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The Illini’s 2024-25 roster appears to finally be complete and with it, perhaps the most unique blend of talent in the Brad Underwood era.
In an offseason that saw a multitude of graduates and transfer portal entries, Illinois was served with the tall task of bringing in 10 new scholarship players, undergoing a complete overhaul aside from its two returnees Ty Rodgers and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn. Throughout that undertaking, Underwood sought to put together a team a capable of maintaining the standard set by his program over the last five seasons — one that sits at the top of the Big Ten in winning.
Those roster-building efforts took Underwood and his staff quite a few places.
“We’ve tapped just about every market,” Underwood said.
Indeed, those 10 newcomers came from just about everywhere.
Their transfer portal attack remained fruitful with the additions of three proven high-major contributors: Kylan Boswell, Tre White and Carey Booth. They also reeled in a pair of mid-major transfers with Ben Humrichous and Jake Davis
On the high school front, the two-man freshman class of Morez Johnson and Jason Jakstys was enough to get excited about, but Underwood and Co. had one more trick up its sleeve in landing 5-star Candian wing Will Riley, set to reclassify into the 2024 class and tie a bow on Illinois’ smashing success of an offseason.