5 Best Freshmen in Illinois Basketball History: Where Do They Rank?

Will Riley, Kasparas Jakucionis and Morez Johnson Jr. are trying to get where other Illini have already been

Nov 4, 2024; Champaign, Illinois, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini forward Will Riley (7) celebrates with teammates after scoring during the second half against the Eastern Illinois Panthers at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Johnson-Imagn Images / Ron Johnson-Imagn Images

After Monday's thrilling season-opening 112-67 win over Eastern Illinois at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois had reason to celebrate – for one night, at the very least – a few other important triumphs: all those wins on the recruiting trail.

Will Riley was the star on opening night (an all-time Illinois freshman-high 31 points), but you would have to have been wearing blinders not to also see the excess awesomeness in the games of fellow Illini freshmen Kasparas Jakucionis (11 points, five rebounds, seven assists) and Morez Johnson Jr. (eight rebounds and six blocks in just 15 minutes).

Highlights from Illinois' 112-67 win over Eastern Illinois.#Illini | #HTTO | #EveryDayGuys pic.twitter.com/Qes5MbaWYt

— Illinois Men's Basketball (@IlliniMBB) November 5, 2024

Given all the (seemingly warranted) hype surrounding this group, it got us thinking: Who are the greatest freshman in Illinois basketball history? Riley, KJ and Johnson are just getting started, so throwing their names into the mix would be pure speculation. But after their showing against EIU, it's fun to think about where the trio might land on this list by March – or April? That would be madness indeed.

Illinois Basketball's Top Five Freshmen of All Time

5. Cory Bradford

Bradford led the Big Ten in 3-point shooting (41.5 percent) in his first season out of high school – and not just by nipping around the edges. He knocked down 2.7 3s per game to average 15.4 points as a freshman in 1998-99, when he shared the conference Freshman of the Year award with teammate Brian Cook.

4. Bruce Douglas

At a time when a starting freshman point guard was still a college basketball anomaly, Douglas arrived in Champaign for the 1982-83 season and immediately began running the show for Lou Henson's Illini. That year, Douglas averaged 5.9 assists and a Big Ten-freshman-high 2.4 steals while tag-teaming with fellow freshman Efrem Winters to push Illinois to a 21-win season and a second-place conference finish.

3. Kiwane Garris

An athletic scoring point guard, Garris chewed up opposing defenses as an Illini from the word go, scoring 30 on three occasions and averaging 15.9 points – still the all-time mark for an Illini freshman – in 1993-94. There were some hiccups meshing with all-time Illinois leading scorer Deon Thomas and a post-centric offense, but Garris was an undeniable force, getting to the line almost at will (6.7 free-throw attempts per game) while making plays as a facilitator (3.8 assists per game) and defender (1.2 steals per game).

2. Kofi Cockburn

What about Ayo, Illini fans might ask? Dosunmu energized Illinois basketball as a freshman, but remember that it was Cockburn, a year later, who lifted the Illini from 12 wins to 21 in his first season in Champaign. In 2019-20, Cockburn became the best freshman rebounder in the program's history (8.8 per game), as well as a dominant interior force as a scorer – his 12 freshman double-doubles are twice that of Winters, at No. 2 on the list – and shot blocker.

1. Deon Thomas

Thomas' name is all over the Illini freshmen record books, and it could be argued that the 6-foot-8 Simeon product did as much for creating a Chicago talent pipeline for the Illini as he did for them on the floor – which was considerable. Thomas is the school's all-time freshman leader in blocks (1.8 per game) and ranks either No. 2 (57.7 percent field-goal shooting) or No. 3 (15.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game) in several other freshman categories.

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