Good Morning, Illini Nation: Background on another 2025 guard option

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' pursuit of a lead guard in the Class of 2025 has obviously taken a few lumps. First came Jeremiah Fears' decommitment. Then the Illini didn't make the finalist cut for Jasper Johnson.

But that's recruiting. And the Illini aren't without options on their board when it comes to landing a top high school senior in the country. Several were detailed earlier this week.

Mikel Brown Jr. is another potential target, as Brad Underwood and Co. continue to shoot their shot for top talent in the 2025 class. The five-star guard has plenty of offers. Alabama, Louisville, Villanova, Texas, Mississippi and Indiana are also in hot pursuit.

Illinois, though, has forced its way into the conversation this summer. And the Illini have a bonus recruiter on their roster, too, since Brown teamed up with freshman big man Morez Johnson Jr. on Team USA's gold medal-winning squad at the FIBA U18 AmeriCup last month.

Brown earned AmeriCup All-Star Five honors in Argentina after starting all six games and averaging 10.3 points, 4.8 assists and 3.3 rebounds in 25 minutes per game. He led Team USA in assists and minutes played.

That wasn't Brown's only success this summer (and spring). The 6-foot-3, 165-pound guard was also one of the top scorers on the adidas 3SSB circuit, putting up 22.7 points per game on a 45/40/91 shooting slash while also averaging 3.3 assists and 3.1 rebounds for Team Loaded NC.

Brown played with Overtime Elite in 2023-24. He started his high school career at Orlando Christian Prep (Fla.) and played his sophomore season at Sunrise Christian Academy (Kan.) before joining up with OTE. He averaged 13.4 points, 5.4 assists and 2.1 rebounds during the OTE regular season and bumped that up to 15.3 points, 6.8 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game in the playoffs.