(UPDATED): Illini Offer & Have Zoom Meeting With In-State 2020 7-Footer Brandon Lieb

Illinois, which still has one scholarship to play with in the 2020 recruiting period, has offered 7-foot center Brandon Lieb from Deefield (Ill.) High School.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Brad Underwood may have finally found his candidate to reclassify into his 2020 roster at Illinois. The irony is Brandon Lieb, by age, was always supposed to be in a college’s 2020 recruiting class.

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. 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 after Illinois assistant coach Ronald 'Chin' Coleman sent out the scholarship offer to the Chicagoland center. After the offer, the Illini could be at the top of Lieb’s offers. 

(UPDATED - June 25, 9 a.m.): According to multiple reports, Lieb was scheduled to conduct a Zoom video conference with the entire Illini coaching staff including head coach Brad Underwood. The purpose of the meeting was to give Lieb, who is likely to make his college decision within the next few weeks, a virtual tour of the University of Illinois campus and a virtual look at the basketball practice facility and State Farm Center. 

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. 

Finishing off the net cutting is Brandon Lieb! pic.twitter.com/rMECAsttDc

— Deerfield Basketball (@DHS_WarriorsBB) March 7, 2020

Lieb, who currently weighs just 205 pounds, had a 6-foot-10 older brother, Jack, who played Division 1 college basketball at Lehigh from 2016-20.

Lieb’s recruiting story should remind Illinois fans of Jermaine Hamlin after the former 2019 third-team all-state selection by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association was signed bu the Illini in early August. Hamlin played sparingly off the bench for Underwood last season and recorded 15 total points and 13 total rebounds in 16 games during the 2019-20 campaign.

Very thankful to recieve an offer from the University of Illinois and Coach Underwood and Coach Coleman for the class of 2020 #illini pic.twitter.com/Vd37y3wnk5

— Brandon Lieb (@brandonlieb12) June 24, 2020

“Patience is huge for me with recruiting,” Lieb told the Chicago Tribune. “It’s a big decision, especially without the normal recruiting process. I have to take a couple of steps back, see where this takes me. I’ll take maybe two to four weeks at the latest.”

While the Illinois coaching staff continues to wait on the official word of the draft decisions of stars Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn, Underwood’s staff still has a scholarship to either use late in this 2020 class or roll it over into another prospect for the upcoming 2021 class where they only have one verbal commitment (four-star guard Luke Goode).