Cambridge has been known to produce world-class athletes but never has a basketball player from the city gone on to play NCAA ball at a high level.
Will Riley is a 17-year-old six-foot-eight phenom ranked as the best Canadian player in all of college ball. Coming off a record-setting 31 points in his debut at the University of Illinois, Riley is projected to be a top 20 pick in the upcoming NBA draft.
Making it to the NBA has always been a dream of Riley who was born and raised in Cambridge and attended Preston High School.
“I always just, you know, grinded it out through high school. Try my best to go to the gym every day twice a day, three times a day,” said Riley. “Eventually like scouts started seeing that and started recruiting me.”
After seeing scouts show up at his games, Riley knew he had a chance to make it out of Cambridge and into the NBA if he tried hard enough.
Seeing players like Kitchener’s Jamal Murray and Hamilton’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gave him the motivation that players from cities outside of Toronto or the United States could make it to the NCAA and eventually the NBA.
Riley went on to play for Grand River Collegiate in Kitchener and then transferred to The Phelps School in Malvern, Pennsylvania where he would go on to be scouted by over 17 different programs throughout the NCAA.
Despite only being at Phelps for a short amount of time, Riley’s work ethic and pure shooting skill were enough to garner the attention of recruits from schools like Kansas State.
“I got my first offer the first month of going to that school,” said Riley. “They saw me play at practice and they just knew from then and then after that, I was like, I really got a chance at this.”
Having played his whole life, Riley always knew he had a gift and was talented, but now he knew how far his talent could take him if he kept on working on his skill set.
Averaging 26.5 points, six rebounds and over four assists a game during the 2023-24 season, Riley ended up passing up on offers from Kentucky, Arizona State and signing with the University of Illinois.
The school’s coaching style and team atmosphere were a major factor in Riley’s singing with the program. Since his debut, the Cambridge player has been averaging 13.5 points per game after a blistering 31 points on opening night against Eastern Illinois.
Currently, Riley is ranked 12th in the country and is projected to go top 20 in the NBA draft. Scouts note his shooting ability is some of the best in college ball and his ability to shoot contested shots and make them is intriguing to a lot of professional teams.
According to the University of Illinois, he is considered to be a five-star recruit and the highest-ranked recruit signed by Illinois in the internet era, surpassing Dee Brown from the Class of 2002, who was No. 19 overall.
The program is looking to make its return to the NCAA Tournament in March as they have done the past two seasons.
Riley is looking forward to competing on the biggest stage of his life, but knows the job is not over.
“We’re just working, we just a hard loss to the number one team off a buzzer-beater, so we’re coming off of that right now but we’re just working and working and you know we’re doing good, we’ve been making big strides,” he said. “We’re very young team but we’re going to get this season.”
No matter what happens at the tournament or on draft night, Riley wants to continue to be an inspiration and role model for kids in Cambridge and Canada.
“All the young kids, they gotta keep working, keep working hard and avoid all those distractions on social media and just keep grinding,” he said.
Riley’s next game is a rivalry game against Mizzou (University of Missouri) on Sunday at 1 p.m.
