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Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll be offering insight each morning on Brad Underwood’s team and college basketball in general:
Most of the 2024-25 Illinois basketball team is on campus, conducting summer workouts. Only Tomislav Ivisic (still in the admissions process) and Will Riley (committed and signed just a week ago) have yet to arrive.
Illinois has released clips from those summer workouts. It’s just those brief glimpses we get of these mostly new teams. (If only the doors to the Ubben Basketball Complex would open wide.) This is what caught my attention in the last video:
Bringing out the best in each one.#illini | #HTTO | #EverydayGuys pic.twitter.com/6XDr4zaHqX
— Illinois Men’s Basketball (@IlliniMBB) June 29, 2024
— Ty Rodgers jump shots. The fact that they exist is news. Rodgers attempted virtually nothing last season. The closest he came was with his floaters, and he still has just one three-point attempt in two seasons at Illinois (since his freshman year). However, Ubben says he has improved his shot and is making at least one three-point shot per 5-on-5 session.
— Attacking the basket. That was basically Terrence Shannon Jr.’s competition last season. He did most of it and is now with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The combination of Kylan Boswell and Kasparas Jakucionis could make a difference (and inject a little more play than Shannon).
— First-round talent? Jakucionis was included in Jonathan Givony’s updated 2025 mock draft released at the end of the week for ESPN. Whether he’ll be there a year from now remains to be determined, but the 6-foot-6 Lithuanian appears to have that potential with a combination of size, playmaking and shooting ability.
— Handles with size. Well, that’s basically everyone on this reconstructed list, except Boswell and Dr Gibbs-Lawhorn. Positional size and shooting were Brad Underwood’s priorities this offseason. So Ben Humrichous (6-9) and Carey Booth (6-10) shooting from three-point range should be the expectation.
Scott Richey is a journalist who covers college basketball at The News-Gazette. His email is srichey@news-gazette.comand you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).