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By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

June 3, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

For the next several days, I will break down one current men’s and women’s basketball player each day and discuss what expectations might be for the upcoming season.

Today’s Double Dribble 2-1 Focus will be Berry Wallace and Andrej Stojakovic (both former McDonald’s All-Americans).

Player Biography: Berry Wallace is a 6-foot-1 combo/wing from Pickerington Central High School in Pickerington, Ohio. A five-star recruit, she was ranked No. 20 nationally by ESPN HoopGurlz and became the third signee in Illinois women’s basketball history to be named a McDonald’s All-American. She was also named the 2024 Ohio Capital Conference Buckeye Division Player of the Year and finished third in Ohio’s Miss Basketball voting.

What we know:

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

June 3, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Cal Athletics)

For the next several days, I will break down one current men’s and women’s basketball player each day and discuss what expectations might be for the upcoming season.

Today's Double Dribble 2-1 Focus will be Andrej Stojakovic and Berry Wallace (Both Former McDonald’s All-Americans).

Player Biography: Andrej Stojakovic is a 6-foot-7 wing and transfer from California. A 2023 McDonald’s All-American, he graduated from Jesuit High School (Carmichael, Calif.) and was ranked a four-star recruit by ESPN and On3 at No. 22 and No. 24, respectively.

Stojakovic started his collegiate career at Stanford during the 2023-24 season, where he made 34 three-pointers, ranking 10th all-time among freshmen in school history, and scored 18 points in back-to-back games against Santa Clara Nov. 14 and Eastern Washington Nov. 17. During his sophomore season at Cal, he led the team in scoring (17.9 PPG, sixth in the ACC), blocked shots 1.2, and also averaged 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 33.4 minutes per game.

What we know:

Jackson Buchanan, a former All-American and four-year starter at Illinois, finishes a 36-hole sectional qualifying round in his home state to qualify for his second United States Open Championship.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

June 2, 2025

Jackson Buchanan has survived what is commonly nicknamed ‘golf’s longest day’ to advance through sectional qualifying into the 2025 United States Open Championship.

The former Illini star player, who recently turned professional following the Illini’s finish in the 2025 NCAA Championships, will play in his second consecutive U.S. Open after making it through local and sectional qualifying stages.

Buchanan fired an 18-under par total over the 36-hole sectional qualifying round with back-to-back 63s at Piedmont Driving Club in Atlanta, which is approximately 35 miles from his hometown of Dacula, Georgia. Buchanan finished in second place on Monday in the 84-player field where only five qualifying spots were available.

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst

June 2, 2025

Illinois made a last-minute addition to the recruiting class of 2025 when Long Beach College cornerback Donovan Turner broke his commitment to Delaware State and flipped to the Illini.  As he related to IlliniGuys, the Illinois coaching staff reached out to him only a few weeks ago to ask about his willingness to break his commitment and he jumped at the chance to play high major football.  Turner is well-traveled in the college ranks.  He is originally from the Long Beach area, but he chose to attend UMass when he left high school.  However, he didn't earn much playing time in two years there, so Turner returned home to Long Beach College and played a year at home with some pretty good success with 30 tackles and 2 interceptions in nine games.

What does he bring to the Orange and Blue?

Mike Cagley, Co-Host Sports Spectacular June 2, 2025 No […]

May 31, 2025

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

For the next several days, I will break down one current men’s and women’s basketball player each day and discuss what expectations might be for the upcoming season.

Today's Double Dribble 2-1 Focus will be Cearah Parchment and Zvonimir Ivisic.

Player Biography: Cearah Parchment is a 6-foot-2 wing from Fort Erie International Academy (CAN).

May 31, 2025

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

For the next several days, I will break down one current men’s and women’s basketball player each day and discuss what expectations might be for the upcoming season.

Today's Double Dribble 2-1 Focus will be Zvonimir Ivisic and Cearah Parchment.

Player Biography: Zvonimir Ivisic,

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

May 30, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy player's X page)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois football head coach Bret Bielema continues to mine the transfer portal for defensive line help and added another piece on Monday.

In true Bielema fashion, he hinted at good news with a tweet: "Just feels like some good news coming kind of day…. #ILL."

Later in the day, Illinois received a commitment from Division II Bemidji State transfer Eli Coenen

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

May 29, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Kedric Prince/IlliniGuys)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The recruiting momentum in Champaign continues to build, and it’s turning heads around the Big Ten and beyond. For longtime Illinois fans, this type of recruiting success is unfamiliar territory, yet the direction feels sustainable. Some may be waiting for the other shoe to drop, because historically it has. But this time, it feels different.

When Bret Bielema was hired in December 2020, he made several of his goals clear.

“We want to win championships here, and one of our coaches will contact every high school head coach in the state of Illinois in the next several weeks,” Bielema said at the time. Those in the past didn't work hard to keep talent home.

The partnership between Illinois athletics director and Illinois head football coach Bret Bielema has contractual plans to be together for the better part of the next decade.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

May 29, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill.  — With this third new contract of his five-year tenure, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Bret Bielema have never been more professionally married.

This new contract details the fact that the Illinois athletics director Josh Whitman and Bret Arnold Bielema intend to be a professional marriage for, at least, the better part of the next decade. With the new contract that was approved the University of Illinois Board of Trustees in its meeting in Urbana on May 22, Bielema gets an extra year of guaranteed length to this deal (5-year deal to a 6-year deal) and his salary increases a total of $2.3 million annually ($33 million to $46.8 million total) over the next six years of this deal.

According to the 2024 USA Today college football salary database, the $7.7 million annual salary would put Bielema’s pay, which is already the most in program history for an Illini head coach, in the Top 20 of all FBS head coaches but it wouldn’t break the $8 million annual figure. 

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

May 28, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

For the next several days, I will break down one current men’s and women’s basketball player each day and discuss what expectations might be for the upcoming season.

Today's Double Dribble 2-1 Focus will be Gretchen Dolan and Ty Rodgers.

Player Biography: Gretchen Dolan, 5-foot-11, combo guard/wing, a redshirt sophomore from Buffalo, N.Y. (Williamsville South High School)

What we know:

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

May 28, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Joe Clark/IlliniGuys)

Over the next several days, I will break down one current men’s and women’s basketball player each day and discuss what expectations might be for the upcoming season.

Today's Double Dribble 2-1 Focus will be Ty Rodgers and Gretchen Dolan.

Player Biography: Ty Rodgers, 6-foot-6 combo guard/wing, a redshirt junior from Saginaw, Mich. (Thornton Township, Ill.)

What we know:

After early exit in NCAA Championship, Illinois head coach Mike Small lamented about his team’s finish that will “leave a bad taste in our mouth for a long time”.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

May 27, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

While watching Max Herendeen finish his individual round of the 2025 NCAA Championships on Memorial Day, Illinois head coach Mike Small was still fuming about how his team’s season ended.

The finish on Sunday, a 18th place that saw the Illini multiple shots away from the Top 15 cutline after 54 holes of competition, is the earliest Illinois has exited the NCAA Championships since 2019.

And the 25-year head coach, who has made it publicly clear his one ambition as the leader of the men’s golf program at Illinois is a national team championship, didn’t mince words when describing his team’s three-day performance in California as “a total meltdown”.

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst

May 24, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy player's X page)

Chicago St. Rita's King Liggins joined the Chicago to Champaign pipeline when he committed to the Illini just hours before fellow Chicago-based recruit Nasir Rankin.  Liggins is a defensive lineman that projects to an end in Illinois 3-4 defense, but its easy to see a future where Liggins could put on some weight and be a dangerous nose tackle for Illinois as well.  Either way, Illinois beat out most of the middle section of the Big Ten in this recruitment and after looking into this a little further my only question is: why wasn't the top of the Big Ten involved as well?

What does he bring to the Orange and Blue?

Illinois sophomore Max Herendeen completed a back-to-back Top 30 finish in the NCAA Championships as he completed his final round in California as an individual.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

May 26, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

Max Herendeen’s 2024-25 college golf season ended with a 1-over 73 and a tie for 27th place at the 2025 NCAA Championships.

The Illinois second-year player finished the final round of tbe national tournament playing in front of his coaches and teammates as an individual after the Illini failed to make the Top 15 team cut on Sunday after 54 holes of competition.

Herendeen finished his 72 holes with a 2-over-par 290 total that saw him finish 13 shots behind individual medalist champion Mississippi’s Michael La Sasso. Like most of Herendeen’s tournament and the event for the rest of his teammates, the Bellevue, Washington, native had a roller coaster beginning to his round with a bogey-birdie-bogey-double bogey start on the back nine of the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.