Top-25 recruit Will Riley has committed to Illinois and reclassified to the 2024 class, and plans to enroll and suit up for the Fighting Illini next season.
He officially signed his letter of intent with the university on Sunday.
“It's exciting to add an extremely talented player like Will Riley to our program,” coach Brad Underwood said. “He is the consummate positionless basketball player who has all the offensive tools. Obviously, [Illinois assistant coach] Orlando [Antigua] He was instrumental in their relationships and did an excellent job leading this recruitment. Will has the ability to score at all three levels and gives us another action player who can make plays for others and himself depending on matchups. He is skilled, has a great mid-range and floater game, and an extremely high basketball IQ.”
Riley, a 6-foot-9 small forward from Canada who attended Phelps School (Pa.), is ranked No. 24 on the ESPN 100 for the class of 2025. He has been one of the top scorers on the Nike EYBL circuit all spring , averaging 21.9 points with UPlay.
Riley visited Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky and Alabama, but his relationship with Antigua (who had recruited Riley when he was on John Calipari's staff at Kentucky) helped the Illini win.
Underwood has dramatically reloaded Illinois following the departures of starters Terrence Shannon Jr., Marcus Domask, Coleman Hawkins and Quincy Guerrier from a team that went 29-9 and advanced to the Elite Eight. Riley is the latest offseason addition to a group that includes international recruits Tomislav Ivisic and Kasparas Jakucionis, as well as transfers Kylan Boswell (Arizona), Tre White (Louisville), Ben Humrichous (Evansville), Carey Booth (Notre Dame) and Jake Davis. (Haberdasher).
