Basketball

Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

June 3, 2022

It did not take new women's basketball coach Shauna Green long.

Kedric Prince, IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

June 1, 2022

The Fighting Illini class of 2023 is at zero right now; with the nation's 10th best-recruiting class in 2022, and already two top 100 in the class of 2024, it is time to land one of the nation's best juniors.

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

May 31, 2022

Earlier in the week, Illinois women's head basketball coach Shauna Green got the memo: you need more size.

Every team has it, and she has added it. Aicha Ndour is a 6-foot-6 post who originally signed to play with Rutgers.

Ndour does not have a lot of playing time at the DI level, which may not be all bad. Learning a new system under a new coach from the start will pay dividends later.

Ndour started playing basketball at the age of 16. Illini fans can remember a guy named Kofi Cockburn who was a two-time All-American at Illinois but did not start playing until his freshman year of high school.

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting 

May 30, 2022

The new-look Illini and super senior Jacob Grandison have something in common this week: neither has said goodbye yet, but both are looking at a future that doesn't include the other.

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

May 29, 2022

Illinois assistant basketball coach Chester Frazier offered Tafara Gapare well over a month ago. But with the focus now shifting away from transfers, high school prospects are once again taking center stage.

Tafara Gapare is a 6-foot-10, 210-pound small forward from South Kent School in New Zealand.

Make no mistake: Gapare is not "Plan B"; he is currently listed as a 2023, but his camp and several colleges are hoping to get him to reclassify to participate in the class of 2022.

Here at IlliniGuys.com we have shared how scholarships work: sometimes an offer will be put on the table as a "courtesy," but then there are those when everyone is all in.

Gapare said, "I'm learning so much more about Illinois. Because of my schedule, I didn't get to watch a lot of games, not just Illinois but all of the schools recruiting me. I have people in my circle that I trust to help guide me when it's time to decide. I know they know Coach (Chester) Fraizer very well."

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.