I always have high hopes for Illinois basketball recruits, but some of the players don’t pan out.
I want to state, I wish all players the best regardless of if they finish their career with the Illini. I don’t want to see people fail or struggle.
With that being said, there have been some big-time recruits who come into the Illinois basketball program and do not live up to their recruiting billing. I put together a list of the top 10 who I think are the biggest busts of all time.
Illinois basketball had a pretty special class of 2010 on paper. We were bringing in three top-100 recruits, and the expectations were high.
Crandall Head was a part of this group. Head was a 6-foot-4, 185-pound shooting guard from Rich South Campus High School in Illinois. He was rated as a four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 82 player in the class of 2010. He was also the No. 21 shooting guard in the country and the No. 3 player coming out of Illinois.
I think Head’s biggest issue was that his brother, Luther, was so successful at Illinois and was a part of the national title run in 2005, among other successful seasons. Those are some lofty expectations entering the college ranks.
Head couldn’t get his career off the ground. He spent two seasons at Illinois where he averaged 1.2 points and 0.8 assists per game. After his second season, Mike Thomas fired Bruce Weber, and Head entered the transfer portal.
After sitting out a year, Head ended up playing one season with the SMU Mustangs where he averaged 0.9 points and 0.9 rebounds per contest. Much like all of the Illinois basketball fanbase, I was hoping for great things out of Head, but it never came together.
