In Will Riley, Illinois may have their men’s basketball version of Chase Brown. By that we mean a Canadian import who totally changes the game for them in a revenue sport. Will Riley is the Illini basketball program’s highest ranked recruit ofg all-time. If that sounds like hyperbole, you have to remember that recruiting services have only been around a few decades or so. Eventual All-American and Illini basketball Mt. Rushmore member Dee Brown held this distinction until today.
Brown was the #19 ranked recruit in the class of 2022.
NEWS: 5?? Will Riley, the No. 10 overall recruit in the 2025 class, has committed to Illinois, he tells @On3Recruits.
The 6-8 Small Forward also considered Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, and the NBL. https://t.co/3OhsLX4uhl pic.twitter.com/jvGUFAqZ1p
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) June 23, 2024
Will Riley is ranked #9 overall by 247 Sports, #10 by On3, and #11 by Rivals in the Class of 2025. He is a consensus 5-star man, and hopefully, he’ll turn out better than the last two 5*s to enter the Illini program. Skyy Clark and Jereme Richmond were absolute disaster signings. However, Brown was a five-star as well, and he turned out to be all of that and everything more.
So you just don’t know. Sometimes a highly rated recruit lives up to the hype (Frank Williams), sometimes they don’t (Crandall Head).
On paper though, at least right now, Riley is absolutely the real deal. Most likely, if he lives up to expectations, the Kitchener, Ontario native will be one-and-done to the NBA.
That isn’t something Illini basketball fans have really ever had, but it is a experience that they absolutely should welcome.
“It’s exciting to add a supremely talented player in Will Riley to our program,” reads a statement from Illini basketball coach Brad Underwood.
“He is the consummate positionless basketball player who has all the tools offensively,” Underwood said. “Obviously Orlando (Antigua) was instrumental with his relationships and did an excellent job leading this recruitment. Will has the ability to score it at all three levels, and he gives us another action player who can make plays for others and himself based on matchups.
“He is skilled, has a great midrange and float game, and extremely high basketball IQ.”
The Phelps School power forward picked Illinois over Arizona and Kentucky.
Coming off an Elite 8/Big Ten Tournament title season, we thought there might be some great recruiting gains. The positive momentum from that special season has indeed been channeled into the offseason signing period here.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to Ravens Wire, part of the USA Today SMG’s NFL Wire Network and the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.