Illinois Basketball: Illini needs to land top-35 prosepct Bryce Hopkins
Free-agent prospect Bryce Hopkins has reopened his recruitment. Here’s why Illinois Basketball should make an aggressive pursuit for the forward.
The past couple of weeks have been absolutely huge for Illinois Basketball. They brought back their top two stars in Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn for another season, propelling the Illini to consensus preseason top-15 status for the 2020-21 campaign. Now, the program hopes that the positive momentum can benefit them on the recruiting trail.
The reason why I bring up Illinois is that the second-best player in the state has reopened his recruitment. Bryce Hopkins, a top-40 forward prospect Oak Park, Illinois, picked the Louisville Cardinals as a junior over a year ago. But recently, he elected to de-commit from that program, starting a new process all over.
The reaction from the college basketball world has been swift, with numerous programs offering scholarships to Hopkins. That includes juggernauts Duke and Kentucky as well. At this point, the forward recruit will have any pick of his choosing and potentially an even better situation than what Louisville presented.
Can Illinois compete with those programs for Hopkins? In order to become a consistent top-tier threat in the Big Ten, they’ll have to. He’s the second-highest-rated player in the state of Illinois, only to Michigan State commit Max Christie. The Illini managed to get the second-best from the 2020 recruiting class in Adam Miller, ranked No. 33 overall. Landing in-state talent is a must for this program, which has a rich base to find players in the Chicago area.
There’s a need for an instant impact frontcourt piece for Illinois Basketball in the future, likely losing Cockburn after next season. Giorgi Bezhanishvili is entering his junior campaign and is a natural forward but could easily be moved to center in case Hopkins ends up with the Illini. He’d have quality guards to work with in Miller and Andre Curbelo, as well as 2021 guard commit Luke Goode.
Although official visits are still banned, that could benefit Illinois in the process with Hopkins. As a local program, the player already has a familiarity with the school that he may not with those just entering the conversation. And considering that a pair of NBA prospects just elected to come back with the program, that speaks highly in a way that should grab the attention of any high school recruit.
Next. Latest preseason power rankings for 2020-21. dark
Illinois Basketball is one of many programs that have reached out to Bryce Hopkins since he left Louisville. The program hopes to at least be in the new conversation going forward but will have plenty of competition this time around. It won’t be easy but the Illini has now become an alluring option for top-50 players in the region to consider. This situation will be the first test to see if the on-the-court success can translate to huge gains on the recruiting trail.