So big news yesterday is that both Kasparas and Will Riley are declaring for the NBA draft from Illinois and it has a lot of people upset.
Specifically, there’s a huge group of Illinois fans that banked on Will Riley coming back and leading the program his sophomore year into a lottery draft pick. He had a really high ceiling and Brad Underwood brought him along slow and steady for a monster sophomore year. That was a general vibe around the team down the stretch.
Granted – Riley always had draft speculation as the #1 Canadian player and the biggest Illinois recruit in two decades. It wasn’t like this came out of nowhere.
But same time he was coming off the bench, extremely weak, slow defensively and consistently a shoot-first guard. No doubt there’s more to polish up before starting the NBA career, and we hoped there’d be enough NIL to see a commitment through. That’s kinda how we left things after the NCAA tourney loss to Kentucky.
Now fast forward a few weeks and he’s leaving with Kasparas Jakucionis for the NBA and it’s bringing me some insane post nut clarity that I want to share.
Specifically – Illinois is quickly becoming a draft destination. And now with KJ and Riley in the first round, that’s 4 players in the last 4 seasons from the program: two international and two Chicago Public Schools.
- Ayo
- TSJ
- KJ
- Will
What other Big Ten schools have 4 first rounders in the last 4 seasons?
Purdue has 2.
Michigan has 3.
Iowa has 3.
Michigan State has 0.
Maryland = 0
And on the list goes with programs worse than Illinois at getting players drafted in the 1st round.
Now please also consider Illinois has basically the full strength of the NIL budget to replace their top two players, and they can recruit into these vacancies on the grounds that you’re replacing 1st round draft picks.
Whether that’s this year or next, Underwood’s story is only getting stronger for players that want to get paid then play in the league. He’s doing both things extremely well and losing Will Riley to the NBA draft only makes Underwood better and stronger. You can parlay smaller success into a much bigger recruiting victory, and it all starts with one player.
For Underwood, that’s Ayo and he immediately brought us TSJ who then delivered Will Riley and KJ and now who knows where we go.
All I know is that losing players to the NBA means nothing what it did a decade ago. You can reload immediately and Brad Underwood has shown an uncanny ability to turnover a roster and start from scratch. And if that’s going to be a routine problem for almost every program in the country, then give me the guy who’s already proven to solve that problem. That’s why I’m so confident in saying outside of Duke and UNC and Kansas I don’t know if there’s a better program for where college basketball is headed.
So while I hate to see these guys leave, I can’t help but be overly excited to see how Brad Underwood uses their success to recruit better players. As my friend Jim Graziano likes to say, the right hand washes the left, the left washes the right, and they both wash the face together.
You gotta have elite players to get better players, and that together is only going to make the program better/faster/stronger.
Does that make sense?
I hope so because I’m walking around with my chest out like a genius that these guys are leaving. Just gives Brad Underwood more canvas to paint with and that’s exactly the kinda spot I want to be in every offseason.
So congratulations to Kasparas and Will but I think we’re going to be just fine.
In Brad Underwood I trust.
Illinois. Illinois. Illi fuckin nois