NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Analyzing top 4 teams for 5-star wing prospect Will Riley
Illinois Fighting Illini
2024
Of the four NCAA Basketball options, Illinois, currently, is the least likely to get top-25 preseason rankings next season. They lost all of their top players, including star wings, Terrence Shannon Jr. and Marcus Domask. They landed a couple of solid wings of their own, including Louisville transfer Tre White and former Evansville combo forward, Ben Humrichous.
On paper, Riley has a good chance to be a focal point for the Illini. If reclassifying to the 2024 class is the main goal, Illinois is the best option when it comes to playing time and maximizing a role to showcase his skills. But it also could be the worst when it comes to the potential of making a deep run in March.
2025
This is the rare time where waiting a year would make less sense for Riley. Yes, joining four-star guard prospect Jeremiah Fears in the 2025 class would be great for Illinois and its future recruitment but the potential playing time is already there. White can play multiple positions already and has two years left of eligibility anyway.
dark. Next. Updated top-25 rankings for 2024-25. Updated top-25 rankings for 2024-25
Plus, as I mentioned before, Coach Underwood has a good history of landing big-name transfers. With respect to former Arizona guard Kylan Boswell, that didn’t happen this time around. That could work in Riley’s favor, becoming the big-name signing for the program this time around.