Richey | Roster reshuffling now the norm in college basketball

Apr. 30—CHAMPAIGN — The month of March ended in a thud for Illinois.

A crash.

A borderline basketball disaster.

The Illini were flying high in the run-up to the Elite Eight. There was a level of confidence about squaring off against Connecticut. Knocking off the reigning national champs wouldn't be easy, but it was doable.

And that late March Saturday night game in Boston was close. For a half. Then UConn ripped off an incredible 30-0 run, turning that Elite Eight matchup into a blowout to close out Illinois' deepest run in March in nearly two decades.

Brad Underwood often mentions "the abruptness of the end." Getting blitzed by the Huskies qualifies. Final Four aspirations one minute. Desperately trying to stem the tide of a 30-0 run the next.

So that was March. The end of a busy April seems like it will pass quietly for Illinois. Without the momentum and energy built early in the month when the Illini ripped off a quartet of transfer additions.

Underwood and Co. went from having the top-ranked transfer class in the country midway through the month to getting passed by eight teams — three of them Big Ten rivals plus Missouri for good measure — by month's end.

Every addition was also met by an exit in Champaign. Dain Dainja to Memphis. Sencire Harris and Amani Hansberry following Chester Frazier to West Virginia. Luke Goode adding to Indiana's notable transfer haul. Nico Moretti hitting the portal Monday, two days before the deadline.

Not to mention Coleman Hawkins reaffirming his intent to make the NBA his next stop and Marcus Domask calling it an end to his college career after not securing a hardship waiver for a sixth season.

A month has passed since the end of the 2023-24 season, and the only thing that's clear is next year's Illinois team won't look anything like the one that went 29-9 and was one win away from the Final Four. It's a near complete roster turnover in Champaign, and the positivity and promise around the program has begun to wane as May approaches mainly because of the uncertainty new Illini like Jake Davis (formerly of Mercer), Tre White (Louisville), Kylan Boswell (Arizona) and Carey Booth (Notre Dame) will bring to next year's team.

A flurry of moves in the first 16 days of April had Illinois fans on a high. Had them feeling Underwood could go out and get whomever he wanted. And also, as it turns out, set an unrealistic standard for how the rest of the offseason might proceed.

Perceived top targets started going elsewhere. Dante Maddox Jr. chose Xavier (maybe it's time to give up on Toledo transfers) and former Wisconsin guard AJ Storr picked Kansas. Those moves coupled with no further good news other than Orlando Antigua coming back to Illinois as associate head coach for his second stint in Champaign after two earlier stops at Kentucky has Illini fans a little restless as the next major date on the college basketball calendar approaches.

All players, graduates included, have to be in the portal by Wednesday if they intend to play elsewhere in the 2024-25 season. Portal combat won't miraculously end when the clock strikes midnight, but when the transfer window closes that's it. That's the group of players available.

And the competition to secure their services will remain steep.

Illinois isn't the only team in the midst of a major roster restructuring. Beyond the high-level programs that changed coaches (and therefore essentially needed a wholescale roster update) only seven of the 362 Division I programs didn't lose a player to the portal. Just two of those are high-major teams — Kansas and Marquette — and the Jayhawks did lose one of their incoming freshmen because of their own portal efforts.

Other teams have made big swings. New Michigan coach Dusty May has pieced together a roster, led by 7-footers Danny Wolf (Yale) and Vlad Goldin (Florida Atlantic), that could take the Wolverines from the Big Ten basement into the NCAA tournament. Indiana's Mike Woodson has one of the splashiest transfer classes in the country, with Goode joining Myles Rice (Washington State), Oumar Ballo (Arizona) and Kanaan Carlyle (Stanford).

Outside of the Big Ten, UConn coach Danny Hurley just picked up former St. Mary's guard Aidan Mahaney to go with newly acquired five-star freshman Liam McNeeley, Kansas' Bill Self clearly learned last year's lesson about talented depth and all eyes are on what new Kentucky coach Mark Pope will do.

And that's barely scratching the surface of the transfer portal comings and goings. Which Illinois remains in the thick of with five scholarships available heading into the 2024-25 season.

It's no longer a rebuild in Champaign. The program is coming from too solid of a place given the success the past five seasons, but to call it a reload also doesn't quite fit. At least not yet.

Underwood has laid the foundation by bringing in Davis, White, Boswell and Booth. But the big piece is missing. A Terrence Shannon Jr.-esque addition to be "the guy." Plus another big or two. And some shooting.

Goals for May. Because what the Illini will look like when the games actually tip off in November is coming together right now.