Illinois basketball gearing up to make a run at rising 5-star recruit

The push in recruiting that the Illinois basketball team has made is quite impressive.

Brad Underwood and his evolving Illini coaching staff have done a great job landing talent every season. In the past couple of recruiting classes, the talent level has seen a bit of a bump as well.

Illinois has two projected first round NBA Draft picks right now, and both of those players are freshmen. That doesn’t even count a few upperclassmen who could easily work their way into a draft prospect.

Keeping this great recruiting momentum going is key, though. So far, Illinois has pulled in two four-star recruits for the class of 2025. This is a good start, but there are plenty of options still left on the board to help boost this class up. One option could be Alex Constanza.

Constanza is a 6-foot-8, 207-pound small forward from Westminster Academy in Florida. He is rated as a five-star recruit and ranked as the No. 11 player in the class of 2026. He is also the No. 3 small forward in the country and the No. 2 player coming out of Florida.

According to Jake Weingarten of Stock Risers, Constanza has a few teams that are on his mind. He just took an official visit to Syracuse. The Orange is his only visit thus far, but another team he plans on visiting is Illinois. Weingarten reports that Constanza will be taking a visit to Champaign in early December.

But why would this potentially affect the class of 2025? Well, that is due to the potential of Constanza reclassifying. While he is a member of the 2026 class right now, Weingarten is reporting that Constanza might end up reclassifying and becoming a member of the class of 2025 depending on development.

Underwood has done a masterful job recruiting since he came to Illinois. Year after year, the roster is balanced. You don’t see too much of a frontcourt or backcourt. We have talent all over the floor.

Landing someone like Constanza would continue to push forward this formula. Illinois already has two four-star commits in Brandon Lee and Keaton Wagler for 2025. They are both backcourt talents who can strike from anywhere on the court.

Lee is more of a traditional shooting guard who is going to light you up. Wagler on the other hand can play multiple roles including point guard or out on the wing.

When you match Constanza up with those two talented guards, it forms one talented incoming roster for 2025. All of that is based on the five-star forward reclassifying and committing to Illinois. The visit in December is huge. Hopefully, Illinois has a nice record and we can blow the doors off his recruitment with a nice home win.