21 hours Ago
To subscribe, click here. Sign up for our daily basketball newsletter here Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team and college basketball at large: Illinois landed its first (sort of) Class of 2025 recruit on Wednesday when four-star guard Keaton Wagler committed.
(The sort of comes into play because Jeremiah Fears was, at one point, in the Class of 2025 and also committed to the Illini). Either way, there hasn't been a ton of movement in the class nationally. Illinois is one of just seven Big Ten teams with a 2025 commitment to date.
Nationally, just 20 teams (out of 364 total) have multiple commitments. Marquette leads the way with four, including Rolling Meadows guard Ian Miletic, who was on the Illini's radar. Iowa State's three-man class is currently ranked No.
1, per 247Sports, and also includes a one-time Illinois target in Milwaukee Academy of Science (Wis.) guard Jamarion Batemon. Beyond those two programs, a few others stick out in the still early days of 2025 recruiting.
Like Kentucky. New coach Mark Pope might not always luck out to have multiple elite-level prospects from the state, including one from Lexington, Ky., whose dad played football for the Wildcats, but he did this year and secured commitments from five-star guard Jasper Johnson and four-star center Malachi Moreno.
Both also had Illinois offers that originated from Orlando Antigua's move back to Champaign. Butler's early efforts in the 2025 class are also notable, with Thad Matta landing an in-state (in Indianapolis, no less) point guard in Azavier Robinson and adding to his collection of Fran McCaffery's sons by securing a commitment from Jack. New DePaul coach Chris Holtmann has also put in some work with a pair of four-star commitments.
Maybe he gets the Blue Demons competitive again? Continuing the trend of the Big East dominating for the moment, Xavier and Providence also both have two four-star commitments. Illinois is likely to add to its haul post-Wagler. Who is the question.
It might be Brandon Lee or Spencer Ahrens or, if history repeats itself, someone no one is even aware of at this moment. But with the early signing period not far off, it's notable, nationwide, how few commits there are..
