Illinois Basketball recruit Te'Jon Lucas signs National Letter of Intent

It's official: Class-of-2016 point guard Te'Jon Lucas has signed his National Letter of Intent with Illinois basketball. The Milwaukee, WI native committed to the Fighting Illini back in September over Southern Cal and Old Dominion. He was also receiving interest from Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Texas, and others at the time of his decision.

Lucas is currently ranked as a three-star prospect by 247Sports (No. 200 overall) and Rivals. Scout, however, has pegged Lucas as a fringe four-star recruit. Here's my brief scouting report of the 6'0 guard:

Right now, Lucas' biggest asset is his elite court vision and decision making; recruiting analyst Cory Evans even went as far as saying that he's "one of the top five passing point guards in the class of 2016." You can probably toss his athleticism into that conversation as well (don't see 6'0 guys dunking that easily very often). Lucas' jump shot doesn't appear to be the most consistent aspect of his game, but it's improving and it'll give the Illini a much needed scoring threat from the position.

But here's the other thing -- Lucas is very young compared to other players in this class (think Malcolm Hill). He's just starting to turn a corner in his development and, honestly, it's almost unfair to already be projecting his talent two, three years down the road. So there's some definite upside, but with that could come some more immediate concerns about getting acclimated to the physicality at the next level.

Lucas will be Illinois' only signee of the day since he's the only high school recruit committed to the program. Once he reports to Champaign next June, he'll have four years of eligibility beginning with the 2016-17 season.

John Groce will hold his annual Signing Day press conference at 1:00pm CT.