There goes Will. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. I can be happy for Will and disappointed for myself at the same time. That’s possible and that’s where I’m at. I think sophomore Will Riley was going to be an absolute monster in the college game, 1st team All-American type stuff but in my best Kanye voice “I guess we’ll never know”. It also leaves a big gaping scoring hole in the current Illinois basketball roster and that has me a little panicky. NCAA Championship contenders with Will to ‘giant question mark’ should have everybody a little on edge and quite frankly I’d be disappointed in you otherwise. Now, it’s good for the brand and will be cool to hear 2 Illinois players announced in the first round of the NBA Draft but no getting around the fact that it’s tough for us “Bring Will back at all costs” guys. My guess is he’s getting good feedback from the NBA people. ESPN has him at 15 which is as high as I have heard for him so in that case, I get it. Tough to pass that up. I know I said I would be surprised if he declared and stayed in the draft but that was assuming late 1st round but you start getting closer to the top of the draft and even nibbling at the lottery, nobody should be surprised anymore if and when he stays in. Not to mention, the guy reclassified to get to the NBA faster which is a piece of data I overlooked the first blog around.
Personally for me I’m more interested in watching Will’s NBA journey than KJ’s. Will Riley has as big of a ceiling as anyone that ever put on the Illini uniform. That guy in his prime is going to be a problem in the NBA. Bookmark that.
It does make things a bit intriguing on the Illini roster/portal front. There’s all of a sudden a surplus of money available in the basketball vault. Where they spread Will’s money around will be interesting to watch. I will have a list of favorites at some point but we all know the top of my list is Dame Sarr. Start there. Throw the bag at him. From there, it’s a muddy. I like Cedric Coward from Washington St a lot but he only played 6 games last year and declared for the NBA Draft along with entering the portal so who knows. Look, this is an absolute Wild West no holds barred runway freight train from here and we’re all just going to have to hang on for the ride.
Will’s departure certainly leaves a massive hole on the Illini roster. Those shoes are not going to be easy to fill but I trust Brad more than my own family so I’m excited about the potential that this might open up as much as I am disappointed that Will is gone. I literally talked myself into that while writing this out. Sometimes you just have to write through it. Go Illini.
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