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CHAMPAIGN — Kasparas Jakucionis arrived in the United States on Monday evening and immediately endeared himself to Illinois men’s basketball fans by posing for a photo outside of a Chicagoland Pizza Hut.
In a parking lot. Bringing back memories of Illinois coach Brad Underwood’s comments a few seasons ago about the establishment in his hometown of MacPherson, Kan.
“We all went to the Pizza Hut parking lot when we all needed a good throwdown,” Underwood said at the time.
But back to the present. Jakucionis’ arrival puts Illinois one player closer to having its full roster on campus for summer workouts. Most of the new-look Illini team was on hand for the first day of workouts last week. Morez Johnson Jr. arrived at the end of the week after returning from Argentina with a gold medal from the FIBA U18 AmeriCup.
Now, Illinois is just waiting on Croatian center Tomislav Ivisic to arrive and for Canadian wing Will Riley to make his decision on a possible commitment and reclassification. The Illini are perceived favorites to land the 6-foot-8, 180-pound five-star prospect when he announces his decisions Sunday.
“(Johnson will) be handling his medicals and his compliance — all the stuff he needs to be doing and get done — before the first of the week,” Illinois assistant coach Geoff Alexander said during a recent WDWS radio appearance on ‘Saturday Sports Talk.’ “Tomislav may be a little bit behind Kasparas, but not too much, and we’re expecting him to arrive pretty soon as well.”
The start of summer workouts marks an end to an eventful spring for Illinois. The 2024-25 roster features nine newcomers — and potentially more — and just two returning players in Ty Rodgers and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn. That group of newcomers includes transfers Jake Davis (Mercer), Tre White (Louisville), Kylan Boswell (Arizona), Carey Booth (Notre Dame) and Ben Humrichous (Evansville). The incoming freshmen class grew with Jakucionis and Ivisic signing last month to join Johnson and Jason Jakstys.
“It’s been a busy spring, and, obviously, there was a lot of thought and intention of what we do,” Alexander said. “The portal. We signed a couple guys from Europe. High school guys. We’ve dabbled and taken care of things we needed to take care of in different ways.”
Alexander and new/old associate head coach Orlando Antigua helped spearhead Illinois’ recruiting efforts in Europe this spring.
Antigua had the connection to Ivisic after bringing his twin brother to Kentucky last season. Alexander was integral in landing Jakucionis given his connections in Lithuania that date back more than two decades to his time as a junior college assistant at Jacksonville College in Texas.
“You think the world, there’s so much ground to cover in all,” Alexander said. “It’s a small, small group of people that handle those guys all over the world. I’ve dabbled with it since 2002 and just built strong relationships.
“I obviously go over and visit there, which is very important. A lot of guys just want to try to do that over the phone. You’ve got to get in front of them. You’ve got to build trust. They’ve got to see you and know it’s important for you to get over and see them. That’s been good, and I’ll continue to do it because it’s a lane I feel is very important.”
Jakucionis played most of this past season for Barcelona’s U18 team but got call-ups to the main roster for two games in Liga Endesa (the top league in Spain) and one Euroleague game. Barcelona’s main roster featured six former NBA players including Ricky Rubio, Tomas Satoransky, Willy Hernangomez, Alex Abrines, Jan Vesely and two-time News-Gazette All-State Player of the Year Jabari Parker.
Ivisic spent the past three seasons playing for SC Derby in the Adriatic League’s first division. It’s a league that also featured former Illinois guard Brandon Paul on a Budućnost team along with former Indiana guard Yogi Ferrell along with likely 2024 NBA draft lottery pick Nikola Topic at Mega Basket and a Partizan frontcourt boasting Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin), Bruno Caboclo (No. 20 pick in 2014 NBA draft) and Balsa Koprivica (Florida State).
“Two really, really good players that have been playing on a stage against older, grown men,” Alexander said of Jakucionis and Ivisic. “These guys are playing against and practicing every day against grown men, ex-NBA guys. We feel really, really good about both those guys.”
Alexander feels pretty good about the state of the Illinois basketball brand in Europe, too, based on the number of times “I-L-L!” was yelled his direction at the Berlin airport. Alexander was in Germany at the end of May for the Adidas Next Generation Tournament, where Jakucionis shined for Barcelona. He also got eyes on some of the other top young talent in Europe that is choosing to play college basketball at a higher rate.
“They watch and are in tune with the college game; you’d be surprised,” Alexander said. “That orange ‘I’ is pretty powerful around the world. People know it. It’s always good when you make a phone call and they’re aware already.”
Scott Richey is a reporter covering college basketball at The News-Gazette. His email is srichey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).
