Illinois Basketball: 3 takeaways from Skyy Clark taking a leave of absence

3. Where both sides go from here long-term

To be fully fair to Clark, we don’t want to state that he’s in the transfer portal and 100% gone from the team. But leaving after getting benched and reported locker room issues behind the scenes makes the timing point to that outcome.

If that’s the case, it’ll be the third ball-handler that transfers out from the program, joining Adam Miller and Andre Curbelo. And between losing Ayo Dosunmu, Trent Frazier, and Alfonso Plummer in the past couple of years, there’s been plenty of talent leaving the backcourt.

The good news is that Illinois has a point guard in the 2023 recruiting class in Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn, a top-100 prospect and former Purdue commit. The 6’1 playmaker is more pass-first than a scorer and that’s what the team needs going forward. The Illini also is going to go heavy in the transfer portal again, since they’ll be losing both Shannon and Matthew Mayer after the season.

As for Clark, if he’s truly gone, he’ll have plenty of interest from the other power conference schools. He’s from out west and could go to one of the Los Angeles schools. He also had a final list of six teams that included Louisville, Tennessee, Maryland, and Washington, all of whom could use another ball-handler.

It could end up as one of those teams, someone else that enters the picture, or even a return to Illinois Basketball. We’ll see what happens with Skyy Clark and the Illini going forward but just like this set of news was a surprise, so could be what occurs next.