![\"Illinois](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b749a1f527adbcbd277ccf4cb55a7493.jpeg\"\/)
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Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood.Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Illinois is working toward making up for its losses by targeting one of the most sought-after players available. On3’s Joe Tipton reports<\/a> that the Fighting Illini are one of the top teams for former Wisconsin Badgers<\/a> guard John Blackwell.<\/p>\n \u201cWisconsin transfer guard John Blackwell has a top six of Alabama, Arizona, Duke<\/a>, Illinois, Louisville and UCLA\u2026 Most people I\u2019ve spoken with believe this recruitment will come down to Duke and Illinois,” Tipton wrote.<\/p>\n After three years with the Badgers, Blackwell put together his most productive season. The junior started 34 games, averaging 19.1 points<\/a> (career-high), 5.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists (career-high). He also shot 43% from the field and 38.9% from beyond the three-point line.<\/p>\n His performance on the court led to the guard earning<\/a> All-Big Ten third team honors. He’s quickly become one of the most recognizable names in college basketball with an On3 NIL valuation of $1.5 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n As the No. 5 player to hit the transfer portal this offseason, per On3 Industry Rankings<\/a>, Blackwell would be a major addition for Illinois. He could be the team’s second<\/a> addition, alongside guard Stefan Vaaks (Providence Friars).<\/p>\n Related: Gonzaga Linked to No. 3 Recruit in College Basketball Transfer Portal<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 17, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Basketball<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Illinois Fighting Illini fell just short of their first national championship appearance since the 2004-05 season. Entering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,2050,217,2048,7367,6982,5939,231,772,1400,1544,88882,3471],"class_list":{"0":"post-712784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brad-underwood","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-illinois-fighting-illini","13":"tag-joe-tipton","14":"tag-john-blackwell","15":"tag-ncaa","16":"tag-ncaa-basketball","17":"tag-ncaa-tournament","18":"tag-ncaab","19":"tag-south-region","20":"tag-wisconsin-badgers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116422619733694477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}