Illinois basketball making Charis Rainey top 5 shows mindset for the future

Over the past year or so, recruiting has been pretty quiet when it comes to the women’s Illinois basketball program.

Illinois is looking to hit a home run for the class of 2027, and on Tuesday, we moved one step closer to landing a big-time four-star recruit.

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Talia Goodman of On3.com reported that Charis Rainey has cut her top list down to just five teams. The five programs to make the cut include USC, Alabama, Arkansas, Oregon, and Illinois.

This is a pretty giant top list to make for all five programs. Rainey is a 6-foot guard from Windward School in California. She is rated as a four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 22 player in the class of 2027. She is literally one spot shy of five-star status.

So far, out of the top five, only one program has landed a top 100 recruit for 2027. That is Arkansas, which pulled in Syniah Coachman. She is the No. 26 player in the country, and she plays the same role as Rainey.

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Just logically speaking, a kid from California who has USC in her top five is tough to beat. The Trojans bring a ton of recruiting power, as you can see by their class of 2026, which featured two of the top five recruits in the country.

I wouldn’t count Illinois out, though. The future holds plenty of minutes for a great player like Rainey in Champaign.

Illinois basketball needs a jolt to recruiting after a quiet class of 2026

On the roster right now, Illinois has two seniors who have one more year left due to the 5-for-5 rule that allows athletes five years in college. Both Jasmine Brown-Hagger and Maddie Webber will have one more season with the Illini, and then they are on to bigger and better things.

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That leaves a ton of playing time in year two of Rainey’s stay with the Illini. Both Brown-Hagger and Webber can play that No. 2 and No. 3 spot on the floor, and that is exactly where I see Rainey fitting in. With those minutes to be had, she should be first in line.

It would be nice to see a big recruit like Rainey pledge to the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/illinois-basketball-making-charis-rainey-094122871.html

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Publish date : 2026-10-08 09:41:00

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