Good Morning, Illini Nation: Illinois offers 2025 big man Andreas Holst
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Welcome to "Good Morning, Illini Nation," your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He'll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood's team and college basketball at large:
Illinois has two international players on its current roster in Quincy Guerrier (Canada) and Nico Moretti (Italy). Pursuing recruits at least born outside of the U.S. — Guerrier and Moretti both played high school ball in the states — has been part of Brad Underwood's roster building approach.
Underwood has signed 13 players with international ties since he became Illinois' coach ahead of the 2017-18 season. He struck big (literally) with Kofi Cockburn along with Andres Feliz, Alfonso Plummer, Giorgi Bezhanishvili and Guerrier. Others didn't pan out like Zacharie Perrin, Samba Kane, Matic Vesel and Greg Eboigbodin.
Illinois added another international prospect to its Class of 2025 recruiting board this month with an offer to Andreas Holst. The 7-footer out of Aalborg, Denmark, is the fourth international target in the class along with Canadian forwards Will Riley, Spencer Ahrens and Efeosa Oliogu. The Illini have also offered three international prospects in the Class of 2026 in Felipe Quinones (Puerto Rico), Mikkaa Muurinen (Finland) and Sinan Huan (China).
Holst has represented Denmark on the international stage. He played for the U18 national team at the 2023 FIBA U18 European Championship in Nis, Serbia, and averaged 8.9 points and three rebounds.
Holst has several other programs involved in his recruitment, but his only other offer is Stetson. He was averaging 17 points, 5.3 rebounds and two blocks in his three games before his Illinois offer while shooting 47 percent from the field overall and 38 percent from three-point range. He celebrated his Illini offer by scoring knocking down four threes and scoring 16 points in his next game.
