I always have high hopes for Illinois basketball recruits, but some players don’t pan out.
I want to say that I wish all players the best regardless of whether they finish their career with the Illini. I don’t want to see anyone fail or struggle.
However, there have been some high-profile additions to the Illinois basketball program that have not lived up to expectations. I’ve compiled a list of the 10 biggest flops of all time.
No. 10 Crandall Head
On paper, the 2010 basketball class was a special one for Illinois. We brought in three top-100 recruits and expectations were high.
Crandall Head was part of that group. Head was a 6-foot-4, 195-pound shooting guard from Rich South Campus High School in Illinois. He was rated as a four-star recruit and was 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 problem was that his brother Luther was so successful at Illinois, including being in the 2005 national title race among other successful seasons. Those are pretty high expectations when you enter the college ranks.
Head’s career never really took off. He spent two seasons at Illinois, where he averaged 1.2 points and 0.8 assists per game. After his second season, Mike Thomas released Bruce Weber and Head entered the transfer portal.
After a year off, Head played one season with the SMU Mustangs, where he averaged 0.9 points and 0.9 rebounds per game. Like all basketball fans in Illinois, I had hopes for big things from Head, but it never happened.
