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Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team:
Brad Underwood hasn’t exclusively started recruiting only bigger guards. Current guards Niccolo Moretti and Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn are both 6-foot-1 after all. And while Underwood has taken a shine to bigger guards — potential 2023-24 point guard Ty Rodgers is 6-6 — the Illinois coach apparently quit the smaller guys.
A recent offer to St. Anne’s-Belfield (Va.) guard Chance Mallory pushes even those limits. Mallory, a Charlottesville, Va., native checks in at 5-9 or 5-10 and between 150 and 165 pounds depending on which report of his size you want to trust. That hasn’t stopped the Class of 2025 prospect from hauling in high major offer after high major offer this spring and summer.
Mallory’s recruitment began in earnest last summer with offers from NJIT, Liberty and Radford. A year later and he’s added offers from Maryland, Virginia Tech, Seton Hall, UCF, West Virginia, VCU, Butler, Iowa, Virginia and the Illini.
One would assume the way Mallory has produced — both for St. Anne’s-Belfield and for Team Thrill on the Under Armour Association Circuit — is in direct correlation to his spike in recruitment. He is ranked as a four-star recruit by Rivals and the No. 74 overall prospect in the Class of 2025.
Mallory, who started playing varsity as a 5-1 eighth grader, helped St. Anne’s-Belfield go 27-4 this past season before losing in the championship game of the VISAA Division I tournament to traditional powerhouse Paul VI. Mallory put up 17.5 points per game for the Saints and also averaged 5.2 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 2.2 steals. He shot 43 percent overall and saw his three-point percentage jump from 29 percent as a freshman to 36 percent as a sophomore on 228 attempts.
Mallory also played up a level with Team Thrill this spring at the 17U level alongside Texas A&M commit and 2024 four-star wing Rob Dockery and five-star, top 10 overall 2024 center Derik Queen. Mallory more than held his own averaging 16.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.7 steals in eight games while putting up a 56/40/62 shooting slash in eight games.
Mallory hasn’t slowed down any this summer either. With St. Anne’s-Belfield playing in two loaded weekend DMV Live events at DeMatha (Md.), the Saints’ point guard averaged 20 points, seven rebounds and 5.3 assists in seven games while shooting 47 percent overall, 33 percent from three-point range and 100 percent at the free throw line.