Chicago City Wire

Illinois has 13 Division I college basketball teams eligible for the NCAA tournament.

One of them, the Bradley Braves (20-14) managed to qualify this year. And it isn’t expected to last, facing highly favored two seed Michigan State at 1:45 p.m. Thursday.

But that doesn’t mean Illinois partisans will be left with nothing more for which to cheer.

Admiral Schofield

A Prairie State Wire analysis of NCAA rosters counts 49 Illinois natives on the 68 qualifiers. That’s 43 if you subtract walk-ons.

They include some of the premier players in college basketball on the top-ranked teams in the country, all of whom spurned schools here to go elsewhere.

Illinois natives are starters or major contributors for 21 teams, including Gonzaga, Tennessee, Michigan, Texas Tech, Purdue, Kansas, Florida State, Wisconsin, Iowa State, Nevada, Wofford, Oklahoma, Iowa, St. Louis, Oregon, Vermont, Colgate, Bradley, Iona, Fairleigh Dickinson, and North Carolina Central.

Chicago native and Simeon High School graduate Zach Norvell Jr. averages 15.3 points per game for top-seed Gonzaga, located 1,785 miles away from the South Side, in Spokane, Washington. He was offered a scholarship by the University of Illinois, but didn’t consider the school. He picked Gonzaga over Iowa State, Georgetown and Florida State.  

Fellow Simeon graduate Talen Horton-Tucker is a former Chicago-area prep standout playing for Iowa State, which won the Big 12 Championship game and is matched up with Ohio State Friday night.

Horton-Tucker, who chose Ames, Iowa over Champaign-Urbana, scored a season-high 26 points in Iowa State’s 84-68 victory over the Illini back in November.

But the most acclaimed Illinois natives playing in the NCAAs this year weren’t even recruited by Illinois.

Admiral Schofield of Zion, a 6-foot-6 forward who starred for Zion-Benton High School in Lake County, earned First Team All Southeastern Conference honors this year, leading the University of Tennessee to the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row. Schofield is now a “legend” in Knoxville, one of the most decorated players in program history.

Same goes for 6-foot-10 Ethan Happ of Rockridge High School in Rock Island County. Also a senior, he picked the University of Wisconsin over Green Bay and Milwaukee. Happ earned all Big Ten First Team Honors and was a finalist last year for the John Wooden Award, which goes to the nation’s top player.

Jordan Caroline grew up in Champaign and attended Central High School, the progeny of a University of Illinois legend, Simeon Rice. His grandfather, J.C. Caroline, was a running back for the Illini and played a decade with the Bears. 

Illinois was his dream school, but it didn’t offer him a scholarship. So he went to Nevada, where the senior is finishing up a career as a two-year, first team all Mountain West Conference selection, leading the Wolf Pack to three straight NCAA appearances.

Matt Mooney of Texas Tech had just one scholarship offer out of Niles Notre Dame High School-- Air Force. He transferred to South Dakota and earned Mid-Major All-American honors, then went to Lubbock as a graduate transfer. The 6-foot-3 guard earned a starting role for the Red Raiders and averaged 11 points per game.

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Illinois Basketball Players in the 2019 NCAA Tournament

Name	High School	College
Antoine Pittman	Rockford Auburn	Bradley
Armon Brummett	Decatur MacArthur	Bradley
Peter Hanley	Peoria Notre Dame	Bradley
Nate Kennell	Metamora	Bradley
Gabe Grant	Chicago Mt. Carmel	Buffalo
Rapolas Ivanauskas	Barrington	Colgate
Brendan Besser	Chicago Latin	Duke
Elyjah Williams	Evanston	Farleigh Dickinson
David Nichols	Chicago Mt. Carmel	Florida State
Zach Norvell, Jr.	Chicago Simeon	Gonzaga
Tajuan Agee	Hyde Park	Iona
Nicholas Hobbs	Fenwick	Iowa
Isaiah Moss	Chicago Simeon	Iowa
Zion Griffin	Hinsdale South	Iowa State
George Conditt IV	Chicago Corliss	Iowa State
Talen Horton-Tucker	Chicago Simeon	Iowa State
Prentiss Nixon	Bolingbrook	Iowa State
Charlie Moore	Chicago Morgan Park	Kansas
Austin Trice	Chicago Hales Franciscan	Kansas State
Courtese Cooper	Elgin	LSU
Ed Morrow	Chicago Simeon	Marquette
Charles Matthews	Chicago St. Rita	Michigan
Jack Hoiberg	Hinsdale Central	Michigan State
Brock Stull	Boylan Catholic	Minnesota
Raseen Davis	N/A	NC Central
Jordan Caroline	Champaign Central	Nevada
Joey Lane	Deerfield	Ohio State
Jamuni McNeace	Kankakee	Oklahoma
Miles Reynolds	Chicago Whitney Young	Oklahoma
Paul White	Chicago Whitney Young	Oregon
Francis Okoro	Normal West	Oregon
Kyle King	St. Charles North	Purdue
Evan Boudreaux	Lake Forest	Purdue
Nojel Eastern	Evanston	Purdue
Trevion Williams	Chicago Mt. Carmel	Purdue
Jordan Goodwin	Belleville Althoff	St. Louis
Brandon Courtney	Trenton Wesclin	St. Louis
Demarius Jacobs	Chicago Uplift	St. Louis
Jack Raboin	Mattoon	St. Louis
Admiral Schofeld	Zion-Benton	Tennessee
Matt Mooney	Niles Notre Dame	Texas Tech
Skyler Nash	Chicago Gould Academy	Vermont
Ryan Davis	Conant	Vermont
Carter Higginbottom	Chicago St. Ignatius	Wisconsin
Michael Ballard	Fenwick	Wisconsin
Ethan Happ	Milan	Wisconsin
Trevor Stumpe	Plainfield North	Wofford
Messiah Jones	Chicago Simeon	Wofford
Jameel Alausa	Chicago Lab	Yale

Source: NCAA