Illinois landed a top in-state star Thursday when Morgan Park’s Adam Miller announced his commitment. Miller’s final three came down to Arizona, Louisville and the Illini.
Miller’s decision gives Illinois coach Brad Underwood his best recruiting class since taking over the program in 2017.
Miller, ranked among the top 30 players in the country, joins fellow top 50 recruit Andre Curbelo out of New York. That star-quality backcourt package joins 6-9 Coleman Hawkins, a three-star recruit from Prolific Prep in Napa, Calif., in this Class of 2020 recruiting class for Illinois.
The Class of 2018 that Illinois brought in included more bodies and depth and featured Ayo Dosunmu, but as far as immediate impact and bonafide stars, this Class of 2020 shines the brightest with the Miller-Curbelo tandem.
That last time Illinois landed two top 50 recruits in the same class was a decade ago when Jereme Richmond and Meyers Leonard were part of the Class of 2010.
It means the investment this Illinois staff has put into Morgan Park and the Mac Irvin Fire club program has paid off.
Miller follows up Ayo Dosunmu to Champaign, a star player who also prepped at Morgan Park and was part of the Mac Irvin Fire program for years. That pipeline is obviously strong and still flowing.
But despite the strong ties, don’t underestimate the time invested by the Illinois staff in this recruitment.
There has been a shortage of overall high-major talent in Illinois during Underwood’s years at Illinois. But when it came to the place that had two of them, Illinois delivered, diving head first into and weaving through what always seems to be some sort of territorial club basketball dynamic in this state.
It also means the potential loss of Dosunmu won’t sting quite as bad.
Even if Dosunmu’s stock climbs between now and this spring when he must make the decision of whether to stay for his junior year or head off to the NBA, Illinois is in position to reload in the backcourt.
While most everyone assumes Dosunmu is gone after this season, NBA mock drafts have Dosunmu still hovering around that first and second-round bubble. Still, the odds are that will be enough to push Dosunmu to the draft after playing two years at Illinois.
But with a perimeter of Trent Frazier, who will be a senior next season, along with Miller and Curbelo, it eases the mind of everyone around Illinois basketball with the departure of Dosunmu and current senior Andres Feliz.
Illinois continues to add pieces. Miller is a big piece. He not only brings some panache but, more importantly, shooting prowess that’s at a high level and the ability to play both guard spots with some ideal backcourt size.
There will be some upperclassmen in place, including Frazier and junior-to-be Giorgi Bezhanishvili to lean on. There will be promising 6-8 Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk, who will get some seasoning this year as a freshman. There will be older veterans who sat out this past year in junior transfers Jacob Grandison and Austin Hutcherson.
And, hopefully, there will be Kofi Cockburn, the 6-10 impactful big man who would be a sophomore if he stuck around one more year.
