By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

June 25, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Joe Clark/IlliniGuys)

The Big Ten Conference’s Sixth Man of the Year selection will now be a counted-on rookie piece in the National Basketball Association.

Will Riley was selected No. 21 overall by the Utah Jazz in the 2025 NBA Draft after the Canadian reclassified as an 18-year-old prospect to spend one year at Illinois that led to overall improvement, a second round appearance in the 2025 NCAA Tournament and immediate draft buzz once he declared for professional basketball in mid-April.

But Riley won't be headed west. That pick was part of a trade with Washington, sending the No. 18 pick - former Florida point guard Walter Clayton Jr. - to Utah and the former Illini freshman to the Wizards.

Riley played in all 35 games with nine starts, ranking third on team in scoring at 12.6 points per game along with 4.1 rebounds per game and 2.3 assists per game.

The 6-foot-8 wing finished his collegiate career with 22 games scoring in double figures with six 20-point games including a 22-point effort in a 86-73 win over Xavier in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

The Canadian native, who arrived in Champaign-Urbana after he reclassified as an 18-year-old to enroll at Illinois a year early as the highest ranked recruit signed by Illinois in the internet era, reached a double-digit scoring effort in 13 of last 15 games, averaging over 16 points per game in that final stretch.  He began his Illini career by scoring a freshman debut record 31 points against Eastern Illinois on November 4.

Riley owns the Illini freshman scoring record for an NCAA Tournament game after dropping a team-high 22 points in the 86-73 victory over Xavier in the first round action in Milwaukee last March, eclipsing the 21-point effort posted by Frank Williams in the first round win over Pennsylvania in 2000. Riley made eight consecutive field goal attempts after starting the game 0-for-3, and finished 8-for-12 overall, including 3-for-4 from three-point range.

Riley’s parents, Ray Riley and Tracey Hooks, was in attendance Wednesday night in Brooklyn, along with Illinois head coach Brad Underwood and Illini associate head coach Orlando Antigua, to watch her son realize the lifelong dream of being selected into professional basketball. During Riley’s NCAA Tournament run this past March, CBS cameras caught Hooks in her son’s Team Canada jersey watching her son from the stands of The Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

“She’s been with me every step of the way and learned when I was a young boy that I wasn’t going to be stuck inside the house and she was going to have to be that mom who took me to stuff,” Riley said in March. “She’s been to practically every home game [which is a 561-mile trip one way from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada to Champaign, Ill.] this season.”

The latest mock draft from ESPN.com analysts Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo had Riley being selected by the recently crowned NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder with the 24th overall selection.

“Riley has fans in front offices in the top 20 but could also wind up falling into this range, with potential landing spots ahead of this, including Brooklyn, Atlanta and New Orleans,” Woo wrote Wednesday morning. “His advocates around the NBA see major upside because of his excellent size, offensive feel and shooting potential, but it's understood that it will take him time to add physical strength and, hopefully, improve defensively.”

CBSSports.com basketball analyst Kyle Boone projected Riley to be selection No. 29 overall by the Phoenix Suns with their second pick in the first round. This late first round was obtained by Phoenix after it was previously the property of the Utah Jazz, Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolvers.

“Riley has a lot of fans in NBA circles with his big frame and scoring instincts,” Boone wrote Wednesday morning. “He's a young prospect after reclassifying to move up a level and needs to add strength but showed flashes of what NBA teams covet in scoring wings in his one season at Illinois.”

Riley was a prized late recruit to the Illini’s 2024 signing class being primarily recruited by Antigua after the native of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada spent the final two seasons of his prep career at The Phelps School in Malvern, Penn. Riley elected to follow Antigua to Illinois shortly after the assistant coach made his return to Underwood’s coaching staff in Champaign-Urbana.

Riley’s selection in the first round bridges a 20-year gap between from when Deron Williams and Luther Head heard their name called in the first round of the 2005 draft by then-National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern at Madison Square Garden and tonight’s 2025 draft at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

“There's no doubt it's a source of achievement [for the program]," Underwood said in a local media session inside Ubben Basketball Complex on June 16. "We don't set out to have one-and-dones and do all of that. But to have guys elevated, I think the style of play, I think the status of this program put guys in those situations.”