Illinois basketball forward and Chicago native Morez Johnson Jr. enters transfer portal | Report

One of the most promising pieces of the core Illinois basketball put together this season has reportedly gone portaling.

Johnson averaged 17.7 minutes per game coming off the bench. He also had three double-doubles this season. He injured his wrist against Michigan State in February and missed the rest of the regular season but returned for the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament.

Johnson becomes the second Illini player to enter the transfer portal after sophomore forward Carey Booth, who entered the portal on Thursday.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Borzello, Johnson will be one of the most sought-after forwards in the portal.

“It’s speed dating at it’s finest,” Underwood said. “We’ll go find the right pieces.”

“We’ll kind of deal with things here one step at a time,” Underwood said. “The portal’s kind of the next step.”

When Illinois basketball put its roster together, Johnson was a key figure in both this season and beyond.

“In most years Morez as a freshmen in the Big Ten, the year he had, would have had him up for all Big Ten honors,” Underwood said. “This year’s freshman class was spectacular in the league, and yet he’s had his moments. He’s been a consistent rebounder. He’s been an elite defender. He’s a guy that is not delusional.”

Illinois was expecting him to return, too.

Now, Underwood needs to find a way to fortify his post presence without a budding rebounder and an aggressive offensive player that figured to be a part of next season’s team.

“I’ve been here actually making calls,” Underwood said in Milwaukee. “I don’t know if there’s a good time, a bad time, whatever time. Nobody really cares. So I’m not going to complain about it. But, it’s literally just the next step. It’s speed dating. It’s gathering information, figuring out what you’re trying to do and we’ve got a pretty good idea of that.”