What a great day for Illinois basketball on Wednesday. It wasn’t surprising but it was certainly fun.

I fully expect Andrej Stojakovic will be next this week. There are still some other pieces to figure out like where Ty Rogers fits and others lower on the bench, but the core looks like it will be back.

I’d like to also land John Blackwell. The problem is there’s a lot of mouths to feed. Vaaks, Mirkovic, Stojakovic, Coleman, and Morillo are all getting minutes and will have the ball in their hands. If I’m Blackwell, I’d want to be the lead guard handling everything, but Illinois is not a one-dimensional team. Does he want to play for a national champion contender?

If he doesn’t want that, even if the money is decent, then he should never have left Wisky. Reality is it’s probably a pay day and that’s okay too. The fit at Illinois is way better for him, but who knows?

I have every confidence the program will pivot to a different 1 or 2 already in the portal if they don’t get Blackwell. Still, with everyone essentially coming back, a tremendous freshman class, and at least two impact transfers, the train will keep rolling.

And that’s all that matters.