Someone above has broken down the recruits for both teams as far as stars, but a little more info. UCLA’s latest class is made up of #9, 16, 44 and a recruit from Italy. Skyy is the only one with a ranking as high as their 3, and he falls third.Our team is essentially all top 100 4 stars with maybe one borderline 5 star (Skyy)
UCLA is better than that? (asking, don't know anything about UCLA's team)
We need more experience overall, of course, but on paper that seems pretty good to me.
UCLA also has us beat in the experience playing together with a veteran PG, the Pac 12 preseason POY, and a 6-5 guard who didn’t start last year except for injuries (and he played very well then) but is leading team in scoring this year at about 17 ppg. Illini certainly have the talent to win, but make no mistake UCLA is at least as talented and probably more. Should be a great game and at worst a fantastic learning experience for the Illini.