CHAMPAIGN — Who’s next?
It’s become a common refrain regarding Illinois men’s basketball recruiting the last several months.
Who’s next after Brandon Weston committed to Seton Hall? After David Jones picked DePaul. After Jordan Nesbitt chose Memphis.
All three rather high-profile Illinois recruiting targets in the Class of 2021. All three headed elsewhere for their college basketball careers.
Monday night marked another “Who’s next?” moment.
Bryce Hopkins committing to Kentucky was a double whammy for the Illini. They missed out last November when the Fenwick four-star forward picked Louisville and then missed out again Monday when he decided the Commonwealth of Kentucky was still fine, but he wanted to wear blue instead of red.
So, who’s next? What’s next as Illinois continues to piece together its 2021 recruiting class?
It’s worth mentioning, of course, that the Illini aren’t starting from scratch. An April commitment from Luke Goode might feel like forever ago in COVID-19 days, but landing the four-star guard was then and still is now a nice way to start a class.
Goode has the reputation of a shooter. If the Illini’s 2019-20 season taught them anything, it’s that you can never have too many shooters.
But shooting alone doesn’t define the 6-foot-6, 185-pound guard out of Fort Wayne (Ind.) Homestead. He’s a solid athlete, and the fact he was pressed into point-guard duties as a junior last season because of an injury meant he received a crash course in running an offense and needing good ball-handling skills.
Goode alone, of course, is still just the start of Illinois’ 2021 recruiting class. Nothing is certain these days about recruiting (the dead period may well extend to the Final Four) or college basketball in general (nobody’s got a full schedule with the season start now inside a month).
But Illinois’ continued pursuit of four-star center Mac Etienne and at least one more wing to pair with Goode outlines what the plan might still be for Brad Underwood and Co.
Outside of Etienne, of course, the majority of the more well-known targets — the players Illinois recruited the longest — are off the board. What could have been an advantage for the Illini in the early days of COVID-19 recruiting has since passed. Illinois got Weston, Jones and Nesbitt on campus this spring before the shutdown. No need to book any return trips now.
Who’s next?
Unless it’s Etienne, the next Illinois commitment might come from a player who hasn’t stepped foot on campus. Who’s recruitment has been 100 percent Zoom and FaceTime and texts.
Of course, Underwood and his coaching staff have been able to hit big in the “lesser known” recruiting market. They plucked Andres Feliz from the junior-college ranks, and the Dominican guard became the beating heart of the Illini’s cultural rebuild. Giorgi Bezhanishvili went from near-obscurity to a breakout freshman season, and the Georgian big man is fueled to tap back into that state of play after some sophomore season struggles.
The clue there might be to pursue the international (via the U.S.) market again.
Illinois has added to its 2021 recruiting board in the last few months, but competition is stiff for four-star guards like Wesley Cardet and TyTy Washington. Pulling Washington from the West Coast might be easier than Cardet from the clutches of the SEC.
But targeting international prospects playing high school basketball in the United States? They don’t have any specific geographical ties. Selling them on the success of players like Feliz and Bezhanishvili and Kofi Cockburn could be a winning strategy.
The coaching staff simply has to dig deeper in the 2021 recruiting market. That’s where more recent offers like Kordell Charles, RJ Melendez and Mustapha Amzil might come into play.
Illinois’ track record recruiting Canada has been all miss (and not just with this coaching staff). Charles, though, was out for the bulk of last season with an injury. He’ll get a chance to show what he can at IMG Academy (Fla.), but that injury-induced gap in his recruitment doubles as an opportunity.
Melendez plays at a small school in Florida, but the dynamic 6-7, 195-pound guard originally hails from Puerto Rico. There are two bonus recruiters on the Illinois roster in freshmen guards Andre Curbelo and Edgar Padilla Jr.
Amzil’s recruitment is a fresh slate. The 6-10 Finnish wing didn’t arrive in the U.S. until this month, and the Illini were in fairly early with an offer.
The question, of course, still lingers. It’s one fans ask. Discuss among themselves. Fret over more often than not.
Who’s next?
Scott Richey is a reporter covering college basketball at The News-Gazette. His email is srichey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).
Scott Richey is a reporter covering college basketball at The News-Gazette. His email is srichey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).
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