Mark Pope misses on his first major recruit as Canadian star Will Riley picks Big Ten school

cameron drummond

Sun, Jun 23, 2024, 2:35 p.m.·5 min read

Mark Pope has missed on his first major recruit at Kentucky.

On Sunday afternoon, five-star Canadian small forward Will Riley announced his commitment to Illinois. Riley picked Illinois from a final shortlist of post-high school playing options that also included Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky and the New Zealand Breakers of the National Basketball League (NBL), the top professional men’s basketball league in Australia and New Zealand.

Originally part of the 2025 recruiting class, Riley has moved into the 2024 recruiting class and will play for Illinois next season.

Riley made his commitment during an event held at RIM Park in Waterloo, which is located in the Canadian province of Ontario. Waterloo is located about 75 miles west of Toronto. The college decision was also broadcast live on Riley’s Instagram account.

Riley — a 6-foot-8, 180-pound prospect from Canada — was named the MVP of the Basketball Without Borders Global Camp during NBA All-Star Weekend earlier this year.

A prolific scorer, Riley quickly emerged as an early recruiting target for Pope and his new Kentucky coaching staff in recent months.

During the first recruiting weekend of his UK tenure, Pope made watching Riley play a priority during May’s Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) event in Indiana.

Riley, who was ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 12 overall prospect in the 2025 recruiting class, further cemented his place as Pope’s first major recruit at Kentucky when Riley took an official visit to Lexington in early June.

Also in early June, Riley took recruiting trips to visit both Alabama and Illinois, his eventual pick.

According to ESPN, Riley signed his national letter of intent to play at Illinois on Sunday.

Riley is viewed as an elite scorer, and he’s turned heads this year with some major scoring performances while playing for Canada-based UPlay on the Nike EYBL circuit.

Through 15 Nike EYBL regular-season games, Riley ranks sixth on the circuit in scoring at 21.9 points per game. He is also one of the circuit’s assist leaders (2.5 per game).

Riley — who plays prep basketball at The Phelps School in Pennsylvania — also owns one of the most impressive individual performances of the Nike EYBL season so far: Last month, he erupted for 42 points on 15-for-16 shooting (along with five assists against just one turnover) during a game in that Nike EYBL session in Indiana.

Riley has averaged nearly 26 points across the four games he has played during that EYBL session with hundreds of college coaches in the building.

A versatile offensive threat, Riley is shooting 49.6% from the field and 31.7% on 3-pointers with UPlay this season. He’s put up plenty of shots as well with at least 15 attempts in nine of UPlay’s 15 games.

Riley is one of five freshman newcomers for Illinois next season. He joins a group that includes international recruits Tomislav Ivisic (the twin brother of ex-Cat Zvonimir Ivisic) and Kasparas Jakucionis, along with in-state centers Morez Johnson Jr. and Jason Jakstys.

Prior to Sunday’s addition of Riley, the 247Sports Composite ranked Illinois’ incoming recruiting class as the 50th-best in the country.

Illinois head coach Brad Underwood — along with Orlando Antigua, the former UK assistant coach who is back for a second spell as an assistant at Illinois — has also added several highly-rated transfers to next season’s team, including Kylan Boswell (Arizona), Tre White (Louisville), Ben Humrichous (Evansville), Carey Booth (Notre Dame) and Jake Davis (Mercer).

According to college basketball statistician Evan Miyakawa, Illinois’ transfer portal class ranks as the 22nd-best in the nation.

Will Riley was Mark Pope’s first major recruit at Kentucky

While Pope was unable to secure a commitment from Riley, his pursuit of the young Canadian star is indicative of the recruiting mindset Pope will have in Lexington.

Pope’s previous college basketball head coaching jobs at Utah Valley and BYU both came with unique recruiting circumstances, and without anything close to the recruiting cachet or resources the UK job offers.

But, while assembling a brand-new Kentucky roster for next season that features 14 players (12 scholarship players and two walk-ons), Pope and his coaching staff have already made their presence felt on the recruiting trail with class of 2025 and 2026 prospects.

Pope and the members of his coaching staff who are allowed to go out recruiting — associate head coach Alvin Brooks III and assistant coaches Cody Fueger and Jason Hart — have had a major presence at several top recruiting events this spring and summer.

Those events have included the aforementioned Nike EYBL stop in Indiana, the Adidas 3SSB circuit in Texas, Puma PRO16/NXT circuit in Kansas, the USA Basketball U18 Men’s National Team training camp in Colorado, the FIBA Men’s Under-18 AmeriCup in Argentina and the NBPA Top 100 Camp in Florida.

This weekend, UK’s coaches were at the KABC Titans Shootout in Shelbyville, the TABC Boys Showcase (Texas) and both the DC Live and DMV Live events in the Washington D.C. area.

Pope and his staff have made significant headway when it comes to identifying class of 2025 prospects that Kentucky will spend the coming months recruiting. That shortlist of players includes guards Mikel Brown Jr., Jasper Johnson and Darryn Peterson, small forwards Dwayne Aristode and AJ Dybantsa, power forward Niko Bundalo and centers Chris Cenac Jr. and Malachi Moreno.

Pope recently hosted both Johnson and Moreno for unofficial visits in Lexington.

College coaches have only been able to directly contact recruits in the class of 2026 for about a week now, but Pope has also begun to establish relationships with those prospects.

Among the players that Kentucky has already contacted from the class of 2026 are a trio of small forwards: Alex Constanza, Caleb Holt and Jalen Montonati.

So far, only five-star power forward Tyran Stokes (who was born in Louisville) has reported a UK scholarship offer among class of 2026 players. Stokes, who is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 2 overall player in his class, received his scholarship offer from the Wildcats when John Calipari was UK’s coach.