CHAMPAIGN — While Auburn, Duke, Florida and Houston are making plans this week for a trip to San Antonio and the Final Four, Illinois coach Brad Underwood is busy working on the transfer portal.
In the past week, the Fighting Illini have seen forwards Cary Booth and Morez Johnson Jr., along with guard Tre White enter the portal while freshman guards Kasparas Jakucionis and Will Riley are believed to be on their way to the NBA Draft. And there could still be more players choosing to enter the portal like junior forward Ty Rodgers, who took a redshirt for the 2024-25 season.
This past season at Illinois, White averaged 10.5 points, 5.5 rebounds per game as he started 31 of 33 games. Johnson averaged 7.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game as he played in 30 of 33 games, starting eight. Booth saw limited action, averaging 1.2 points and 1.0 rebounds in 21 contests.
All of this movement is nothing new for Underwood and Illinois basketball.
In the past three seasons, the Illini have lost 14 players to the transfer portal.
In the 2022 offseason, it was Benjamin Bosman-Verdonk, Andre Curbello, Omar Payne and Brandin Podziemski choosing to leave the Orange and Blue. A year later, Jayden Epps, Brandon Lieb, R.J. Melendez and Conor Severn took their games to other programs and just last year, Underwood saw Dain Dainja, Luke Goode, Armani Hansberry, Sencire Harris, Coleman Hawkins and Niccolo Moretti decide to pursue options outside of Champaign.
There has also been plenty of additions from the transfer portal, as Illinois has added 12 players during that same period.
In 2022, the Illini added Dainja, Matthew Mayer and Terrence Shannon Jr. The next season, it was Marcus Domask, Quincy Guerrier and Justin Harmon that joined the program and last year, the newcomers were Booth, Kylan Boswell, Jake Davis, Ben Humrichous and White.
Current players in the portal, that according to reports are considering Illinois include Iowa guards Josh Dix and Pryce Sandfort along with Dayton guard Malachi Smith.
Illinois isn’t the only Big Ten school dealing with losses to the portal.
Indiana and new head coach Darian DeVries is currently without a single scholarship player on its roster.
Oumar Ballo, Trey Galloway, Goode and Anthony Leal all graduated. Gabe Cupps has already announced his intention to transfer to Ohio State, while Kanaan Carlyle, Mackenzie Mgbako, Jakai Newton, Malik Reneau, Myles Rice and Bryson Tucker have entered the transfer portal.