Every day over the two weeks leading up to Illinois’ Nov. 4 regular-season opener at Champaign’s State Farm Center, Illinois on SI will share a scouting report highlighting each Illini player listed on the team’s official roster. Today, in the fifth of 14, we shine a light on forward Ben Humrichous.
Sunday: Tomislav Ivisic
More Illini scouting reports
Where he’s from
Humrichous is from around the way in central Indiana – first Tipton High School, then NAIA Huntington and finally Evansville. But all that moving around seems mostly related to him growing too big for his fishbowl, which led him to go looking for bigger challenges. In any case, he’s a grad student with one year of eligibility remaining, so it’ll be one-and-done for Humrichous as an Illini.
What he’s done
Wherever he has gone, Humrichous has never left behind his masterful shooting stroke. Last season in Evansville, for example, he led the Aces in scoring (14.7 points per game), shot the leather off the ball (2.2 3s per game on 41.4 percent shooting from behind the arc) and, not for nothing, was named Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Underwood on senior Ben Humrichous:
Calls the 6-foot-9 forward “maybe as good a shooter as we’ve had in this program.”@BHumrichous shot > 41% from deep last year with Evansville. pic.twitter.com/nyH4TQJo2I
— Glenn Kinley (@glenn_kinley) October 11, 2024
How he helps
Humrichous gives the Illini an instant shot in the arm of the size-and-shooting compound that coach Brad Underwood made his program’s offseason priority. At 6-foot-9, he’ll help Illinois stretch defenses and, despite limited off-the-dribble explosiveness, can put it on the floor, use his body and create opportunities for himself and others. And from the hushed tones being used to talk about over the summer, Humrichous – who has been compared by some to Iowa’s Payton Sandfort – may be ready for another level-up.
What they’re saying
Everyone in and around the program, it seems, is talking about Humrichous. In one of his first comments on Big Ten Media Day, coach Brad Underwood went straight to the new guy from the Indiana small-school circuit: “Started at an NAIA school for three years. Went to Evansville. Been a huge and very pleasant surprise. Very, very gifted shooter.”
Plenty of teammates have commented on what they’ve seen so far in the way of scoring, and specifically shooting, from Humrichous, but Kylan Boswell probably summed it best: “He’s been killing it, low-key.”
What we expect
Depending on the development of some key newcomers and how quickly the Illini find their chemistry, Humrichous may quickly graduate to high-key killing it. If you read between the lines of some Underwood’s offseason comments, Humrichous could be in a position to be the featured performer and the Illini’s high scorer.
