruit in the class of 2019. The 6-foot-9, 215-pound big man was looking for a home, and Illinois had a chance to land him. We got an official visit from the four-star recruit, so there was a legit chance to land him.
Illinois was going through some options at the position, and Timme was the first to pull the trigger. Instead of making Champaign his home, he decided that Gonzaga was the place to be. He ended up picking the Bulldogs over the Illini.
While the Illini did just fine by landing Kofi Cockburn months later, could you imagine potentially having both Timme and Cockburn in the frontcourt? That would have been unstoppable.
I imagine Illinois could have made it pretty far in the NCAA tournament with Timme in the paint. That No. 1 seed Illini squad in 2020-21 could have used Timme’s 19.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game.