Given the state of this Illinois Fighting Illini basketball season, it’s understandable why one might start looking far ahead. According to recruiting service 24/7 Sports, Illinois is the front-runner to land 6’10” Class of 2016 Nick Rakocevic, from St. Joseph in suburban Westchester.
That Crystal Ball thinggee has the Illini at 67%, Duke 33% for the #59 overall national prospect (24/7’s rankings).
The site claims that Duke and Kansas have not offered Rakocevic, but shown interest. It also says that Wisconsin and Creighton, in addition to the Illini, have offered him. The night before the CBS Sports Classic in Chicago, Nick Rackocevic and company blew out Seton Academy at home.
Coaches from UCLA and North Carolina (in town for the event at the United Center the next day) were in attendance.
UCLA has been back to see him this month, and just a couple days ago, Virginia offered him:
Blessed to receive an offer from Virginia!?????????????????? #ACC #3 pic.twitter.com/m6guk1wA6I
— Nick Rakocevic (@nick_rakocevic1) January 13, 2015
Other links in Rakocevic’s Twitter feed say that he’s a five-star recruit; with offers from 20 schools already. Yahoo’s Rivals.com lists out a lot of those teams, and they rank him #66 overall in the nation. As we’ve chronicled, “five star recruit” and “Illini,” during the John Groce era has been a narrative that’s…that’s…..let’s just move on to what ESPNU has to say. They haven’t ranked Rakocevic yet, but they list him as having received offers from Florida, USC, Wisconsin and UCLA.
I have no idea how accurate any of these recruiting services are, or when these links were last updated. I don’t know if those links were correct even on the very first day that they were posted. I’ve never tried to hide the fact that I detest recruiting news, recruiting services, national signing day, the recruiting news cycle preps news sources etc.
Shifting back to the collegiate viewpoint of things, Rakocevic certainly does resemble a Wisconsin Badgers kind of player; at least during the Bo Ryan era. Ryan has brought Sconnie a well defined identity; which they recruit to. Rakocevic fits the mold.
However, he seems to also have a connection to the best player on the current Illini though:
Praying for my man Rayvonte Rice @rayrice24 ???????? Get well soon!??????????
— Nick Rakocevic (@nick_rakocevic1) January 6, 2015
He also would be a great fit for the Illini. A perfect fit at Illinois actually given that they need bigs. Illinois has started four guards all season long. Yes, Malcolm Hill is 6’6″, very tall for a college guard, but Nnanna Egwu is literally the only forward who plays major minutes, and the 6’10” is graduating this season. Illinois’ leading rebounder, by more than a full board per game, is 6’4″ two guard Rayvonte Rice. (And obviously he’s out indefinitely)
Two incoming freshmen next year (6’7″ D.J. Williams and 6’8″ Darius Paul) will add some height, but Illinois is likely to be small yet again next year. You can see that Maverick Morgan is not the answer. And just how bad is the Austin Colbert situation if he can’t even get playing time over Morgan.
One of Rackocevic’s teammates, Jordan Ash, is another highly rated recruit. He will play at Northwestern next year. You might have seen their high school in the famous documentary “Hoop Dreams.” St. Joe’s, led by the legendary Coach Gene Pingatore, produced Isaiah Thomas, Evan Turner and Demetri McCamey. It’s one of the most iconic high school programs in the state.
It’s so prestigious that even I’m aware of it; and I hate consuming preps coverage.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports, Yardbarker Network, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive Inc.
You can read Banks’ feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition and listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)