Illinois Basketball Recruiting: three-star center Barret Benson commits to Northwestern

Per his Twitter, three-star center Barret Benson has given a verbal commitment to Chris Collins and the Northwestern Wildcats. The 2016 big man is rated as the No. 156 overall player (No. 5 Illinois native) in 247Sports' 2016 composite rankings; he held offers from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, and a several other high-major programs.

I have decided to continue my education and basketball career at Northwestern University #B1GCats #PoundTheRock

— Barret Benson (@bigbenson40) July 7, 2015

Before we get into how this impacts Illinois--holy cow is Chris Collins recruiting well in Evanston. Vic Law and Bryant McIntosh in 2014, Aaron Falzon in 2015, and now Benson and Rapolas Ivanuaskas (No. 1 player in Illinois) for 2016. It's only a matter of time before the Wildcats make it to the NCAA Tournament.

I said back in February that Benson was probably the most likely to commit out of all of Illinos' targets--that was coming on the heels of a scholarship offer and an in-person visit from John Groce. For some reason, the mutual interest seemed to have subsided considerably from that point on. It may have had something to do with Benson's performance during the Spring evaluation period, but we'll probably never know for sure.

So while this doesn't appear to be too terribly surprising for the Illini, it still hurts because the team needs to add a quality post presence. Let's take a look at their current options:

2016 Illini Basketball Recruiting Board
Player	State	Rating	Rivals	247Sports	Ht	Wt	Offer	Status
POWER FORWARDS
Tony Bradley	FL		36	31	6’10	235	X	Cool
Nick Ward	OH		69	51	6’9	235	X	Michigan St. (Verbal)
Nolan Narain	IN		63	89	6’9	210	X	San Diego St. (Verbal)
Tyler Cook	MO		79	118	6’8	240	X	Out of top 6
Considering: Florida, Virginia, Iowa St., Iowa, Mizzou, Arkansas
Nick Rakocevic	IL		75	167	6’9	190	X	Out of top 10
Considering: Texas, USC, Creighton, Wisconsin, Iowa, Tennessee, Indiana, UCLA, Miami, Virginia
CENTERS
Marques Bolden	TX		29	20	6’10	235	X	Cool
Isaac Humphries	IN		28	40	7’0	245	X	Cool
Joey Brunk	IN		138	88	6’9	225	X	Butler (Verbal)
Barret Benson	IL		89	160	6’9	240	X	Northwestern (Verbal)

Click here to view the rest of the Recruiting Board

I mean, I wish I could say that post player XX is at least somewhat likely to become an Illini, but that isn't the case for anyone right now. It's looking like the coaching staff will have wait until some new names pop up--that includes fifth year transfers after the upcoming season.

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