Basketball

Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting 

May 28, 2022

Let us just start this column with a bang--a source close to the program said about the recent commitment from Baylor transfer Matthew Mayer: “Look out, here we come, this roster has five legitimate NBA players on it.”

Matthew Mayer, a four-year player and former starting forward at Baylor, has announced his intention to play his final season of college basketball at Illinois. 

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

May 27, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The transfer portal has once again been kind to the University of Illinois men’s basketball program. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   IlliniGuys.com Teams Up with Illini […]

Brad Sturdy, IlliniGuy

May 22, 2022

The NBA Draft Combine is over and now the ramifications of player reactions to the information they received from NBA scouts and executives will play out over the next few days.

The guidance sent out by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors plainly states somebody is getting hit and hit hard with violations.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

May 21, 2022

Three messages were sent out through the NCAA office on Monday evening. Two were subtle and the final one was not.

Let’s take a moment to break down each of them through the past, present and future of what the NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors stated in what they’re called “guidance”.

NCAA Message No. 3 (A blunt one): Somebody is getting investigated and hit hard by the NCAA enforcement staff.

In part one and part two of this series, we’ve already established how this “guidance” has identified why the NCAA Division I Board of Directors thinks we’re here (name, image and likeness) and what is the problem (NIL collectives), the final message was simple. What are they going to do about it? The answer is the same thing the NCAA always does. Identify the worst case scenario and punish them in the hope that the rest of the institutions see the immediate and future damage caused and fall in line.

“For violations that occurred prior to May 9, 2022, the board directed the enforcement staff to review the facts of individual cases but to pursue only those actions that clearly are contrary to the published interim policy, including the most severe violations of recruiting rules or payment for athletics performance,” the NCAA statement reads.

“This is the time we have to put our stake in the ground. Enough! This is not acceptable,” Colorado athletic director Rick George, who is a former University of Illinois football player and alum, said emphatically to Sports Illustrated. “What we’re doing is not good for intercollegiate athletics, and it has got to stop.”

One of the highlighted examples of possible future exploration and investigation by the NCAA enforcement staff would almost certainly be John Ruiz, a lawyer in Miami whose current NIL payroll includes more than 100 Hurricanes athletes across a variety of sports. Ruiz has publicly on social media professeed that he expects to spend $10 million this year to have players endorse his two companies, LifeWallet, a healthcare application, and his boat racing operation called Cigarette Racing Team. Ruiz created a recent firestorm over social media when he used his own Twitter account to announce that Miami received a commitment from Kansas State transfer guard Nijel Pack after Ruiz had signed the hoops star to a two-year contract for $400,000 a year.

For the first time since 2008, a NCAA Men’s […]

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

May 18, 2022

Just when you thought there will never be another Kofi Cockburn at Illinois, well...hang onto that! Peyton Marshall is a 7-foot, 310-pound center from Marietta, Georgia who grew up in St. Louis.  He tells IlliniGuys.com that one of his favorite games to watch each year is the Braggin' Rights game between the Illini and Missouri.

Marshall became a big fan of Cockburn's just watching that game alone.

Marshall said, "I know a little bit about Illinois due to the Border War game versus Mizzou in my hometown every year. I know Kofi gave Mizzou 25 and 14 in last year's game."

A 2-over-par round on Tuesday saw Mike Small’s Big […]

For the eighth time in program history and the […]

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

May 15, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy ESPN)

Illinois fans, if the name Malachi Smith rings a bell to you, it should. He is a 6-foot-4, 205-pound shooting guard from Belleville (West), Illinois and he was a thorn in the Illini's side in the opening round of this year's NCAA Tournament.

Playing for Chattanooga, Smith - who averaged 20 points and seven rebounds per game for the Mocs - was the leading scorer for the underdog and a big reason they led most of the game before the heavily-favored Illini pulled ahead late. Illinois did hold him to 12 points on 4-of-20 shooting, but credit the defense of Trent Frazier, who made his final season in the orange and blue memorable by making most high-scoring guards work extra to get their points.

May 14, 2022 2022 Big Ten Men's Golf Coach […]

Mike Cagley, IlliniGuy May 13, 2022 Last weekend in […]

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

May 13, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Dayton Daily News)

Illinois' Chester Frazier and his fellow assistant coaches are hitting the recruiting trail hard and getting the attention of top prospects across the country.

Just this week, Jonathan Powell, a 6-foot-5, 175-pound combo guard from Dayton, Ohio, was on campus.  IlliniGuys.com caught up with the class of 2o24 star to give us his thoughts on the visit.

Kedric: This was your first time on the Illinois campus. Can you share with the readers at IlliniGuys what your thoughts were on your visit?

Jonathan: I really liked my Illinois visit, I felt the love right when I got out of the car. They made me feel loved when I walked through the door.

Illinois move up to seventh place in its 12-team […]

IlliniGuys Staff

May 9, 2022

After Skyy Clark and then ZZ Clark and then Terrence Shannon Jr. in the span of a couple of weeks, it has been super quiet on the Illini men's basketball recruiting front.

But that's about to change.

The recruiting dead period has ended and, with the NBA and G-League trials about to start, we will start to hear more buzz on future Illini.

This afternoon, IlliniGuys' Brad Sturdy gave us an update on the top targets and where the Illini stand with each.  You're probably out of popcorn by now, so go get a refill and then check out the latest.

Combined, Sturdy and IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting Kedric Prince have been doing this stuff for more than a quarter of a century and it shows.  Coaches here and over there, recruits and their families...it seems everyone knows and TRUSTS Brad and/or Ked.  And that makes IlliniGuys.com one cool place to be!