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Mike Cagley, IlliniGuy July 4, 2022 All photos in […]

Mike Cagley, IlliniGuy July 4, 2022 Happy 4th of […]

By Larry Smith/IlliniGuys Staff July 3, 2022 We've all […]

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

July 3 , 2022

 Amani Hansberry is a 6-7, 215-pound power forward from Washington, DC., a four-star recruit and a star in the class of 2023.

Illinois has a roster of young but very talented guys. There’s not a lot of room for recruits in the class of 2023, so they can’t make a mistake and must find that player that can make an impact. Why? Because each year the college basketball rosters will change drastically, Illinois will be no different.

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst

June 29, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Jaheim Clarke's Twitter page) 

You know how Bret Bielema has been stocking up on Illinois players?  There's one very large exception.  At cornerback, Illinois has added nothing but Floridians under Assistant Coach (and Florida native) Aaron Henry.  In fact, when Jaheim Clarke arrives on campus in 2023, the entire cornerback room might just be filled with native Floridians. Do I have a problem with that?  Absolutely not, because Florida has large pockets of the type of athlete who succeed at skill positions and Clarke is yet another cornerback addition from the area that I just love.  Clarke is listed as a safety under both main recruiting services and he played there for much of 2021, but Illinois looks at Clarke as a cornerback and I'm fully behind that decision.

What does he bring to the Orange and Blue?

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting 

July 1, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy WMBD)

Remember the name A.J. Guyton, the Peoria native who chose to play his college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers?

A.J. has a daughter named Aaliyah Guyton, a 5-foot-11 2024 combo guard who was recently offered by Illinois head coach Shauna Green.

This staff is recruiting the best of the best. Aaliyah is one of the top guards in the country, one the new staff at Illinois would love to have on their roster. 

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting 

July 1, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy FIBA Basketball)

Who is Zacharie Perrin? Is this another roster filler? If he was any good, how did Illinois get him without a fight? Those are all questions that are fair, but keep in mind Perrin is a 6-foot-10, 220-pound forward from Grandfontaine, France.

You’re not going to have a fair assessment from some of the nation's top recruiting sites. Besides, assistant coach Geoff Alexander couldn’t care less about ranking or what others think of this surprise recruit, choosing to rely instead on his own expertise gleaned from more than two decades of coaching and evaluating international talent. 

According to multiple publications, USC and UCLA are in […]

Zain Bando, IlliniGuys Student Correspondent June 30, 2022 The […]

New Illinois wing forward Ty Rodgers thinks he can take the team-first, scoring second attitude straight from Team USA this summer to Champaign as he begins offseason workouts.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

June 29, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Junfu Han/Detroit Free Press)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The next likely candidate to be Brad Underwood’s glue guy is the 18-year-old with a gold medal in his trophy case. 

Ty Rodgers has returned from his championship-winning experience in Mexico as part of Team USA’s Under-18 national team convinced that his dirty work, egoless and the opposite of stats conscious role on that team can absolutely translate to his contributions as a freshman at Illinois. 

During the Team USA tryouts, Rodgers was able to beat out higher-ranked players in his recruiting class according to multiple recruiting services for a roster spot representing his country by committing to a style of play that doesn’t involve worrying about scoring. 

“I learned that every team you try to make is going to be about trying to find a role and I really felt like my two weeks starting with training camp in Houston allowed me to play to a role,” Rodgers said Wednesday. “Every team is going to have scorers. What it comes down to is what can you do besides score. I feel like the answer to that question is why I made the (Team USA) roster and was my impact on the team.” 

Connor Cagley, IlliniGuys Basketball Writer June 29, 2022 Until […]

Illinois athletics director Josh Whitman suggests that modern-day college athletics has a nationwide public credibility problem and needs massive innovation.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

June 28, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Illinois’ athletics director isn’t committed to the idea of the NCAA being the national governing body going forward. 

“It’s going to be very different and there’s two parallel issues that we all know at some point will intersect,” Whitman said. “One, what is the future of the NCAA? What is the future of the Power Five Conferences? The second is what are the benefits? What are we providing to our student-athletes? We need to find more ways to financially benefit our student-athletes.” 

In his two-hour, annual roundtable session with local reporters Tuesday, Whitman echoed his support for the ideas stated directly from the Supreme Court in the recent 9-0 ruling against the NCAA as a governing body in the Alston case and the continually rising revenues from media deals. 

With the current era of college athletics including the legality of name, image and likeness deals along with player movement via the transfer portal, Whitman stated Tuesday he isn’t convinced his school’s athletics department should be governed by the NCAA office in Indianapolis any longer. 

Former Illinois star and two-time Big Ten Conference Champion Nick Hardy is playing his best career golf following a major wrist injury. 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

June 28, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Golf Digest)

Nick Hardy proved last week he’s not interested in having the 2022 U.S. Open be his career-defining moment but yet an introduction to what he hopes is a long professional golf career. 

One week after being in contention to win throughout all four days of a major championship and finished tied for 14th place in front of a worldwide audience at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, Hardy didn’t have time to let any memories sink in. 

The goal for the 26-year-old, who is playing his best golf coming off a major wrist injury, was to show the trait Illinois head coach Mike Small preaches to each and every one of his players during their time in Champaign: consistency. Hardy did just that at TPC River Highlands, just outside of Hartford, Conn., as he posted his first ever Top 10 finish on the PGA Tour (tied for eighth) and now sees his world golf ranking at its highest point (235th) in nearly calendar year.  

Illinois athletics director Josh Whitman clearly doesn’t want to currently lose the one thing that gives his football program a shot at national relevancy - being in the Western Division of the Big Ten.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

June 27, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- When asked if he had a stance on whether the Big Ten Conference eliminating football divisions, Josh Whitman chose six words and one line. 

“Not one I want to share,” the Illinois athletics director said on June 2 at the grand opening of Atkins Golf Club in Urbana.

The six-word comment was another sign of Whitman showing his strong talent of being strategically dismissive of a simple question. It was also a sign that Illinois is on losing side of a fight that will be stopped by technical knockout sooner than later. It was impossible to believe the Illinois athletics director doesn’t have an opinion, so “no” was off the table. He couldn’t have said “yes I do, no comment” because Whitman knew the reporters, including yours truly who asked the question, believed he’d just spent spring meetings in Arizona, less than two weeks prior, discussing such a topic. 

In case you have been living under a rock for several months, divisions in Power Five Conference college football are going into the extinct category along with ties, the triple option offense and coaches wearing suits on sidelines. 

A few weeks after attending a showcase camp at Illinois and less than 48 hours from his official weekend weekend in Champaign, 2023 tight end prospect Nathan Guinn is committed to the Illini.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

June 27, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- One year ago, Nathan Guinn was an overlooked defensive edge rusher.  Fast forward to today and he's a prep athlete who parlayed a productive month of June to become a tight end committed to a Big Ten program.

Guinn, a 2023 prospect who stands 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds, elected to give a verbal commitment to Illinois just a few days removed from his official visit weekend in Champaign. 

The Vero Beach (Fla.) High School product traveled over 1,000 miles to attend the first Illini Showcase Camp on June 11 and it was fairly obvious from the first few minutes of drill work at the camp why Guinn was willing to make this gamble.