Playing in Big Ten 'a dream' for newest Illini

"I really liked Coach Groce when he recruited me out of high school, but they were a little too far away from where I wanted to be at the time," Ekey said. "Having Coach Parham there makes it a smooth transition instead of starting from scratch with some other places. Some other schools had called me and I had never talked to any of them before and the situation kind of felt like I was in high school again with meeting all these new guys. With Coach Parham, it was just kind of easier to talk to them and make this decision."

Marcus Jackson