VIDEO: Illini Now/SI Morning Update With Matthew Stevens

In this edition of the Illini Now/Sports Illustrated 'Morning Update' video, publisher Matthew Stevens gives you a look at the top stories involving Illinois athletics.

Here is the news topic Stevens hits on for Fighting Illini fans:

1. Illini Offer In-State 2020 7-Foot Center Brandon Lieb: Stevens details how a late offer could end with Illinois head coach Brad Underwood getting the reclassification recruit he wanted but technically Lieb never left his original graduating class. Not long after his senior season at Deerfield (Ill.) High School was cut short due to the coronavirus, Lieb found himself with just one Division 1 offer and instead of signing with Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, the 7-foot center was going to enroll in a college prep school and try to improve his stock there. Only a few months later, mix in with the idea of the volatile nature of the transfer market in today’s college basketball world, and Lieb finds himself receiving interest from several Power 5 Conference power programs including Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Utah. Go ahead and add Illinois to that list and could be at the top of Lieb’s offers. Brandon Lieb was set to go to prep school this fall and enroll at a college in the fall of 2021. But that plan likely has changed this month.

Before the COVID-19 epidemic shut down all high school basketball in the state of Illinois, Lieb averaged 13.5 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in his senior year at Deerfield.

2. Illini Football Recruiting 2021 Hot Board: The Illini will likely have four starting seniors and a rising junior (Kendrick Green) already drawing interest from National Football League scouts and it is because of this five-man combination that those inside the Illinois program are excited about the possibility of a breakout year for an offense led by senior quarterback Brandon Peters. Illini Now/Sports Illustrated wanted to take a look at the inside spots Wednesday, which features one of the top commitments of Illinois’ 2020 class in Brody Wisecarver and arguably the Illini’s best chance at securing a solid in-state recruit. On Thursday, Illini Now/Sports Illustrated investigated the potential offensive tackle commits of this class.

3. Illini LB Khalan Tolson On Black Lives Matter Protests: ‘I love to see that stuff’: In a Zoom video conference with local reporters Tuesday afternoon, Tolson said he saw the video and his first emotion was pride for his teammate Ra'Von Bonner leading a Black Lives Matter protest in Ohio. The next emotion was love for a movement that he hopes will provide a better social world to live in long after he leaves the University of Illinois in a few years.

“I’m just proud we have people on our team like that standing up for justice and what is right,” Tolson said. “I love to see that stuff. It’s really exciting to see. Change is starting to happen now. I love when people on our football team speak up on stuff like that.”