Two JUCO wide receivers from College of San Mateo are set to commit. Both visited Illinois.

Jamai East deciding on Friday. Illinois, Oregon State, or Purdue.

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Jayden Dixon-Veal is also in decision mode. Not sure what day exactly. Illinois or Purdue.

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Sounds like CB Vernon Woodward is going to decommit from Wisconsin. Visited Illinois earlier this month.

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Hey all, Greg Smith here. I started doing national work for the network a couple weeks ago. Spoke with Tysean about picking the Illini.

Champaign, ILL.– Italian point guard Niccolo Moretti has signed a Big Ten Tender of Financial Aid and is set to join the Fighting Illini Basketball program. Moretti will enroll at the University of Illinois for the 2023 spring semester, giving the Illini another mid-year addition on the heels of French forward Zacharie Perrin.

Moretti is a 6-foot-1 point guard from Bologna, Italy. He arrives in Champaign from Canberra, Australia, where he was a member of the NBA Global Academy. The NBA Global Academy is a year-round elite basketball training center at Basketball Australia's Centre of Excellence at the Australian Institute of Sport.

"We are excited to add Niccolo to our team and begin working with him as he transitions to the college game," head coach Brad Underwood said. "Nicco is a pure point guard who excels in ball screens and can score at all three levels. He is what you look for in a point, he has great vision, basketball IQ, and makes his teammates better."

Moretti trained under the direction of legendary Australian coach Marty Clarke, and alongside top international prospects from around the world. In July, he traveled to Atlanta with NBA Global Academy to participate in the fourth NBA Academy Games, averaging 10.3 points and 3.5 assists. He most recently returned to the U.S. in December to participate in the Tarkanian Classic followed by an exhibition game at the G League Winter Showcase, where he scored 19 points and dished out 10 assists in a win against NBA Academy Africa.

Moretti helped lead Italy to a 4-3 record and sixth-place finish at the FIBA U18 European Championships from July 30-August 7 in Izmir, Turkey. He averaged 9.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists, highlighted by 15 points, six assists and five steals in a round of 16 victory over Greece. Moretti finished the tournament against his future Illini teammate, as Perrin and France defeated Italy in the fifth-place game.

Moretti is a 2022 graduate of DME Sports Academy in Daytona Beach, Florida.

His older brother, Davide Moretti, played at Texas Tech for three seasons, helping lead the Red Raiders to a national title game appearance as a sophomore. Current Illini star Terrence Shannon Jr. was a freshman at Texas Tech in 2019-20, Davide's final season in Lubbock.

Top prospects that I will be watching this weekend at the Riverside-Brookfield Shootout.

#1 priority going into the offseason was to fix the PG position. We have two "depth" players on scholarship, but you can't count on either of them (for health, eligibility, or development reasons) to contribute meaningful minutes next season. RayJ Dennis was a huge miss and we passed on other options waiting for him to decide.

This is the same issue that doomed Bruce Weber and John Groce.

Ultimately, we have a similar roster to last year and can expect similar results. Maybe the veteranosity will help with maturity but when you have guys playing out of position they underperform and get unhappy.

It's hard to get excited about a 7/8 seed with no chance to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament or contend for anything meaningful along the way.

Are things better than in 2017/18? Absolutely. That's something. However, you can't have the basketball program at Illinois be eclipsed by football and expect fans to just tolerate that. I foresee a long slog of a season unless something is done to further upgrade at the PG spot. I'm not seeing a lot of options now that we're in mid-June and I'm not going to buy into the "Ty Rodgers will be our PG" cope this preseason. A lot of talent is going to be wasted, just like we've seen for most of the last 15 years here.

Today (6/15) is the first day college coaches can make direct contact with 2025 recruits.

At last count, Illinois had contacted around 30 kids. I’ll post the profiles of the ones I know about.

A look at the Big Ten from the Rivals Michigan State site.

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RIVALS RANKINGS WEEK

Sunday: Who should be No. 1?

Monday: Five-star countdown | Meet the new five-stars

Tuesday: Rivals 250 released | 10 prospects on the verge of five-star status | Gorney's thoughts

Wednesday: Offensive position rankings released

Thursday: Defensive position rankings released

Friday: State rankings released

Saturday: Rankings Roundtable: Who was ranked too high? Too low?