Four-Star 2021 Wing Brandon Weston Names Illinois In His Top Six
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Brandon Weston has indicated the pipeline from the Morgan Park High School grounds in Chicago to the University of Illinois campus could continue.
The 6-foot-5 wing forward, who is a consensus four-star prospect in the 2021 recruiting class, named the Illini among his final six school contenders Monday. Weston named Illinois along with Michigan, Seton Hall, Western Illinois, Wake Forest and Pittsburgh.
The Illini offered Weston in June 2019 in order to continue a tradition of successfully recruiting high level Morgan Park products starting with All-Big Ten guard Ayo Dosunmu and Top 50 incoming guard Adam Miller. Weston played alongside Miller on the Nike EYBL circuit with the Mac Irvin Fire team based out of Chicago, the same EYBL team that Dosunmu starred on as a prep prospect.
Western Illinois hired Morgan Park head coach Nick Irvin as an assistant and that move has been followed by Marcus Watson, a prospect previously committed to Wake Forest and was a Morgan Park teammate of both Weston and Miller, UAB transfer and Morgan Park grad Tamell Pearson and former Morgan Park guard and Eastern Illinois signee Cam Burrell.
Weston, who is being primarily recruited by Illini assistant coach Ronald ‘Chin’ Coleman, averaged 24 points and 10 rebounds last season at Morgan Park High School in the Chicago Public League last season and he accompanied Miller, who officially signed with the Illini this summer, for the March 1 home game in Champaign when Illinois defeated Indiana 67-66 in State Farm Center. Miller had constantly spoken about trying to get Weston to graduate early and become a freshman at Illinois starting this fall but Weston’s mother, Ebony Weston, quickly put a stop to those rumors openly confirming her son would remain a 2021 product.
Four-star 2021 wing forward Brandon Weston posses for a picture with Illinois head coach Brad Underwood (right) and Ronald 'Chin' Coleman (left).
Brandon Weston's Twitter (@BWest233)
Weston is originally from Brooklyn, New York but has been enrolled at St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Delafield, Wis., and Lake Forest (Ill.) Academy prep school before playing this past season at Morgan Park. Weston will finish his prep career this season at Hillcrest Prep School in Phoenix, Ariz., which is noted for producing Deandre Ayton, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. Despite all the movement in his career, fans would consider Weston the kind of in-state priority recruit that Illinois head coach Brad Underwood has publicly said should sign with the Illini.
After producing a four-star signee in each of the first four recruiting classes under Underwood, Illinois got a verbal pledge from Fort Wayne shooting guard Luke Goode on April 17. Goode is currently the only commitment to the Illini’s 2021 class but the program is also high on the list of St Louis Christian Academy four-star wing Jordan Nesbitt.